Flat design has stepped into the industry back in the year 2000. The changes in design trends have always been never-ending and flat design is such a result of that change in web design trends. In contradiction to the Apple’s skeuomorphic design in the interface, the tech giant Microsoft was one of the maiden companies who introduced us to the whole new world full of flat designs. And needless to say, individuals started enjoying the design more than anything else. That’s the reason why the web design companies such as Intlum utilizes the flat design pattern to create hugely converting website designs.

Web design trends are ever-changing and flat design has truly been a revolution. Flat design is more focused on the user experience and usability than anything else. The simplistic approach has let the design use simple shapes, open space, bright colors, clean, crisp edges, and the 2D illustrations. Rather than converting a real-life component into a tiny realistic illustration, flat design makes use of the simple and icon-like images which makes the design incredibly minimalistic.

The flat design, in today’s date, has acquired all of our hearts with its incredible usefulness and with its credibility of conversion. Now, as some of you are quite uncertain about the design, we have come up with the benefits and drawbacks of the flat design. After going through this guide of flat design, you will be able to take the right decision.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Flat Design

Ever since the flat design came into existence, there has been a never-ending debate regarding the sustainability of the design. Below is the detailed analysis of the pros and cons of the flat design. This analysis would be able to help you take the right step forward and will help you determine whether you should make use of the flat design or stay with the conventional one for your precious website. At first, we will take a look at the pros and then we will evaluate the cons. So, let’s start.

Pros of Flat Design

Following are the pros that website owners and designers would enjoy while using the flat design. So, let’s jump straight into the main topic without spending further time.

In Fashion and Trendy

The flat design is dominating the market and sweeping all over the web design industry with its huge offerings full of simplistic approach, fresh look, and contemporary feel. Designers are extensively making use of the different variations and forms of the flat design to achieve their goal. Be it, a mobile app, website design or only a logo, flat designs are occupying all the sections with ease. Being a designer or developer, you are advised to keep in touch with the latest trends in the design market. And as you know, flat design is the latest buzz in town.

User-Oriented UI

The flat design is always focused on the sharp, simple, and clear design. The presence of the specific components that do not serve the purpose of a website or web page in the flat design makes the design nothing but an overvalued chaos! Flat design always conveys the elimination of distractions and decorations. A clean and easy navigation is also a consequence and an integral ingredient of a flat design. Basically, the flat design focuses more on the functionality rather than the looks and style. This care for functionality has made the design pattern perfect for the mobile apps. Additionally, the bright and contrasting colors come out of the background quite effectively.

Compatible with Responsive Design

Another huge benefit of the flat design is its compatibility with responsive design. Since the design is all about the block, cards, and grid-based layout, it blends perfectly with any screen size. Unlike the skeuomorphic design style or the other styles which contain numerous shadows and highlighting, flat design does not include much of these aspects which become a helping hand in making it responsive-friendly. So, whenever the responsiveness is concerned, flat design is always a viable alternative to go with.

Cons of Flat Design

Now, as you have read the pros of the flat design, we will inform and educate you regarding the cons of the flat design too. After reading the cons, you can truly decide whether or not you can put your bets on this web design trend.

Sustainability

While the flat design comes with humongous benefits, it has some drawbacks as well. One of the primary drawbacks that have put a black spot on the design is sustainability. Sustainability is a matter of concern for many designers and website owners as both the parties want to ensure a design that will stay in the market for long. Thus, despite being one of the most engaging and popular web design trends in today’s date, flat design is still a matter of hesitation for the people as they want to design something steady and consistent rather than designing something trendy.

Compromised Usability

In the attempt to streamline the clean concept and flat design style, we have often seen the designer compromising with the usability of a website. The extensive focus on the aesthetics and looks often do not allow the flat design to pay the required attention to the usability of the website or the mobile app design. Again, since everything in the flat design looks like flat images, it becomes immensely difficult for the users to locate the clickable buttons or tabs. In order to achieve the simplicity, often the features and actions stay hidden. However, the introduction of the Flat 2.0 has eliminated some of these issues.

Restricted Creativity

One more drawback of the flat design is that the designers hardly gets any creative freedom to play with the designs. The concept designers have to stay with a narrowly defined visual style which creates a lot of hassle quite often. As a result of this issue, we often discover similar designs without much distinctiveness. So, business or brands do not get enough opportunity to display their efficiency or uniqueness through this sort of design.

Final Words

So, you have seen both the pros and cons of the flat design. You will often discover the design mentioned in various articles covering the web design trends. But you need to be careful and tactful enough to discover whether or not the trends will be beneficial for your business in a long-term process. You have to understand your business and its requirements and goals to determine your action on the flat designs. Also, don’t forget to write us back with your feedback and comments regarding the matter and write to us with your experience regarding the design.