The web design world is evolving rapidly. But what trends can you implement to keep your website looking fresh?
Oversized typography adds personality to websites and enhances readability. This trend is also good for establishing visual hierarchy and adding color to your site. Kinetic typography uses animation to draw attention to form fields or words and helps users understand the context of your site’s content.
1. Minimalism
Minimalism is one of the most popular trends in web design, and with good reason. It emphasizes simplicity and clarity by eliminating extraneous elements and highlighting essential elements of the site’s message. This style is effective because it allows visitors to connect with your content more deeply and quickly.
A minimalist website may also feature a variety of textures and geometric shapes to make the included elements stand out more prominently. This 2024 web design trend can even include subtle effects like gaussian blurs to create an ambiance of calm and focus.
While sans serif fonts are typically the go-to for designers due to their flexibility and ability to size up or down across devices, some designers are experimenting with serif fonts to add an elegant touch to minimalist websites. Moreover, simple animations can help users navigate your site more easily by introducing smooth transitions between content blocks. Similarly, a creative cursor can give your visitors an engaging way to interact with your site’s contents and further promote a sense of minimalism.
2. Color
When it comes to web design trends, color can be a powerful tool to draw your visitors in and enhance the user experience. This year, designers seem to be drawn to colors that are bold and bright, as well as earthy shades like greens, browns, and beiges.
Adding these earthy tones in conjunction with your logo creates a consistent look that communicates your brand’s aesthetic. As a result, it helps create a sense of familiarity and trust with your visitors.
For example, Melyssa Griffin uses light, feminine tones on her website to express her personality and brand identity. She also utilizes teal call-to-action buttons on her site to stand out and encourage her visitors to take action.
Another way to use color in your web design is by using a gradient background. This adds depth and visual appeal to your site, while ensuring that your text is easily visible. You can also use a gradient in your navigation menu, as seen on Paolo Fornasier’s website.
3. Oversized Typography
Decorative, oversized typography is an eye-catching web design trend that’s perfect for drawing attention and attracting visitors. It can also be used to evoke a desired emotion or create a sense of hierarchy.
Whether it’s a bold, large-scale typeface or an experimental font that defies typography rules, this web design trend is all about grabbing the attention of your audience. You can even combine this trend with animations to create a more engaging experience.
The oversized typography on this website is used to highlight important details, such as call-to-actions and summary information. It is also used to establish the importance of certain pieces of content. This is a great way to keep your visitors’ attention and ensure that they read all of the content on your website.
4. Animated Elements
Animation is a tricky web design trend because it can easily become distracting or overwhelming. However, when used correctly, it can keep your website looking fresh and engaging while also providing a great user experience. Check out this article on XS Web Design to be more knowledgeable in the website creation field.
One of the most popular trends in website animation is dynamic menus that move with you as you scroll. This allows you to easily access navigation without having to go back to the header or footer. Engineered Floors uses this animation to both intrigue visitors and make their site more accessible.
Hover animations are another common type of website animation that can be used to signal interactivity or provide feedback to users. For example, when a visitor hovers over a button on the NewActon website, it will wiggle and expand to give the impression that it’s clickable.
Illustration is another popular web design trend that can be used to add interactivity or tell a story. For example, Le Petit Salon’s homepage features illustrations that animate and recolor depending on the mouse cursor.
5. Parallax Scrolling
Parallax scrolling is one of the hottest web design trends of the moment. It’s a great way to break up large amounts of text, photos, and other visual elements so that users don’t feel overwhelmed by the content they’re viewing.
When used well, parallax scrolling can also be a powerful tool for telling your brand’s story. Take for example the website of Hajk, a Scandinavian outdoor clothing company. The site features a hero image that slowly zooms out to reveal images of the products and people who wear them, creating a sense of depth that draws visitors into the brand’s story.
6. Microcopy
Whether used in tooltips, help texts, error messages or terms and conditions, microcopy should be helpful and authentic. It should be short and clear, and it must always speak in the voice of your audience.
For example, if a user is on a checkout page and enters an invalid credit card number, the website should show them a message that explains what went wrong and why it’s necessary for security reasons. This will reassure the user and build trust.
As with all UX design, microcopy should always be based on user research and understanding the company brand and voice. This allows designers to create useful signposts for users on their journey through the product, in a language they understand and a tone that will resonate with them. It also helps them to ensure all elements of the site are aligned with each other, working together to deliver a cohesive experience.
7. Combining Photographs with Graphic Elements
In a bid to humanize the digital experience, designers are using micro-interactions like hover effects and interactive clickable elements on images to draw visitors further into web content. These elements communicate brand identity and elicit emotion by creating an authentic sense of interconnectedness on screen, as seen in the way cosmetics brands showcase real-life models or Nike celebrates diversity through its athletes.
This design trend also adds a playful element to websites, inviting visitors to scroll down and explore a new world. This year, designers broke rules by combining minimalist styles with other aesthetics to create unique visual experiences. This included a return to brutalism, with a more gentle twist: neo-brutalism. This style blends the naiveté and freedom of youth culture from the ’90s with emerging tech and new experiences.
8. Illustrated Characters
Using illustrated characters is another web design trend that keeps websites looking fresh. Illustrations can help brands convey ideas that can’t be captured in lifestyle photos and are often animated for added interactivity.
Digital agencies are also using illustrations as a way to avoid the use of stock images, which can make a site look generic. This web design trend isn’t for everyone, but it can be a fun and quirky way to stand out from the crowd.
9. Customization
Personalized elements offer visitors a sense of belonging, while also helping to differentiate brands. They can range from a simple change to a website’s font to an entire page’s dynamic content.
While sans serif fonts are a go-to for web design because they’re legible and scale up well on different screen sizes, designers are starting to crave the elegance and poise that serif fonts add. As a result, they’re making a comeback in 2023.
Navigation innovations are redefining how users find their way around websites. These new approaches to navigation are more interesting and interactive than the traditional top nav menu or footer.
Dynamic cursor effects create a playful experience for website visitors, grabbing their attention and encouraging them to explore more. Examples include rippling animations that lighten or darken as you hover over images and a piano-toned ringing as you scroll down a webpage’s menu. These fun and quirky elements are a great way to express brand personality and keep users engaged on your site.
