Web Design Trends for 2020
Web design trends are continously evolving, as technology improves so are our abilities to better represent ourselves online. Your website is often the first impression perspective customers will have of your business. If your website looks outdated or doesnt quickly and easily provide the information people are looking for then you are probably losing customers before you even knew they existed!
So if you want a modern website for 2020 what will that look like? Here we share our predictions of the trends which will shape the way the web looks for the next 12 months and beyond.
Oversized Type
As peoples attention gets even shorter designers need to find new ways to quickly get their message across. 2020 is going to be the year of bold oversized call to actions and titles to let companies get their message across quickly.
The Arm Yourself website is a great example of how attention grabbing oversized text can be, especially when combined with some of our next predictions, dark mode and glowing color schemes.
Gradients
Gradients have been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years. Bland backgrounds can easily be made much more interesting by adding a gradient. Other popular uses you will see emerge will be gradient overlays on images and animated hover effects.
If you want to add a gradient to your website, color space has created a handy tool so you can easily generate your own gradient and copy the code you need to add it to your website.
Glowing Color Schemes
Futuristic designs are going to be popular in 2020, especially among technology companies. By combining bright lumious accent colors with dark muted backgrounds a futuristic glowing effects is achieved.
The Critical Techworks website shows how the call to action buttons almost jump off of the page thanks to the contrast between the glowing button and the dark grey background image.
Dark Mode
Dark Mode is best known for being used with Apps, allowing users to darken their screens, saving power and extending the screen life of mobile devices. Now dark mode is being used in websites to create visually stunning designs, especially when coupled with glowing color schemes and oversized text.
Websites taking advantage of this trend don't need to be completly dark, the Abstrakt website is a good example of how dark and light color schemes can be blended together to highlight separate content sections of a page.
Depth and 3D
Websites have traditionally had a flat 2D appearance, that is changing. Layers and shadows will be very popular in 2020 to create a feeling of depth on the screen, creating a 3D like effect. Actual 3D rendering software has now become much more affordable so expect to see a lot more computer generated full screen 3D images emerge. Adding depth to a website creates a more immersive experience holding the users attention longer.
The A O Design website has created a unique animated 3D menu system to navigate the site. While this isn't practical for most businesses it does provide a good example of the type of effects that can be achieved.
Broken Grid
A website is constructed by placing elements next to each other, side to side, above and below. Each of these elements is effectively in a box and contain sn images, text forms etc. The broken grid is a trend where designers are moving beyond this box model and overlapping elements to create a more artistic visual. This trend is often combined with layering to create the faux 3D effect.
The NOSPR website shows how by breaking the grid and overlapping elements pages can appear a lot more stylized than traditional websites.
Animation
Animation is a great addition to any website as the movement captures the users attention and encourages them to stay on the page longer. With diminishing attention spans this is a great technique to keep people on your site.
The Rappipay website is a great example how animation can be used to create an engaging experience that educates customers on their product as they scroll through the home page.
Horizontal Scrolling
Our last entry on our web trends for 2020 list is probably the least likey to gain widespread adoption, horizontal scrolling!
We are all used to vertical scrolling, initially it feels strange for users when they try to scroll down and the page moves from side to side. But, it can be great if you are trying to guide users through a set path, for example using visual storytelling educate potential customers.
The Manuport Logistics website demonstrates how you are drawn to the end of the site by the arrows showing there is more to come. This site has added micro animations to keep your visual interest, as you scroll see how many you notice. Little touches like this make the page stand out from a basic web page.
What does the future hold?
Probably not likely in 2020 but our predictions for the next big developments in web development over the next few years are Speech and VR. Voice assistants are growing in popularity and it is possible to interact with a website by voice commands. however, until web browsers adopt this technology in a wide scale and uniform manner it won't become a practical method of using the internet. We are seeing Virtual Reality in movies and video games, it is only a matter of time until the same technologies are available on the web and truly immersive websites are being created.
Ready for a Re-Design of Your Website
As you have seen many of these trends are being used together to create compelling visual experiences. If you are thinking about updating the visual appeal of your website check out our Web Design services to see how we can improve the look and functionality of your site. Or fill out the form and we will get right back to you.