Must Design

Why so FLAT?
Mobile is the single word answer to why most websites are flattening out their designs. As phones outnumber desktops one of the manifestations of "mobile first" is we are adopting designs that look better on our phones and pads - FLAT designs.

Amazing how quickly this worm turned, but you won't have trouble finding hundreds of examples of great flat website design like these 40. My favorite is http://madebyfibb.com/ for its cascading windows feel and images that engage and point at CTAs.

Marty

White space can be the most defining design element of any website. Hard to use well though. Here are 13 examples of how to use whitespace in your website designs.

Navigation feels old and moldy. There are few things MORE critical than navigation. We've moved from left nav sitting firmly in the "golden triangle" to horizontal top navigation.

Neither of these options inspire and both are feeling long in the tooth and stupid. The social / mobile web requires a RETHINK about navigation. Can we find ways to make very page a homepage?

Can navigation be more relevant and less middle of the road boring? Here are some navigation examples from AWWWARDS.com that don't solve the problem...yet. But the dialogue helps begin the process of reducing our dependency on static, boring, "has-been" ideas like left or horizontal nav.

Are you as surprised that navigation hasn't been on the "top changes" list for web design in 2014? Has to be on our 2015 list because every current option is BAD and getting worse.

Mobile is the secret driver of many of 2014's hottest web design trends. One of the hottest is flattening out web design. Small screens can't handle shading and three dimensionality as well as bigger screens, so flat is one of the HOTTEST web design trends as these 33 examples share. .

Not sure how I feel about "snowfall" design. My favorite is the Buzzfeed History of Pong. My concerns are:

* Gets boring to scroll that much.
* Pagespread - is it better SEO to have a single long page or many pages?

The issue of pagespread is tricky. The new Google cherishings engagement and long pages create longer engagement assuming people don't click off.

But Google also likes pagespread (more pages about a topic with social shares and links confirming their importance). I don't know the RIGHT answer her since each approach - long pages or many pages - have distinct SEO benefits.

I find the experience of that long page offputting and wonder how snowfall will play on mobile devices. Mobile may be easier because of the swipe.

In fact, snowfall design may have its roots in mobile (sure feels that way). Whether your website should be 100% snowfall designed is above my pay grade (lol). M  

I was wrestling with why we are suddenly awash in "flat design". My first thought was flat design is more lean, easier to figure out where to go and what do do. Nope.

Flat design is upon us because of mobile as this excellent post and 25 examples shares flat transfers beautifully between desktop and mobile. Flat is the new black, so wear it well and find inspiration in these 25 examples.