Looking for inspiration for your fresh 2016 web design?
I’m about to show you the trendiest designs known to man!
Meet Awwwards, which compiles the best websites around the web as voted by people like you and me:
Enter Awwwards Awesome Nomination List
It is difficult to judge beauty: beauty is an enigma
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Before we get into a judging contest about what looks good and what doesn’t, think about the above quote.
The following designs are highlighted by our blog because we understand how much work it takes to make something look good and stand out online.
In fact, in takes an average of 102 hours from start to finish to build a website.
And it takes you a full 4 seconds to look at it and leave.
Or, hopefully not leave.
Full disclosure: I just made up those stats. Don’t take life too seriously.
The Jury
The 2015 list of jury can be found here. There are more than 20 creative professionals that are a part of the panel, and you can learn more about each jury member on their site linked above.
These guys and gals are also a gold mine for inspiration. Go to their websites and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
The 4 Ranking Factors
Design: A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is built or made.
Usability: A quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.
Usability is defined by 5 quality components:
- Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
- Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
- Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
- Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
- Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
Creativity: The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.
Content: The textual, visual or aural content that is encountered as part of the user experience on websites. It may include, among other things: text, images, sounds, videos and animations.
And when The Jury evaluates a website, this is what it looks like on its very page.
Every day, a website gets selected as Website of the Day.
For this blog post, we’ll look at the 3 websites that have had the honor of being selected at the time of publication.
In a way, these sites set the trend for 2016 web design trends.
Quick Recap of 2016 Web Design Post
- Awwwards nominates cool websites
- Awesome creatives called The Jury rate each website
- Each website has their own listing
- The Average is displayed on each website listing
- 4 Ranking Factors are used to rate each website
- Design
- Usability
- Creativity
- Content
- Everyday a website is selected for website of the day
Created by Blue Mango Interactive, a digital agency located in Netherlands, they worked alongside Nikon to help Sacha de Boer travel to Gjoa Haven above the Arctic Circle.
From a digital marketing perspective, this was a great play by Nikon.
They helped a photographer on an amazing journey to the Arctic Circle to take pictures of a tribe Sacha de Boer had visited years earlier.
Nikon now has the ability to tell her story to millions of people. And, by the way, Nikon also gave her a ton of Nikon cameras and lenses to capture the whole thing.
Blue Mango Interactive does a good job branding Nikon’s colors onto Sacha’s website. It’s a minimal touch and helps the website look fresh.
The US Army is becoming pretty good at creating new interest for fresh recruits.
Maybe the old “America Wants You” propaganda just isn’t cutting it anymore.
In CRYPTARIS, we are taken through an interactive path that trains you to learn what a soldier goes through on the field. To get a little technical, the website uses WebGL technology which renders 3D graphics on your browser.
I sense that the Army are targeting millennials that play Call of Duty or similar games.
Here’s why that’s smart:
Knowing your audience plays a huge role on how you spend your marketing budget. Attention can get expensive, but it’s far more efficient when you truly understand who you are targeting.
Imagine being a part of a creative team following several Olympians fight their way through to making it to the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Sunbrella does an epic job of doing just that.
Instead of just using their website to tell a story – which they also do – they unfold a story in real-time. They combine live social media updates with video diaries and images from your favorite athletes.
Going through a journey helps draw in other athletes aspiring to make it to the olympics one day.
Once again, marketing to your ideal audience can be expensive, but well worth it if you just define who they are.
Uncharted Waters from Uncharted Waters on Vimeo.
So, What’s the Web Design Trend for 2016?
Brands are telling stories.
Some brands use one person, a game, or several people all together.
How you tell your story depends entirely on who you are trying to reach.
Planning your marketing campaign is just as important as developing and launching. Once you have your goals and parameters defined, it makes your marketing efforts a lot simpler.
So for 2016, look out for brands telling their stories in unique ways or from an angle that hasn’t been seen or heard of before.
What trends have you seen in 2016?