Web and user interface design is at the forefront or modern technology in terms of design and culture and one of the latest so called trends.
The term of flat design in the world of web and interface design means to remove the elements which may make a layout more complicated. This could be represented by elements such as the shadows that are found at the edges of boxes on the website, or maybe textures as well as gradients that are being used to give a certain style and look within the page.
Essentially the concept of flat design takes its inspiration from a minimalistic style. Flat design has been a popular style in recent times as it delivers a much easier user experience. Websites have now become a lot more cleaner and easier to navigate through and have an overall style which is more advanced than the previous one, call it skeumorphism if you want.
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There are many positive points to flat design that go beyond its look. This includes the fact that the code that is involved is far better and cleaner than what sites had before flat design. Websites that have been designed with flat design in mind are also better adapted to the large variety of different devices that are now available. This includes mobile devices and tablets which are now becoming extremely popular.
Just a fad or logical evolution?
In this modern day and age there is a huge amount of information available to us and this needs to be constantly registered and filtered.
Another issue that we face in the modern world is the use of smaller devices to digest all this information, which can often become difficult and sometimes overwhelming for the user. It is for this reason why the user interface needs to be designed as clean and easy to navigate as possible for the individual to understand the content.
The development of this flat user interface style has helped modernize design in the digital world and is now allowing individuals to use modern technology in a much more fluid and dynamic way. Users can now understand information on the pages at a faster rate whilst enjoying the fact that these sites load quickly, thanks to responsive design.
Let’s stop calling it a trend
It is important to be aware of the movements that are taking place within the design world and the concept of flat design is one that should be analyzed and appreciated. However, it is not a good idea to start believing in trends and adopt their techniques as a fashion statement. You should use a style, like flat design for example, if your project is appropriate for it, not just because people say it’s cool.
We shouldn’t bother trying to define trends. This attitude is what most would call a waste of time. When you start to spend your time thinking about trends and movements you forget to be truly creative and to use these techniques at their full capacity.
The reason why it became a status quo
Flat design gained more and more attention. The functionality of flat design became apparent very quickly and so it began being used in websites and mobile apps. Why did this happen?
It looks good
One of the most obvious reasons why flat design has become so popular is because of its looks. It has a minimal design which is pleasing and is therefore easy to interact with. The fact that the color schemes and the icons are kept to a minimal and simple design means that the overall design layout becomes more appealing to the end user.
The main reason why this minimal style works so well is that it doesn’t get in the way of the content and allows the user to search information quickly and effectively. It shows that design needs to be functional more than just visually pleasing and flat design manages to carry out this very well.
It focuses on the content and it’s usable
One of the best elements concerning design is when it focuses on the essentials rather than bringing in gimmicks to try and make it seem better than it actually is. Flat design does this very well and focuses on the most important parts of app and website design, which is often the information that it holds.
When flat design is done well it creates an experience for the user that is very friendly and useful. It takes away anything that is useless within the design and allows the user to experience the information in a way that many websites did not previously think about doing.
It is for this reason that flat design is now being used across the web in a large number of sites and programs. However, it is important to not simply think that flat design is a replacement for minimal design.
It’s responsive and fast
Flat UI web design and responsive design go together like peanut butter and jelly. Not only are these two web trends hot right now, but they also play together very nicely. The blocky layout of flat design makes it easy to break down and rearrange page elements across devices when the screen is resized with responsive design.
Rows and columns of page content can shift around smoothly when different screen resolution breakpoints are reached. The use of flat objects with responsive breakpoints tends to look much nicer and more fluid than having cluttered, decorative page elements scatter around to accommodate for a different screen size.
Ending thoughts
Some individuals still believe that flat design is a trend that will come and go over time. The fact that flat design has grown in popularity so quickly and has literally exploded within the design industry means that it has become a trend in some viewers’ eyes.
However, flat design is not a trend. It has been around for some time and the current style that we see is going back to basic design fundamentals.
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