Download Full Report

Download the 2016
Web Design Full Report

Share in order to download. You can adjust the post or tweet just the way you like it.

FacebookTwitterDownload now

Brought to you by Avocode
A fully-featured tool for design-to-code workflow.

Your download should start immediately...

If not, please click here.

Hand off your
designs the easy way

Thank you for your interest in the 2016 Web Design Report. If you'd like to speed up the way you share Photoshop and Sketch designs and hand off specs, Avocode can help.

Start a 7 day free trial

Check your e-mail box

Thanks for your e-mail address. Let others know about this design report.

FacebookTwitter

Need help with design hand-off and design version control?
Try sharing your designs via Avocode. It comes with free trial, no credit card required.

Learn more

Download the 2016
Web Design Full Report

Where can we send you the download link?

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form

By adding your e-mail you opt-in for Avocode interesting content and offers - no spam.
Don't worry, we'll keep your info safe.

Download Full Report
introduction
design tools
DESIGN COMPONENTS
DESIGN REVISIONS
DESIGN FILE SIZE
FONTS
COLOR TRENDS
BLENDING MODES
LAYER EFFECTS
corner radius
credits

2016
Web Design
Trend Report

The purpose of this study is to reveal and understand the stable and changing trends in web design based on 1,127,302 of Photoshop & Sketch designs that have been uploaded to Avocode in 2016.

Learn more

Illustrated by

Maxime Bourgeois

DESIGN TOOLS

Photoshop is no longer in the lead

Sketch (along with other progressive tools) has kicked off a new era of digital design: 

  • 2015: 57% Photoshop designs vs. 43% Sketch designs
  • 2016: 41% Photoshop designs vs. 59% Sketch designs
Learn more

Illustrated by

Maxime Bourgeois

Design Components

Symbols are becoming a design standard

In April 2016, Sketch re-introduced Symbols to save designers more time.

  • Sketch files saw 7.6x growth of Symbols usage
  • Even Adobe Xd and Affinity Designer have introduced Symbols to keep up the pace
Learn more

Illustrated by

Benjamin Bely

Design Revisions

It's easier and faster to iterate designs in Sketch

It seems that once again the lightweight workflow is winning over the robustness of Photoshop.

  • Sketch designs are revised and edited 4.5 times before coding
  • Photoshop designs change only 2 times before code implementation
Learn more

Illustrated by

Aleksandar Savic

Design File Size

Minimal design saves your disk space

The average PSD file size has dropped by 3 times. With fewer smart objects, bitmaps and effects, files get smaller and easier to share.

  • 2015: average Photoshop file size was 24.37 MB
  • 2016: average Photoshop file size dropped to 8.62 MB
Learn more

Illustrated by

Steve Orchosky

Fonts

Roboto became the most popular font on the web

Roboto, a Google Material Design font, has been leading among Photoshop and Sketch designs.

  • It is the most popular Sketch font for the past two years
  • In 2016 it dethroned OpenSans as the most popular Photoshop font
  • It appeared in 24% of Sketch designs and 19% of PS designs
Learn more

Illustrated by

Turgay Mutlay

Color Trends

Sketch designs got lighter and PSDs darker

Photoshop files have become less white and more grey, while Sketch saw a dramatic increase of white color and decrease of shades of grey.

  • 2015: white color appeared in 33% of Sketch and 46% of PSD designs
  • 2016: white color appeared in 56% of Sketch and 24% of PSD designs
Learn more

Illustrated by

Zhivko Terziivanov

Blending Modes

34% growth of blending modes in Sketch designs

Photoshop designers have been keeping low number of blending modes, while Sketch designers have been surprisingly using them much more in 2016.

  • ~4.5 blend modes still appear in an average PSD
  • The amount of blending modes in Sketch has increased from 4.7 to 7.14 in 2016
Learn more

Illustrated by

Maldo Malacek

Layer Effects

55% of all design layer effects had disappeared

In 2016 layer effects dropped by more than a half in both Photoshop and Sketch designs. For example:

  • In 2015, 40% of PSDs contained drop-shadow. In 2016 it's less than 20%.
  • In 2015, 20% of Sketch files contained gradient fill. In 2016 it's 10%.
  • Bevel-emboss appearance dropped by 42% 🎉
Learn more

Illustrated by

Arzu Sendag

Corner Radius

Rounded shapes are still more popular than edgy ones

There have been some changes, but nothing really dramatic. While pointy shapes can look modern, rounded ones are still killing it.

  • 87% of all PS shapes had rounded corner radius (in 2015 it was 92%)
  • 84% of all Sketch shapes had rounded corner radius (same like the year before)
Learn more

Illustrated by

Barbora Togel

9 illustrators brought our data into colors

Maxime
Bourgeois
Benjamin Bely
Aleksandar Savic
Steve Orchosky
Turgay Mutlay
Zhivko Terziivanov
Maldo Malacek
Arzu Sendag
Barbora Togel
Created with ♥️ by Avocode