Having already entered the second half of 2020 for a few months, we find ourselves taking stock of the new trends relating to web design . What to expect from the near future?
Without prejudice to some normal differences of opinion, sector experts seem to all agree on some trends that, almost certainly, will be the most popular at least in 2021 , and already starting from the autumn of the current year. After all, the digital design sector is constantly changing and updating and it is therefore not to be excluded that new or different trends will streak in the months to come .
Now let’s see together what are the five main web design trends to pay attention to from now on.
Minimalism and gradients 2.0: the evergreens that always work
It is inevitable: regardless of the fashions of the moment, there will always be the so-called ” evergreens “, ie those styles that do not undergo fluctuations in the approval of web designers and users. One of these is the minimalist style , reduced to the bone but made up of clean and very elegant lines . Creating web pages populated almost exclusively by key and functional elements , and completely devoid of frills, continues to be a trend that is all the rage.
However, care should be taken not to design websites that end up being so ultra-minimalist that they no longer stand out from the rest , and the answer may be to pay attention to gradients. It’s not exactly new, since these particular color palettes started replacing flat colors as early as 2018 , but adding a little depth to the color choice will help make web pages more interesting and dynamic . From the background to the buttons, from the filters on the images to the illustrations, gradients 2.0 work well because they are versatile. The only limit is the imagination .
Welcome back Dark Mode
After years of very light palettes and pastel shades, it seems that the so-called dark mode is about to return to vogue , that is the chromatic choice of very dark colors or great contrasts between black backgrounds and page elements in very lively, almost dazzling hues, such as pink and yellow . A curiosity : it is believed that this trend is the result of the trend, especially on the part of mobile users, to opt for dark mode on messaging apps, email exchanges or social networking .
One of the main advantages of the dark mode is, of course, given by the fact that black backgrounds allow you to experiment very well with bright colors , even rather “pushed” ones, but above all by an increased readability of the characters on the screen .
Imaginative typography
The days of Arial and Century Gothic in typographic choices for web pages are also over: the future looks very imaginative as far as fonts are concerned . The new trends push us to dare and even be a little rebellious, in the field of digital typography, keeping in mind only one and essential rule: the user must be able to read the texts in an easy and immediate way .
This means that, as long as the readability of the contents is not affected, web designers will be able to indulge themselves in their typographic tests . And while the Sans Serif font option will still be favored, hopefully we will see websites disappear in Comic Sans.
Illustrations: both to communicate and to express art in the purest sense
When we talk about illustrations for the web , our thoughts inevitably go to infographics or, more generally, to supporting drawings made to clearly communicate specific text messages . However, the web design trends of the near future seem to alter this paradigm , at least in part.
The illustrations for the web of the future are static line-style elements that show only small moments of animation , so as to appear authentic, natural, effortless. In short, the result of doing without overdoing it. They are also more evocative, imaginative, similar to genius children’s drawings , sometimes even a little silly, and they all have one element in common: they look freehand right on the screen.
Immersivity and 3D
More than a design style, this is an element that will be integrated with the trends illustrated so far so as to create a perfect harmony between clearly fictional elements and ultra-realism .
In a way that is now hyper-connected and oriented towards an increasingly extreme user experience , multidimensionality will end up dominating because it moves hand in hand with the technological evolutions of 3D, 4D and 5D . Allowing the user to live an immersive experience within the websites will allow to increase his emotional involvement and therefore the engagement. The result will most likely be obtained with the help of floating objects, but also overlapping shadows and layers , giving the impression of being in a physical place rather than a virtual one.
