When it comes to web design, there is nothing very new in this year’s trends. 2014 will be all about taking the 2013 techniques and make them better, cleaner and friendlier.
1. Flat design
Apple has been a trendsetter for a long time now. Since the iOS7 was released, the “flat design” was taken to a whole new level. Flat will be the buzzword this year, but this is more than just a visual trend. By removing all unnecessary elements, the main focus falls on the content and this will lead to the best UX.
2. Parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling (a technique that allows background images to move slower than foreground images making it all very’ dynamic’) was very popular in 2013 and it’s going to be an ongoing trend this year as well.
However, while parallax scrolling only looks good when used with little text, this does not make it an SEO friendly design approach at all.
3. Large hero areas
Sliders had their share of success, but they are being replaced by large ‘hero’ areas this year.
A ‘hero’ area as defined by wikipedia.org is ‘a large banner image, prominently placed on a web page, generally in the front and centre. The hero graphic is often the first visual a visitor encounters on the site and its purpose is to present an overview of the site’s most important content. A hero graphic often consists of image and text, can be static or dynamic (e.g. a rotating list of images and/or topics).’