1.

Introduction:

Within todays society it is extremely difficult to construct and develop new and innovative
ideas that could be used to compete with the rapid growth of technology. New technologies
and development techniques are coming into life which has caused web development tools
to greatly improve in a short period of time, this allows much more freedom when designing
and creating interfaces. Web designers and developers are therefore forced to make use of
various trends that would make websites more attractive and user-friendly. Within this report,
we will be discussing five different trends that are currently being used in websites that
ensure users gain the best experiences whilst making use of it. The five trends discussed
will be; animation design, modern retro designs, bold typography, fighting fake news with
fact and lastly the use of bold vibrant colour schemes. We will establish how companies
make use of these trends to attract viewers and provide efficient services in order to achieve
success.

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 2. Trends:
2.1.1 Animation Design:

Animation, in the context of digital products like websites and apps, basically refers to
anything that moves or transitions once the site or app has loaded or opened. Animation in
web design is an effect that is said to be extremely useful in attracting viewers as well as
providing efficiency within the website. It is an exciting method that may help in making
websites better and easier to use and helps to demonstrate something you one is trying to
explain in your message on the site. In many cases, animation effects are used for attracting
users attention to important details and help them to make the right decision about selecting
an element, among other things. Our eyes innately pay attention to moving objects which
assists in making viewers experiences more exciting and interesting. Catchy and bright
elements that attract attention help differentiate websites from its competitors resulting in
more views and potential success. Companies are making a regular use of this trend in
order to maintain good customer relations as well as attempting to remain on par with the
rapid growth of technology. Currently, animations are being incorporated more often into
web designs to attract more people whilst providing an easier way of not only making users
experiences efficient, but also appealing. Animations are no longer just for pleasure; it is one
of the most important methods for successful interactions between developers and users
especially in the corporate field. Since most activities are done electronically, companies
see this as an opportunity to gain a larger cliental and therefore use exciting trends, such as
animations to attract people into visiting their website. This results in increasing chances of
success for the company.

2.1.2 Examples of animations used in real life websites:

1. https://webflow.com/ If one scrolls down the marketing homepage, screenshots zoom

and fade in. This animation has a benefit of making the page load faster.

2. http://froont.com/ produces a post of 9 principles of responsive designs, each

containing their own movies and animations.

3. https://Apple.com allows users to click on options in the menu and watch small
versions of the products slide in at different rates.

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 2.2.1 Modern Retro Design:

The retro theme has exploded in the recent years with the styles becoming popular in
fashion, photo, video and even in web design. Modern retro websites are influenced by the
early days of computer age, ranging from the 1970's to the 1990's. This trend reflects a re-
emerging retro trend. It is usually appealing and drives results. Modern retro design uses
imagery, templates, layouts, colours, navigation, buttons, fonts and other elements to reflect
the design essence of the 70's,80, and 90's. The use of the styles of 70, 80's and 90's make
people feel as though as that the olden times are coming back to life. This type of trend is
not used for businesses in a sense but is usually is recognised for a fun and quirky uses.
Modern retro designs used current typography trends as a support to help distinguish a
brand and to show off their personality in their websites.

2.2.2 Sustainable Benefits of Modern Retro Design:

Modern retro design reflects social trends so it fits in today's society. This type of design
would attract people with the ages of thirty to sixty who would associate the designs with
fond memories of similar imagery. Modern retro helps establish a brands personality and has
the use of connecting the brand to its users.

2.2.3 How is it used?

Modern retro design uses photographic and illustrative features to evoke a period piece for
its user to look and feel that era. Modern retro design makes the use of mimicking vintage
hand painted posters, vinyl, cassettes tapes and film grain to help bring back these times to
back to life. Modern retro trends use bright bold colours and geometric shapes to help create
pages to pop with visual interest and attention-grabbing hues. The use of colour are
associated with the feeling of being happy. The use of colour ranges from vibrant saturated,
high contrast neon style of the 60's to the darker, dirtier tones of the 70's and early 80's and
then to the hippy stage of the 90's. The fonts that are used are to compliment the retro feel
used in the designs.

2.2.4 Examples of Modern Retro Designs used in Real Websites:

1. https://leathermilk.com/ This website makes use of the vintage script, super dynamic
and likely custom. It stands out and has that vintage influenced style.
2. http://vintagehope.co.uk/ This website uses the retro trend to establish their brand of
selling vintage products. The use of the bold yet retro mixed with modern font to
attract its customers and allowing the customers to pick up on what they are selling

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 3. http://www.trellisfarm.com/ This website design uses black and white photos, old
paper textures and a vintage colour palette to recreate a vintage atmosphere.

2.3.1 Bold Typography:

The increasing use of big and bold text on websites is for the main purpose of grabbing
audience attention. Highlighting or bolding text indicates the levels of importance within the
text to create a clearly understanding for the readers. Typographic hierarchy is about
creating different levels of importance through typeface choice and text arrangement.
(Webdesigndev, 2016)

The use of these different types of text types are extremely selective on website pages, for
example, the over use of bold writing can become distracting to the readers in a negative
light, and therefore bold writing is mainly used in short and short references. Italics on the
other hand, are not so commonly used on websites as they do not allow the reader to read
the text with ease as there is little contrast created.

