Exploring the Evolving Landscape of Innovative Web Design Trends in 2020

 “Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes – but when we look back, everything is different?”C.S Lewis

It’s the same with web design. Our industry continues to mature with each passing day, month and year. That change isn’t always immediately noticeable – but it never stops. And those who fail to adapt are quickly left behind.

 In 2020, the technical possibilities seem endless and we’re seeing designers play with extremes, reinvent previous styles and constant experimentation with new techniques.

At the same time, there are some popular styles that just won’t go away, such as the ever-present minimalism and colourful flat illustrations we’ve been seeing for some time now.

So, what will the web design trends 2020 be?

Here is a list of the biggest trends in Website Design in 2020:

  1. Dark mode
  2. Hero Video Headers
  3. Soft shadows, layers and floating elements
  4. Voice user interface
  5. Mixing photography with graphics
  6. Solid frames of white space
  7. Glowing, luminous colour schemes
  8. Ultra minimalist navigation

Dark Mode

For a good period now, the dark mode design is trending in both web and mobile design, and even though it has different shapes and shades, reinventing it proved to be difficult enough. Dark mode web designs not only look ultra-modern, but they’re easy on the eyes and make colours and design elements pop.

Sometimes the most visually stunning web design trends have practical beginnings. Dark themes are better for OLED screens—saving power and extending screen lifespans—but that utility doesn’t stop them from looking good. Dark backgrounds improve the visibility of other accent colours for truly dynamic design.

What are your own thoughts on the dark mode and how often you use it?

Hero Video Headers

“Show, don’t tell” is a foundational principle of good product design. Imagery plays a crucial role in visual design because it helps the designers to deliver the main idea quickly.

For a long time, web designers have had to use static imagery to convey their main idea. But the situation has changed. High-speed connections make it much easier for web designers to turn their home pages into immersive movie-style experiences. That’s why in 2019, we’ve seen more and more websites that use short video clips on their home pages.

The video makes the experience more live and dynamic. It engages users, and they are more willing to spend time watching clips. Video clips used in a hero section can vary from a few seconds of looped video to full-length preview clips with audio.

Visit our website to find out more on our in – house video production services that will help to visually optimize your business.

Soft shadows, layers and floating elements

This trend is all about creating depth. Soft shadows and floating elements add interest and depth and give your web page a “3D Lite” look. It’s not just graphics either: you can use this effect with text and photos, too

These effects give the design a lightweight feel, as if the elements are floating over each other—a sharp contrast from the classic, impenetrable flat design where the layers seem… just flat.

Voice user interface

Voice user interface design has been a hot topic for the past few years. With the rise of Alexa and Google Assistant among others, people are growing increasingly open to this new technology.

VUI will allow web design users to interact with a website through the use of voice commands. It’s not just related to design, this trend will add usability and functionality to platforms and will also strive to ensure that every element will be accessible to individuals with physical disabilities too.

A mix of photography & graphics

Overlapping original graphics on top of real photographs create a memorable visual, which lends itself to let your creativity go wilder.

To make the most of this trend’s flexibility, be sure to match the style of the illustrations and graphics with your brand personality. Their style can sway how people interpret the photograph—cartoon squiggles for something more playful, or geometric and detailed illustrations for something more sophisticated.

More than enough white space

Using white space effectively is a design tool used by designers for decades.

However, what may not be as common is the amount of white space used or even making the white space the focal point instead of the content itself.

Full bleed layouts have been trending in web design for quite some time. Now, designers are gravitating towards solid structures and playing with different ways to use lots of white space (and space of any colour, for that matter) to give their designs more structure and make use of clean framing to give their designs stability and a canvas to jump off of.

The use of extra white space in this manner contrasts the reason why we typically use white space — add margins or spaces to give our eyes some rest. Adding extra white space now helps move it to be a focal point or a more noticeable part of the design aesthetic. By choosing to add extra white space in areas that don’t necessarily need it, it then becomes an important part of the design and more noticed by visitors.

In 2020, we’ll see even more wide frames of white space giving web designs a solid structure. Neatly structured frames around websites create a satisfying sense of order and help prioritize and separate all the different parts of a page.

Glowing, luminous colour schemes

With a minimalistic design and more use of white space within the websites, web design is also becoming more bold and daring.

Using glow-in-the-dark neons and highly saturated colours in combination with darker, muted shades to give the designs a luminous feel.

In 2020, intriguing colour schemes will play a critical role in web design. With web design trends like extreme minimalism and dark mode on the rise, glowing and luminous colours can really shine.

When planning your very own website, which design would you choose? White and aesthetic or bold and luminous? 

Ultra minimalistic navigation

With the rise of wearable devices like smartwatches, web design, in general, is thinking smaller. The area most affected by this is navigation, the glue that holds a website together. Over the last few years, navigation has been getting simpler and simpler to accommodate extremely small devices and even smaller attention spans.

Extremely minimalist navigation takes away much of the difficulty in usability. The less a user has to think about moving around, the more time they spend immersed in the site, actually moving around instead of wondering how.

At the same time, imagery is becoming more important.  Large-scale photos and videos are your chance to impress users—while only using the bare minimum of text.

With less text on the page, large images are being pulled to the foreground and represent the main focus of the composition. Because the image gets the viewer’s share of attention, make sure it’s worthy; use a powerful or artful visual that says it all.

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