Top trends for User Experience

Web design has been always subject to technology changes and designers have had to keep their skills up to date to create user-friendly, innovative, and responsive  websites  which stand out, create impact and are user friendly.

In 2018 mobile usage finally took over desktop browsing. Therefore, mobile browsing is expected to be fully utilised in new creative ways that we have never seen before, whilst desktops will have to continue evolving in order to stay relevant.

So what have been the trends this year for web site design? 

1. Drop shadows & Depth

Although shadows are not new and have been used in web design for quite a while, we can see more exciting variations of them. With grids and parallax layouts, web designers are using shadows more than ever, creating depth and an illusion of a world beyond the screen.

The intense use of shadows creates a surprisingly versatile effect that increases the aesthetics of the web page and  puts more emphasis on a greater User Experience (UX).

2. Particle backgrounds

Particle backgrounds are extremely beneficial for websites facing performance issues with their video environments. These lightweight Javascripts allow every movement in the animation to be created as a natural part of the background, while reducing their time to load.

An image can say more than a thousand words, and implementing an  animated image  adds greater interest, more impact and creates engagement. Particle backgrounds have become more popular and are mainly used by companies aiming to immediately attract the user through high-quality animation communicating memorable brand impression. Additionally, motion graphics like these have been become very popular on social media and have been a great way of creating leads back to the landing page.

3. Custom illustration

Custom illustrations are  great, versatile media for creating images that are friendly, playful and add an element of fun to the company’s website. Nowadays, most brands are striving to deliver more illustrations that are full of personality and are specifically tailored to their tone.

Whilst this trend has been assumed to be perfect for businesses that are fun and energetic, it is also great for  brands that are typically perceived as serious and corporate. In essence it creates a human element and makes them seem more  approachable to their customers.

4. Vibrant, saturated colour schemes

It can be said that 2019 is definitely the year for super excess colours online. Whilst in the past, designers were focusing only on web-safe colours, nowadays more of them are becoming courageous in their approach to colour. They are creating super saturation and vibrant shades, whilst combining them with headers that are no longer just horizontal, but upgraded with many slashes and/or hard angles.

This drastic change is mostly driven by all the technology advances in monitors and screens that are now more suitable for reproducing richer colour schemes. Vibrant and even clashing colours are now used for recently launched brands which are aiming to gain instant visitor attraction. In addition they are also perfect for brands that are trying to differentiate themselves from the traditional websites outlook.

5. Mobile first

Mobile browsing has now completely surpassed the desktop. Almost everyone nowadays, is doing their online shopping through their smart-phones. Whereas in the past, this was a clunky process that users were struggling to adopt and designers were puzzled how to deliver decent page looks on such a small screen.

However, now the mobile design has significantly matured, designers have found and established the roll-out burger, allowing the page menu to be minimised for a small screen. Moreover, economical icons in terms of space have become so common that the users have no trouble understanding them. Also, with moving onto a smaller screen the UX issues become easier to identify and fix due to the immediate feedback delivered on users actions.

6. Integrated animation

As browser technology advances, more designers are stepping forward and instead of using static images, they are trying to engage users through new creative integrated animations. Unlike the particle animations mentioned above, integrated animations are with a much smaller size and are aiming to engage the visitor throughout the entire experience on the web-page. For example they can be graphics animating the user while the page is loading and/or can be integrated to work with scrolling, navigation or as the focal point of the entire website.

Animations are delivering fun abstract visuals and are creating meaningful interactions with the visitors. For example, animation used as a tool including the user within the story of the website, allowing them to see their potential future as customers, is more likely to drive higher web traffic and boost the online engagement.

7. Big, bold typography

Typography has always been one of the most powerful visual tools, creating personality, evoking emotion and setting tone on the website while it is conveying important information. With the device resolution getting sharper and easier to read, a significant increase in usage of custom fonts is expected. Excluding Internet Explorer, all of the browsers are supporting hand-made typefaces enabled by CSS for web browsers. Designers are improving the UX and managing to keep the visitor reading the website content by creating dynamic parallels just by applying large letters, contrasting sans serif and serif headings. Headers are key SEO elements for the web pages that are helping to put in order the information so the visitor could easily scan it. Therefore, the designers are expected to take full advantage and increase the usage of the typography trough creation of large impact-full headers.

8. Asymmetry and broken grid layouts

Asymmetrical and unconventional “broken” layouts have been introduced in 2017 and have been gaining great appeal of layout that is unique, distinctive and very experimental.

Although, large-scale brands are still using traditional grid-based structures, there is a slight increase in the use of unconventional layouts across the web by companies that can afford to take a little risky out-of-the-box ideas from their designers.

9. Dynamic gradients

Over the last few years, the flat design has been more popular  than dimensional colours and gradients, which have not been used a lot in web designing. However, now gradients are coming back - they are bigger, louder and full of colours. Experts say that  gradients will be the new web design trend relying on  incarnations such as gradient backgrounds and/or  gradients filters over photos , an excellent way of making not very interesting images to look intriguing.

From bright colours, custom illustrations, bold gradients to integrated animations, 2019 is promising to be one of the most fun years for web developers and designers.

If you are looking for new website development or you need help with you marketing content, contact 10 Digital.