The landscape of web design is of constant change and innovation. And so, this year, web design witnesses new trends, practices, and standards flowing in at a breakneck speed. If you’re a web designer or own a design studio, it serves you to be on top of the latest web design trends so that you can churn out designs that can stand the test of time while also satisfying your clientele. Or, are you a layman looking to have a website designed? Make yourself aware of the new web trends going on in web design and make your website stand out.
To help you this, here is a list of 7 most useful modern website design trends that can help you stand apart from other designers in 2020. Without further ado, let’s dive right in.
1. Animations
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We rely heavily on visual cues to get as much information as possible when we see something. In today’s world, the attention spans have taken a nosedive – what this means is that in order to keep website visitors hooked, they need to be served information in a way that is more innovative than just simple text or an image.
This is where animations flourish. There are a couple of different ways and places where you can deploy animations to make the content more enjoyable to the visitors such as the homepage banner or an “important” section on the web page.
However, animations truly shine on a website at places where there is a “waiting period” for users. For example, when the page is loading or when a user has submitted a form. Deploying animations at this point can keep the users engaged with the web page and prevent them from bouncing off.
Related: 5 Unexpected Branding Lessons from Dali and Warhol
2. Unconventional grid layouts
In the early days of digital design, web designers opted for a more structured look. This meant symmetrical grids, uniform layouts, and clean straight lines. However, 2017 saw a marked increase in the adoption of uneven grids and unconventional grid layouts. This trend proliferates even more in the design scene in 2020 too.
Uneven layouts work very well for a design that is less heavy on the text and focuses more on images. Always keep in mind that text is best viewed in a well-structured layout.
Also, this trend works very well when the website in question belongs to a creative niche such as fashion as it is consistent with the theme of the product/services offered.
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3. Bolder color palette
A popular 2020 web design trend is focusing on bold color palettes. More and more designers are moving away from a safe color palette of the past couple years and are adopting color themes that are vivid, bold and sometimes downright contrasting. Vibrant colors work very well in attracting user’s attention as humans are predisposed to getting drawn to bolder hues.
With highly advanced monitors and mobile screens, it’s now easier than ever to put up several thousand colors into a design. So in your next design, mix and match and make some interesting color choices to blow away your viewers.
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4. Navigation menus that follow you
One of the most well-established elements of new web design has been the navigation menu being at the very top of the website. There are very few websites that don’t feature a top navigation menu – some put it on the left side of the screen too. However, designers have started playing with the menu positions and one of the most interesting aftermaths of this experiment has been the “floating navigation menu”.
A floating navigation menu looks almost like the traditional top navigation menu, however, it’s different in that it follows the users down the page as they scroll through the website. The navigation menu places itself just below the very top of the site and with a drop shadow so that the user is always aware of its presence and utility in quickly jumping to the other pages or sections of the website.
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5. Mobile-first design
2017 was a big year for the mobile industry in several ways. It was also the year when the number of people browsing the internet using their smartphones finally overtook those on the desktops.
This trend doesn’t seem to be going in the other direction anytime soon. Hence, it is important that web design follows and is crafted in a way that it renders seamlessly on mobile devices with varying screen sizes and resolutions.
This means the introduction of clever navigation styles, innovative layouts and an aggressively UX-focused design that packs huge amounts of information on a 5.5-inch screen.
6. Pics with a twist
Gone are the days when images on websites were nothing but stock photos carefully picked out to convey the underlying message. More and more websites are now featuring illustrations or creative artwork with the aim of visually enticing the website visitors as well as conveying a theme that resonates with the values of their brands. An interesting innovation in this space are hand-drawn illustrations that feature in the form of images as can be seen here:
7. Micro-interactions
Micro-interactions are the next big thing in new website design (no pun intended). With the advent of mobile-focused UI/UX, more and more designers have gotten themselves familiar with micro-interactions. This means that micro-interactions are becoming common in web design too.
Micro-interactions are small events that culminate when a user performs an action on a website or web-app. They are designed to make the users feel a sense of fluidity in their browsing experience. A common example of this could be a greyed-out login button which fills with color once all the relevant information is put up in the associated form. Other examples can include swiping actions (a la Tinder) or hover animations like Facebook.
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Adopting these tips would mean a much better time for your web design team in 2020.