Flat Design – a momentary trend or much more?

I have witnessed many debates on flat design and its popularity lately. People seem to have different views as some think that this is just a passing trend while others believe the trend is here to stay.

Flat design can be much more than just a passing trend. It is bringing minimalism back and people are preferring it over embellishments.

Today, I’ve decided to analyze whether flat design is here to stay – let’s see if it actually is bringing the basics back into business.

Gratifying Aesthetics:

I consider the focus on aesthetics in flat designing a big advantage. Flat designs are very pleasing to the eye as they have less distractions. Mostly, the focus is on minimal yet attractive designing and great typography is used as well to enhance the design. The color schemes are subtle and icons are simple. What I found best about flat designing is that it allows the site’s visitor to focus on content. Too much mess in the design will only cause distraction for a visitor. The content should get the deserved attention and this is exactly what flat design provides.

Easy transformation to responsiveness:

This technique has some great aspects which include easy transformation into responsiveness. Since the designing is minimal, transforming the design for smaller screens is not much of a hassle. This is exactly why designers love it. With minimal designing, rearranging the content for a responsive environment gets really easy. The flexibility helps meeting needs of clients and since a lot can be done, designers are showered with compliments. Since flat design is easy to transform in responsive websites, it makes it a trend that is here to stay since mobile browsing and smart devices will continue to evolve.

Quick Load times:

Flat design focuses on displaying the design quickly to the visitor. Technically, since the designing is minimal with no 3D graphics and embellishments, websites automatically load faster. This is actually very helpful in today’s world since the demand of such websites is increasing thanks to the mobile internet. Whatever benchmarks are set for a successful website, flat design meets them all. You won’t find blocks, heavy images, drop shadows in a flat design which makes it a simple environment. The website will have less clutter without any flashy videos, making loading quicker. Fast loading = happy visitors.

Improved usability and functionality:

Usability and functionality are among the basic design rules. It is very important for a design to be functional and user friendly. A visitor should not face difficulties in following the design or be left confused. I have seen a lot of websites where designers have focused a lot on designing that they ignored functionality. Thanks to flat designing, guiding users through a website gets really easy. A simple website will allow visitors to focus more on the content and less on designing. Also, since the screen is free of clutter, content presentation gets better.

Conclusion:

Keeping in view the points we have mentioned above, we can easily say that this trend will turn out to be something big which is here to stay. This is definitely not a passing trend and we will encounter a lot of flat designs in the near future. I believe designers should keep a balance between creativity and simplicity and this can help them in making some really great designs. You can surely expect IM Creator to implement Flat Design in future products and templates. In fact, something is in the oven right now..