Flat Web Design – Exploring the Design Principles & Benefits

flat web design

A new web design trend, a dynamic design principle is here to challenge the heavy animations and graphics. Flat design is here filling every purpose of usability with simplicity and clarity. But why website designers are finding it so reassuring we will see in further sections.

Nowadays flatness has become the fashion, and this concept has even spread into the web designing community. There is no magic behind the shooting popularity of flat design trend apart from its minimalistic approach. But wait! This doesn’t mean we have something boring or lifeless in our hands. A common misconception that one gets during their first brush, but it will be void once they go through the design principles.

Flat Design- The General Understanding

Is the complexity of designs chewing the functionality of mobile applications? Then the flat design is here to deal with such setbacks. The flat design defines visual clarity without bowing down to dimensionality. A simplified version of this jargon is – it is a design language that is embracing the two-dimensional style.

Principles of Flat Design

There is nothing but only the word ‘simplicity’ that acts as the four cornerstones of this new design trend.

  1. No Effects-
    • Yes, the web designers are spared from implementing drop shadows, embossing, gradients, and bevels that added a level of depth to the websites. With nothing to distract, users will find it easier to interact with their small screen devices.
  2. Simple UI Elements-
    • Basic geometric shapes and bold colors define the concept of flat design. Not only they encourage users to be more interactive but also guarantee the best user-experience
  3. Typography-
    • One of the important aspects of flat designing is the typography. The fonts should well tune with the flat designs to enhance the readability as well as visual aesthetics.
  4. Color-
    • Bright color palettes would be a right strike with the minimalistic designs. Bold colors highlight the icons thus giving a chance for better user-interface.
  5. Approach-
    • Simple background, minimum content, no animations, it certainly defines the nature of flat designs. Add embellishments, it will certainly slay the whole concept.

Benefits of Flat Designs

Why go simple when you have some much option to impress the users? The answer is simple, a meaty work on a website would either kill the performance or will divert from the business goals.

  • Performance-
    • Fast loading web pages are always close to SEO. So, unlike heavy graphics, if you go with minimal designs, it will not only avoid memory overloading but also ensures greater usability experience.
  • Responsiveness & Browser Compatibility-
    • With a spectrum of devices and platforms, the need for scalability is also leveling up periodically. Increase the loading speed of pages by developing fewer images per breakpoint, well, flat designs will definitely give that privilege.
    • One of the main reasons behind the implementation of flat designs is to simplify the complexity of mobile websites.

Even though it is one of the best web designing trends, note that flat designs do not fit in for every business requirement.

Is it the future?

Only time can tell, because, since we have witnessed the shift from Skeuomorphic Designs to flat designs, the same can be expected for the latter one as well. But for now, no one knows what is after flat.

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