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Flat Design is changing the way that we think about web design. This brief article will explain what flat design is and why it’s proving so popular with web designers and creative businesses…
What is Flat Design?
In recent years we’ve been bombarded by something that designers call skeuomorphic design, which attempts to bring as much detail and depth to visual design as possible. Skeuomorphic design tends to feature visual representations of real-life objects (a speedometer, for example, which could be used to visually communicate the speed of an internet connection).
Flat design is simple, basic and understated. Instead of 3D features it is very much 2D, tending to use less images and visuals. Flat design is often dependent upon colour, whitespace, shape and typography (font families) in order to create striking, clean and impressive interfaces.
Flat design is ubiquitous with clear, easy-to-understand web design that creates an impressive first impression. It’s ideal for creating websites with excellent navigation and is a good tool for sharing powerful ideas and technology in manageable and simple ways.
Flat design is rapidly becoming an industry standard and is having a huge impact on web design. Now that we’ve discussed what flat design is and what it looks like, let’s turn our attention to the reasons that it is such an attractive website design feature.
How Flat Design is Changing Web Design
It’s important to realise that the way we use the internet is changing. We’re experience a movement away from cluttered, text-heavy websites to simplistic, clean and minimalistic design. This is due in part to the popularity of smartphones and mobile browsers, which require us to think about web design in a very different way.
Mobile Web Design and Responsive Web Design have been birthed out of the need to create dynamic, compatible websites. These techniques allow us to produce websites which give visitors the most helpful user experience for their particular device. This has contributed to the surge in flat design because 2D design lends itself to being reconfigured for smaller devices. It also offers fast load times which are crucial for delivering better mobile user experience. Instead of relying on large web pages, we’re seeing a resurgence in the use of colour, shape and typography.
Not only are we browsing the web using our smartphones, but we’re also tapping into another form of technology which overlaps significantly with web design; apps. Apps tend to be free or inexpensive, and usually have one or two highly-specific functions. They tend to feature very simple, clear and bold visual design which helps the user to quickly and easily achieve the desired goal/outcome. This is rubbing off on website design, with more businesses seeing the appeal of simple, intuitive web design which borrows many of the attributes of app design. If your business has a particular niche, product or driving goal then flat design allows you to focus on this.
If you’d like to find out more about how your next website design should look then please don’t hesitate to contact us today. We’re a leading UK web design agency based in the city of London, and we’re passionate about good design that enables our clients to grow their business.
