<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/32865228_s-300x113.jpg" alt="Website Design" width="300" height="113" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10487" />Did you know 2016’s hottest trend for websites is flat design? Who knew? This emerging trend is making website design a whole new ball game. You’ll want to start rethinking your own website’s strategy after seeing this. Those that had already established a website with many facets like a visual depth and 3D elements are making the switch to flat design. 

Flat design is more of your single-surface, flat viewing experience that people are drawn to right now. The question is: why is this so popular and will this trend stick? If it won’t stick, you’d be wasting your time trying to re-do your whole website to meet the current trend that will fade by next year. Take a further look at flat design and why it’s booming with popularity. 

<h2>It looks better</h2>

You may have thought that a typical website with all of the bells and whistles would be more exciting to navigate and easier to see everything. Believe it or not, the flat design is even more functional that your typical website. Some people feared it would be too boring but it’s actually more functional and less cluttered with the typical glow effects, shading, and gradient coloring. Rather than having your font pop off the page, you’ll take a more simplistic approach that removes the fluff. 

<h2>It’s easier to use</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/36567948_s-300x150.jpg" alt="Flat Website Design" width="300" height="150" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-10488" />Consumers that are visiting brand’s websites do enjoy the flat design because there is less thinking involved. They don’t need extra help navigating or perusing the site. They can easily find what they need and they can recognize that a brand is responsive to consumers’ interests.  Consumers feel that there is more value and function over fanciness and fluff. 

Most people do know how to get around a webpage now and don’t need as much guidance as when websites first started. People can typically recognize an online form and how to fill it out, what the social share buttons mean, and how a drop-down menu works. This makes the flat design popular due to functionality and the respect of a user’s intelligence. 

<h2>It’s futuristic </h2>

When a new trend hits, it’s usually something that is going to give a futuristic feel to a normal way of doing something. Since history repeats itself and it’s really difficult to come up with new ideas or ways of doing things anymore, it’s nice to have something feel new and futuristic. The flat design for websites does this because it’s a fresh take on a 21st century concept and makes it work better with millennials and other generations that are constantly using their mobile devices. 

<h2>It’s mobile-friendly </h2>

Flat design is actually becoming really mobile-friendly because of the responsive design that works well with smartphones. The mini screens people are using for web browsing make it necessary for text and images to be larger. When you have a 2D website, it can focus more on the colors and shapes rather than the 3D graphics and moving GIFs. This also means that load times are going to be quick and it will have a sleek appearance on mobile. 

<h2>What does flat design look like?</h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/45726297_s-300x300.jpg" alt="Website Design" width="300" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-10489" />With the user-friendly, mobile-optimized, sleeker, simpler design, you can expect flat design to be easy to use and simpler to look at. It’s going to focus on content-headline separation, simple fonts, and grid layout, rather than texture and the need to label everything for user navigation. The simplicity means that these websites can focus on relevant content, great images, and not having to worry about a new customer finding their way around. That means any user won’t need much website browsing knowledge to find what your brand is offering. 

The question is, will this trend stay or will it be just a fad? Almost 70% of web designers are saying that this trend is here to stay. The design concept will keep evolving and users make more demands and brands will have to continue to meet expectations to stay relevant. Stay competitive and make the user experience easier by switching to flat design. 
