With the passage of time, web development has reached newer heights and so have web design trends. We now have much more agile tools for both front-end and back-end development and when combined with agile development methodologies like DevOps, there is no type of website you can’t seem to pull off these days.
However, one thing in this whole scheme continues to remain a mystery and that is, the kind of web design trends to follow.
Web design trends continue to change with each passing year and business owners incorporate them in order to make their websites more appealing to users.
Bad websites are the ones that don’t incorporate these website design trends properly or regularly.
Ask yourself, would you shop from eCommerce websites that don’t offer online payment? Of course not, because it’s easier to pay with online payment and a website not having this feature will be an unnecessary hassle in your online shopping experience.
Of course, the online payment method website trend is quite old, but it was just an example.
And exactly like that example, I have another one. Before we entered 2019, chatbots were your regular customer service agents who would just greet the user.
Now, thanks to AI and Machine Learning, chatbots offer a more personalized experience. Sure, some work goes into them, but the result is a well-attended customer.
If you’re still reading, you understand that it’s important for your business to stay ahead of the competition and you can do that by knowing what the most trending web design trends are going into 2021.
Okay, without any more discussion, let’s look at the website design trends you need to incorporate right away.
The Ten Highly InnovativeDesign Trends of 2021
- The Use Of Serif Fonts
- Text-Based Videos
- The Trend Of Muted Colors
- Geometry
- White Space
- Extensive Header Content
- Advanced Scrolling
- Custom Illustrations
- Better UI/UX
- Cause-Based Website Designs
1. The Use Of Serif Fonts
Confused about which “Serif” font I’m talking about? Don’t worry, I confuse them too, but I learned a trick which I think might help you differentiate between them.
The “Serif” font has some embellishments at the start and end of the letters, while “Sans Serif” has no such design. Easy to remember, right?
Getting back to the point,
Serif fonts are extremely old and date back to 1830, yikes!
The Serif fonts have been around for a while, and by the looks of it, they’re one of the trends that will carry on in the near future.
I think the font’s popularity makes sense because it’s one of the first-ever fonts created and has been used since. No wonder businesses still prefer it.
Another reason why businesses will continue to use Serif fonts is because of their simplicity yet classy look. When you look at the font, it gives off a feeling of sophistication, so many famous brands already use it.
Let’s see a great example of how serif fonts breathe sophistication into brands.
Gucci is a famous clothing and accessories brand that targets the upper class as their customers.
In order to attract the right people, their website uses serif fonts:
Image Source: Gucci
The font gives the brand a sophisticated face. Now imagine, if they used a bold font like this:
|
GUCCI GIFT EXPERT |
Would the upper class want to interact with Gucci?
The Serif font is definitely one of the top web design trends you need to incorporate into your website right away.
2. Text-Based Videos
Text-based videos are a part of a larger trend that started in the light of the coronavirus. As businesses went offline, and most of the countries implemented complete lockdowns, shooting new content became a challenge.
While the lockdown was lifted in some parts, it looks the second wave will force another lockdown – which again means new content will be a pain to record.
That’s where text-based videos make a comeback.
Teams can’t meet to record and edit videos anymore or even hire freelancers. Their only option is to emphasize animations and text-heavy videos.
How does this benefit the businesses in the future?
They can use this to their advantage and create uniform videos for announcements, sales, and product explainer videos.
That’s exactly what Slack did recently. They used a lot of images and increased the text in their video marketing to get their point across.
Now I know you’re probably thinking, aren’t text-heavy videos boring and lengthy – but there are ways to prevent that from happening. Like in the example below:
View the video on Instagram.
Notice how they’ve used the text in a friendly way, which entices the user to read and understand it.
Slack has truly innovatively embraced this modern website design trend. They infused the text, made it engaging, and made sure they didn’t need any actors to show up to video shoots.
The best part? They didn’t need a huge team to make that video; a few animators and graphic designers did the job for them in lesser time than a production team could’ve done.
I’m not done yet; I have some great news! For the upcoming year 2021, you don’t need to invest time in new content. In fact, use your existing content, infuse it with the new trends, and get the job done. See how easy that is?
3. The Trend Of Muted Colors
While loud and bold colors were the hit for most brands till some years ago, they’re slowly fading away (pun intended!)
What does that mean?
It means they’re transforming into light, pastel color palettes, hence the phrase; fading away. You might be surprised but muted also means dark and deep colors; for example, red can change into pink as a pastel color and maroon as a dark color.
Image Source: Vennage
Gradients have been the hype for a while now, and we’ll continue to see more of such colors in 2021. Designers will play around with bold colors to find the right muted colors for specific brands.
Do you have a new brand for 2021? I would advise researching the psychology of colors before you decide on your palette. Several studies have proven that colors influence up to 93% of shoppers to make a purchase.
However, there are some exceptions for bold colors like green, orange, or red because it seems like those colors will be used for CTAs. After all, they continue to grab the customer’s attention and guide them on what to do next.
Look at the compelling fusion that Overdraw has designed for its website:
They’ve used a mixture of the muted color palette, which includes pastels and dark shades of green, and to complement the overall palette, they added a dual-colored CTA button.
4. Geometry
Another significant shift this year is the rising popularity of geometric shapes. Why? Because I saw numerous brands incorporating abstracts, and that’s what we’ll certainly see more of this year!
