Flat Design & some websites to help you get started
I have been working on a few mobile app concepts over the past few months and stumbled across the philosophy of Flat UI Design. I’ve been reading more and more about Flat Design and it’s quite interesting.
In the world of web and mobile UI design, flat design focuses on simple shapes, colors and typography to emphasize clarity and usability. It all started by a guy named Allan Grinshtein of LayerVault who wrote a post in 2012 named “The Flat Design Era“.
The Flat design style is really just the simplification of interface elements. It’s the Anti-web 2.0 in that it lacks extraneous elements and decoration like the famous web 2.0 bevels, gradients and textures with the goal of creating a clean, simple intuitive stripped down design that focuses on hierarchy.
One of the mobile apps I’m working on is targeted at the baby boomer generation that struggle with keeping up on how to use the latest mobile apps that the younger generation are using. Right away, I felt that using a flat UI design is the best way to go for this less that tech-savy target market. I wanted a simple design that is very easy to use and highly intuitive. Flat design seems like the way to go.
With Flat UI design being fairly new to me, I’ve been learning a lot about the why, and the how and I thought I would share with you the best resources for Flat Design that I have come across in my research.
There are many blogs out there touting the pros and cons of Flat Design.
One big indicator of it’s future adoption is that Apple as adopted the Flat Design for IOS 7. The icons on the right show Apple’s flat designed icons. As you can see, the bevels and textures have been significantly cut back.
Here are 6 great resources to learn more about Flat Design plus another 10 articles on Flat Design.
The Principles of Flat Design – designmodo.com
Flat Design: An In-Depth Look – awwwards.com
Flat web design and skeuomorphism: the pros and cons – econsultancy.com
A Look at Flat Design and Why It’s Significant – uxmag.com
20 Great Examples of the Flat Trend in Web Design – http://line25.com
Calling Bull$#!%: On Flat Design – wireframes.linowski.ca
Addtional Related Articles
- 36 High-Quality Flat Design Resources (mashable.com)
- 40 beautiful flat ui design inspiration (smashinghub.com)
- Skeuomorphism: Perfect if You Aren’t Digging the Flat Design Trend (queness.com)
- Is Flat Design Here to Stay? (spinnakr.com)
- The Evolution Of Web Design (nowsell.com)
- Flat Web Design Is About More Than Simplicity (business2community.com)
- Tips for Excellent UI Design (spinnakr.com)
- 10 Flat Items for Your Next Flat Ui Design (bloggingtronix.wordpress.com)
- The New UI Design Playground (artlogic.com)
- UI Design: 30 Creative User Interface Design Inspiration (joindahunt.com)