2.3.2 Examples of Bold Typography used in Real Websites:

1. Content Community Studio; there are many websites currently available online and
therefore companies think real hard and long how they can be different in attracting
more attention to their company. Content Community Studio uses many different
techniques on their website. For example, the use of white, big and bold letters, to
indicate it is light hearted, but at the same time does so by grabbing ones attention
to it. This company is smart about the specific techniques they use as a website page
is the first impression that will be given off from them.
2. PicknPay; The Hugely Successful South African company Pick n Pay uses an
extremely simple typography technique on their website. The use of big and bold
writing with the colour scheme relating to the companies colour scheme of blue and
red with the white background is extremely effective. This technique symbolizes
simplicity in the business which customers would come from a multipurpose store
such as Pick n Pay.
3. Coco-Cola; The company Coca-Cola is renowned for its red and cursive writing
which is famous up till this date. The use of this technique is effective within the
business as it represents ease and flow juts like its products, coca-cola. Using that
technique on its website is effective and with its current reputation, if it appears
anywhere on a website, it will easily be recognized. That use of typography yeas
back still has a positive connotation to its name now, which shows how important
good techniques can affect your company.

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2.4.1 Fighting Fake News with Fact:

The following part of the report critically looks at the fight against fake news as part of the
new trends in 2017 that could be incorporated into the website to ensure that it is driven
by well researched and true content. Previously, users could easily be exposed to fake
news on websites as there were no measures in place to provide evidence whether the
news is true or false. This report recognizes the newly enacted measures to fight against
fake news from being accessed by the readers on websites.

The purpose of fighting against fake news is to avoid the public from being misled by
false news and ending up making final incorrect decisions based on false information.
Another purpose could be to stop journalists and media reporter's from generating
revenue by providing fake news on websites. Fake news based on politics may lead to
political unrest within a country, therefore by all means fake news reports should be
avoided to misleading the citizens of a country.

2.4.2 Three Real World Measures Used to Fight Fake News:

1. Introduction of third party fact checkers:

The fact checkers come from the urban legend debunking site websites such as
Snopes.com and other media organizations like the Washington Posts.
The third-party fact checkers look at the news that users flagged as fake and If they
fact check them and tag them as false, these stories then get a disputed tag that
stays with them across websites and social networks.
Companies may register their websites on Snopes.com to ensure that their news and
information on websites are fully audited and credible for users to trust. So, until and
unless a story is flagged as false, that story does not continue to spread on the
websites and social networks.
2. Web Extension Decodex:

By using the Decodex web extension, you just put it on your browser and then when
you come to a fake news you get a pop up appearing saying warning this is a fake
news site. When you check on the tool you will have access to a little paper
describing the website and saying why it's not trustworthy.
Companies can install this tool on their websites for people who are really sceptical
and who just don't know who to trust. This may increase the reliance on the
company's website by its users for updating news.

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3. User Tools for Reporting Misleading Content:

These tools are provided by Google to report misleading content to users accessing
the websites. These tools allow people to complain about misleading, inaccurate or
hateful content on its auto complete function, which pops up to suggest searches
based on the first few characters typed.
Companies may make use of these Google tools to ensure the safety of their website
users when they access the company's website. This may make the news and
information published on the company's website to be verified that it is true and
accurate by the Google tools.

2.5.1 Bold, Vibrant Colours:

With the use of smaller devices such as mobile phones and tablets it has become
increasingly important to make use of bold colours that immediately attracts the eyes of
the reader. Designers who make use of vibrant bold colours come up with weird and
wonderful colour combinations that serves the purpose of attracting readers to the
website. These designers often get inspiration from buildings, nature, art and from
traveling. The artists that have the most influence on this trend would have to be
Matisse, Picasso, Frank Stella, Esther Stewart and lastly Sam Falls.

Vivid bright colours represent excitement and optimism which generally leaves people
feeling rather happy. The key colours of web and mobile app design would have to be,
red, orange, green, pink, purple and blue, basically the colours of a rainbow. The result
of using these colours well would have to be that it provides the reader with emotional
direction which in turn will allow the reader to navigate the website with relative ease.

2.5.2 Examples of Bold Colours in Real Websites:

1. https://loop.ableton.com/2017/ This website makes use of bright blue colours that
leaves the reader feeling happy, it also keeps the reader engaged with the website.
2. http://www.hugeinc.com/ This website makes use of bright pink colours along with
plenty animations that allows the reader to navigate the website with ease, the bold
colour also draws the readers eyes to certain main points on the webpage.
3. http://kelseydake.com/ This website is beautiful, it makes use of orange colours that
go extremely well with the modern retro design of the website. The use of the vibrant
colour on this website engages the reader and encourages them to keep scrolling.

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3. Conclusion:

In this report five trends were discussed in detail, firstly animations were discussed,
secondly modern retro designs, thirdly bold typography, fourthly fake news and lastly the
use of bold colours was discussed. In conclusion it can be seen that the use of modern
trends in 2017 has become of utmost importance to web developers. The use of trending
styles keeps readers engaged with the website as well as attracting many more readers
to the website, which in turn generates revenue for the company that owns the website.

Thus, the use of trends when designing a website is one of the main factors of
generating webpage traffic. This also allows web developers to get a feel for what people
like in order to generate more traffic and in turn revenue for their respective companies.

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