Flat Web Design - A Primer
In the 21st century, your online presence is what drives success—lead generation, marketing, and product or service sales can all be conducted online through what your customers and clients most readily interact with—your website. However, coming up with an effective, professional, and intuitive design that catches the eye and holds your customer’s attention is not an exact science—in fact, various design philosophies have shared time in the spotlight over the past twenty years. Currently, the world of websites is dominated by what is known as flat design.
While it has never been more popular than it is today, flat design is by no means a new phenomenon—key elements of the practice were introduced by Microsoft back in 2002 when Windows Media Player was first launched. From there, industry giants such as Google and Apple popularised flat design in the UIs of their smartphones. Today, its influence can be seen in the websites of the most cutting-edge companies in the world—Samsung, LG, and Huawei all make extensive use of the philosophy. This article is going to take a closer look at the practice to help inform you as to why a flat approach to web design might be right for you.
What is Flat Design?
In a word, flat design can be defined and described as minimalist. What gives this philosophy its distinctive name is the aspiration of web and graphic designers to give their websites the impression of being a “flat” two-dimensional image. This means that as opposed to outdated skeuomorphic designs that attempted to give the illusion of 3D with immersive, complex graphics and subtle flourishes, websites turning to flat designs minimise the number of superfluous stylistic elements such as drop shadows or colour gradients and instead make use of bright, vivid, and occasionally contrasting colour schemes to remain aesthetically interesting.
Why the Shift to Flat?
The explosive shift in the popularity of flat design arose primarily due to the dramatic growth and popularity of smartphones that allowed users to browse the web on much smaller and less powerful devices than traditional desktops or laptops. By adopting this minimalist approach, web designers were able to improve the accessibility of their website to this increasingly prominent subset of users without compromising on visual appeal.
Some Expected Benefits
For a business that already has an established corporate website, overhauling its design can be a risky endeavour that has the potential to alienate customers and clients that are already familiar with the layout. Regardless, the current climate of web browsing incentivises companies to make the leap due for a number of different reasons. Namely, your company can expect to benefit from:
Improved loading speeds. By cutting down on the number of large images and complex graphics, you can offer users a much more streamlined experience when browsing through your website.
Enhanced visual appeal. Switching to a flat design simplifies the user interface and encourages browsers to engage with your various pages and content by omitting intrusive or distracting elements such as videos and overlays.
Scalable functionality. Building with simple geometric shapes and a clean typography allows businesses to leverage a flexible framework that is easily navigable and functional across devices of various sizes.
Streamlined indexing. With smartphone searches emerging as the preferred way for users to discover new websites and content, it’s only natural that the biggest search engines have refined their algorithms to prioritise websites that offer improved experiences to mobile users. Adopting a flat approach can therefore improve your rankings on SERPs, and help reinforce your SEO efforts.
As unjustified as it may seem, first impressions with your website matter. In a 2018 study, it was concluded that it takes less than one second for users to form opinions on your site which would determine whether they would stay and engage with the content, products, or services contained within—importantly for this article, more than 90% of all of these negative impressions were design related.
The numbers make it perfectly clear—making the right design choices are critically important for ensuring the success of your website and business. Whether you’re commissioning a new website from scratch or are simply looking to freshen your existing one up with a new coat of paint, we’ve outlined the compelling arguments for why your company should be seriously considering diving head first into the world of flat design.