Geometric shapes have definitely started taking over when it comes to prevalent web design trends.
Brands are adopting rigid and pointy-edged geometric shapes because they’re easier to create and incorporate all over the website or mobile app.
For example, look at how graphic designer Jessica Caldwell has used geometry on her website:
Notice how all the images are aligned properly, making the website look consistent and appealing.
Likewise, you can play around with various shapes to place images on your website to infuse geometry in your website design elements.
Some brands go the extra mile and infuse geometric shapes with muted color palettes to leverage more than one current web design trend. And why not? If it works, then the right decision is to use them together.
The fusion of geometrical and muted colors pairs up so beautifully in the picture above that it makes you wonder what more you can do, right?
There will be numerous shapes and colors to play around with for brands to create the perfect website layout when it comes to leveraging geometric shapes.
5. White Space
White space has to be another one of those trends that have carried forward each year. Why? Because they offer ease of navigation, feel easy on the eyes, and make the website look clean and sophisticated.
And it looks like 2021 will be another year where we see brands making use of their white space (or not, get it?)
White spacing is basically leaving out empty spaces on your website page strategically. It doesn’t mean leaving a blank canvas and adding 5-6 elements. It means placing the elements in a way that looks appealing and clean.
For example, take a look at how Buzzflick has made use of the white space on their website.
Now, did you notice something?
The video animation website has ample white space (if we focus on that only), but it just fits as a complete layout.
They’ve used bold, uppercase letters in red to make it pop over the white space. It’s so easy to look at and appealing at the same time.
6. Extensive Header Content
Extensive header content, also known as full-page headers, is the newest trend that we will see more in 2021.
I remember when headers were just a strip on top of the website. But in 2021, they will be taking over a full page.
It doesn’t mean the entire page will just incorporate the header. It just means when the user logs onto your website, the header will cover the current page until they scroll down to see more information or access the menu.
For example:
The other day I was reading the article and noticed a full-page header on Tekrevol’s homepage.
As you enter the website, the first thing you’ll notice is the full-page header, which changes every three seconds into a new banner.
From then on, you need to scroll down to view the rest of the information. I think it’s cool how these full-page headers emphasize their core services and have a strategically placed CTA for users to click on.
7. Advanced Scrolling
Scrolling? Nah, that’s in the past! The new trend is advanced or dynamic scrolling that allows websites to give a 3D effect to their layout and make it look more appealing.
I’ll try to make it sound simpler. Dynamic scrolling is where the images and videos move slower than the rest of the website content. The content moves at a regular speed, but the animation, videos, and images are slower.
For example, ToyFight has infused numerous elements that have dynamic scrolling into their website design.
When you visit the website, you’ll notice the images moving slower than the actual website giving it a 3D effect. The two guys you see in the picture above move with your cursor. Cool, right?
Another use of dynamic scrolling expected to increase in 2021 is on videos. Some brands have integrated dynamic scrolling into videos that only play when they scroll down to them or past them.
It’ll be exciting to see how other brands incorporate dynamic scrolling into their website design in 2021.
8. Custom Illustrations
Illustrations make up most of your website. They give it a pop of color, the wow element, and a user appeal.
Yes, they’ve been around since the first-ever website was launched, so how is it changing in 2021?
You guessed it…
Custom illustrations
It’s been common for businesses to use cookie-cutter stock images, transform them a bit, and then add them to their websites.
However, when I say custom illustration, I mean illustrations made from scratch for a specific organization.
A great example is Alice Lee, who designs custom illustrations for famous brands like Airbnb and The Washington Post.
In 2021, we will be witnessing brands the growth of this website design trend in tandem with other design trends and functionalities to give it more depth and oomph.
9. Better UI/UX
Will a highly functional and bug-free UI/UX trend ever go out of style? I don’t think so!
Brands will continue to make their UI/UX better and intriguing for users. It’s just one of those trends that evolve each year and helps businesses make their websites better.
Some rising trends we’ll see in 2021 for better UI/UX designs will be:
- Lazy Loading – What this feature does is it prevents the hidden elements from loading. The hidden elements only load when the user scrolls down to them or goes up. This allows for a smooth UI/UX and makes the overall website faster.
- Voice-enabled UI/UX – Brands will be seen trying to implement voice assistants on their website to help users navigate through the website and offer a better experience.
- More focus on responsive design – There are more smartphone users now than ever before, which means more users browsing websites on their smartphones. Another trend that brands will adopt is a better responsive web design to focus on mobile phone users.
10. Cause-Based Website Designs
As the COVID’19 pandemic hit the world, things started changing drastically, so much so that we didn’t expect them to turn out the way they did.
One of the things that took a shift was the emphasis on cause-based web design trends. Before the virus took over the world, there were conferences, fundraisers, and gatherings for great causes; however, all of that soon came to a grinding halt.
Websites and brands adopted the trend of spreading the word about causes that impacted the world and made lives better.
While this was an alternate solution, most brands have adopted it for the long term.
I expect that brands will continue to use this to create awareness, connect with users emotionally, and highlight important issues.
If this trend can bring a positive change in the world, then why not?
In Conclusion
At the end of the day, I think it’s safe to say that these trends will change and evolve more in 2021, and I can’t wait to see what developers and designers come up with that leverages the best of these web design trends into their website projects.