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Changes to website design are inevitable. However, in 2020, the technical aspects can boggle your mind. You would be amazed by how far ‘trendy’ designers push the limit of technology while reinventing classic styles and experimenting with new ones.
Even if new techniques do appear, some old styles, including minimalism and colourful flat images, can still remain popular.
So what website design trend can you expect to see in 2020? Experts will be able to advise you on which schemes will be beneficial for your site. In the meantime, here are some design trends that experts believe will become popular in the coming year.
1. Dark design mode
You can give users options to enable this type of theme. A dark background helps your design stand out. The idea works by providing a higher contrast ratio compared with other colours. Meanwhile, an improved colour scheme can also alleviate the risk of eye strain.
Visually, there are various advantages to using dark web designs:
- Your site will look radically sleek
- It will be easy on the eye
- Colours will pop
Interestingly, dark web designs were intended for OLED screens. The primary purpose was to save power and extend a screen’s life. However, designers discovered that these designs can also make a website look attractive. They can also make the other colours stand out.
Aesthetically, dark web designs work well with other 2020 design trends, such as brooding and moody colour schemes. If you combine them with neon lights or cyberpunk styles, you will have a futuristic-looking website.
2. Adding personality through imperfections
Hand-drawn designs or seemingly imperfect appearances can enable your site to evoke emotions and the human touch. Users seem to like seeing web pages adorned with personalised graphics. Consider incorporating a few hand-drawn images to appeal to your visitors’ eyes and minds.
Experts believe that hand-drawn icons will become popular because they connect to users’ positive emotions. People generally want to surround themselves with items that make their day a pleasant one.
Using unique and customised icons can help improve your brand and make it stand out from the competition.
Expect to see more designers make use of handmade icons or illustrations on websites.
3. Incorporating immersive 3D designs
In 2020, you will definitely see more websites integrated with 3D elements. Designers are making use of this technology in their graphics and interactive features. Users are thrilled by 3D technology as this immersive experience involves all of their senses.
While 3D has been available for quite some time, incorporating it was previously quite expensive. Fortunately, nowadays, designers have access to 3D tools that won’t cost them an arm and a leg.
4. Oversizing your site’s elements and types
Creating bigger than regular fonts and pictures is gaining favour among many designers. This design feature certainly attracts a user’s eye and focuses their attention on your site’s content. Furthermore, the results can appear spectacular on screen.
However, in order to make this particular trend work, you will have to reduce your elements on every page. Remember, maintaining too many features can prove overwhelming and distracting, no matter how good they look.
You can opt for a full screen with an image or a video and pair it with large fonts on the first fold. This type of layout will help communicate your content clearly and efficiently; users will not only see the message but also register it in their mind.
5. Including soft shadows and floating elements
Designers can make use of soft shadows and floating elements to create a 3D-like effect. This scheme allows you to develop depths but at a level lower than 3D effects. You could say that soft shadows and floating elements provide web pages with a ‘3D Lite’ appearance. This is not just limited to graphics as it also applies to text and photos as well.
2D layouts can also benefit from this feature. The soft drop shadows and layering can create an appearance of elements floating over one another.
6. The split-screen look
If you want to convey two ideas at the same time but with less clutter, the split-screen design will do the job. You can split the screen in the middle to ensure that each side attracts an equal share of attention.
To make the theme more engaging, consider making each half run in a slightly different manner. For example, you can make the two screens scroll at different speeds.
7. Mixing photos and graphics
Adding real photos with graphics or illustrations is an effective and customised means of communication. Incorporating graphics with the images can help support your brand and enable you to stand out from and outperform the competition.
By overlapping unique illustrations on top of real pictures, you can create stunning visuals. Adopting a collage-type scheme can create a certain allure for your products and services. In addition, you can use this style to simplify abstract or complicated ideas. You can add some personality to your brand by customising your images.
To make your design work, ensure that you match it with graphics that are suitable to your brand’s character. Your design can entertain people while educating them about your products and services.
8. Using solid colour blocks
Designers can separate website content by making use of different sizes of squares or rectangles and dividing them by colours. You can communicate with several ideas at once but in a neat and clean way.
By adding a photo or a small paragraph to each section, your visitors will be able to easily digest the information you present. You can also make your site more captivating by colouring your squares with the same shades as your website.
9. Adopting solid frames with plenty of white spaces
White spaces around websites highlight your images. This design format also makes your site’s elements stand out even more. Many designers are now making use of frames of white or blank spaces. The reason why this design is now popular is due to its ability to make your visuals stand out. The white area around your site creates a visible sense of order. It also helps you prioritise and compartmentalise the different sections.
10. Making use of exposed grids and windows
Even technology is now an inspiration for website designers. They can make use of dividers, such as rectangles, thin lines and even strokes to divide the site into sections. Usually, the grids and guidelines are used by designers for behind-the-scenes jobs. Today’s designers now use them openly to segment the sections of a web page.
11. Using glowing and shiny colour designs
Designers and site owners like using these designs because they look futuristic. So, in 2020, expect to see outrageous colours, such as blue or purple, appearing on a wide range of web pages.
Web stylists are now more open to using daring themes, such as glow-in-the-dark lighting. Designers can combine bright colours with darker or muted shades to produce a luminous effect.
12. Engaging your users with motion and interactive systems
Making use of animation and videos on websites is nothing new. They work best with users who don’t have long attention spans. So, it’s safe to assume that this design trend will never be out of fashion. The human eye is always drawn to any moving object. This is why designers prefer videos and animation when they want to influence how their visitors react to their pages.
13. Adopting a minimalist navigation system
Web experts believe that 2020 will see sites featuring more audio and video and being less reliant on text content. Eventually, website design will continue to become more straightforward and easier to navigate. The reason for this growing trend is the popularity of wearable devices, such as smartwatches.
Digital devices are becoming smaller, so navigation needs to become simpler. This is also necessary as complicated menus will not work for people whose attention spans are also getting shorter.
By adopting a very minimal navigation design, the usability of a website can be enhanced. Designers have to make it easier for users to move around the site. This will encourage them to spend more time looking at your products and services rather than wasting their time wondering how to navigate.
Meanwhile, images have become vital in terms of attracting your online audience. Utilising large-sized photos and engaging videos will increase your chances of impressing viewers. In addition, you don’t have to use too much text to achieve this effect.
Web experts see huge photos and videos as the best visual attraction that will convert viewers into leads and then into customers.
Conclusion
In 2020, web designers are incorporating futuristic themes in their work. They make use of visuals and trends to grab people’s attention with 3D effects and bold colours. At the same time, some old styles are still popular. Some designers are even reinventing old designs, such as the dark mode theme. Modern web design is focused on making sites more user-friendly, with minimal navigation and formats that are easy on the eye.
