There's a lot of new going on already in 2020, but one thing we're particularly excited for here at Evenbound is new web design trends! Since we recently rebranded and updated our entire website, web design is something we've had on the brain for a while now.
We thought we'd take some of the lessons we've learned about new and upcoming trends in web design, and put them into this blog. So without further ado, here are some of the top web design trends for 2020:
Solid Frames of White Space
If we could pick just one favorite web design trend of 2020, it would definitely be white space. (Or clean, minimalist themes. Who could pick just one favorite?) Old, clunky websites with huge blocks of text just aren't cute, and they're really hard to look at and navigate.
2020 is the year of minimalism, and that means plenty of white space, which we love. White space offers immediate, clear organization, and makes it easier for the user to digest everything that's on the page.
For all of our SEO fans out there, it's also a great way to increase your time-on-page. The more whitespace your design has, the more likely a reader is going to stick around. Since they're getting little bite-sized pieces of information that don't feel taxing to read, they're more likely to keep on reading.
Minimalist Navigation
Great web design makes the user's life easier. One trend that's working hard to help site visitors out in 2020 is minimalist navigation. Designers are taking old, bulky dropdowns and bloated menus and turning them into sleek navigation options. Take this menu from Google as an example: with just four available buttons, it's hard to get lost on this site.
Ueno is another great example. As soon as you scroll below the fold, the menu minimizes into just two little lines, helping keep the menu from breaking up the design of the rest of the page. But, as soon as you click the lines, their full menu pops right up, ensuring the viewer doesn't lose any functionality.
Minimalist Design With Maximized Text and Headers
It's 2020 and words are back in! (Thank goodness, my content writing job kind of depends on it.) We've talked about how minimalist design is taking over, but with that comes a new focus on big text and massive headers.
This is a design trend that really works to help the reader. It makes it easy for visitors and causal scrollers to see what's most important on a page, and quickly jump to the sections that answer their questions.
From a design standpoint, this is a trend that brings impact. When your website is designed with a minimalist style, and all elements are clean, neutral, and sleek, a bold header seriously stands out. The combination delivers an updated, modern feel that makes your website look professional, without being boring.
Soft Shadows, Layers, and Floating Elements
In 2020, design is all about taking busyness and clutter out but keeping visual interest in. Though most sites have been stripped down to a clean, minimalist design, we're adding fun and depth to those clean looks with shadows, layers, and floating elements.
You can see here on our site how our images look like they're floating off the page, and our HubSpot Gold badge is layered on top of the image. HubSpot's page has a similar effect, layering the most important image on top of more subtle backgrounds to really make it stand out on the page.
This trend does a great job of making a site look beautiful and interesting, without getting too cluttered or overwhelming for the user. These elements also work to show your user where they should be putting their focus.
Motion and Interactivity
In 2020, flat websites are over. Exciting, interactive, and visual websites are taking charge by adding motion to the average web-user's experience. You've already seen a bit of motion here on the Evenbound site, as visual elements slide in from the left, right, top, and bottom of the page. If you head to Ueno's website, you'll see elements moving everywhere on their site, but in a way that adds to the user's experience, rather than distracting from it.
Interactivity is also a big up-and-coming trend. It's taking off a little bit slower, because it takes more work to implement, but when done properly it's a great design element to wow visitors, and to keep them engaging with your site. Again, Ueno has mastered this element with "The Interview". The image below gives you a quick idea of what that looks like, but head on over to their site if you want to interact with it yourself.
Text-Only Heroes
Big headers and text are popular this year, but a new trend that's really taking hold in 2020 is text-only heroes. This is a great way to get a message across, it's visually very clean, and it offers the added benefit of being light and fast to load. Massive header images have been slowing down page speed for years, so it'll be nice to see some super-responsive, bold heroes.
Illustrations
Illustrations in web design are one of the most popular trends of 2020. The contrast between handmade and digital visual elements is a hot trend right now, and people are loving the visual interest that cute illustrations bring to an otherwise clean and minimalist site.
Chatbots
It's possible that chatbots don't exactly fit into "design", but they are an important top trend for websites in 2020. And, since you have to design them, we're keeping them in this blog.
Chatbots essentially bridge the gap between you and your consumer. They offer up an instant form of communication that makes it easy for consumers to ask questions the minute they think of them.
The best chatbots are simple and specific. Check out these three examples below. None of them are obtrusive, but they all invite the visitor to engage with the website in a specific, meaningful way.
Accessibility for Visitors with Disabilities
When we talk about digital accessibility, we're talking about building and designing websites in a way that's inclusive to individuals who have visual, motor, auditory, speech, or cognitive disabilities. Here's a great resource if you'd like some in-depth info about how to easily design your website for everyone.
In 2020, the internet is only getting more popular, and since the majority of us use it every day, it's important that we make our website accessible to everyone. For web designers, that means designing with accessibility in mind. Adding features like larger text size, as you can see we did for this client below, go a long way in helping everyone use the internet with ease.
Other digital accessibility features you're going to see more of this year include, but certainly aren't limited to:
- Designing with greater color contrast so those with visual disabilities can still see every aspect of your website.
- Including labels and instructions with form fields so the visually impaired can understand what they need to type in each form field.
- Web design that allows for keyboard navigation
Web Design Trends in 2020 Put the User First
This year's most popular design trends have one thing in common — they're all working to help deliver a better, more seamless experience for the user.
Clean, minimalist designs make it easy to notice and understand the information on a web page that is most important. Interactive elements and motion also help draw attention to key images and portions of a page, without making a subtle design feel cluttered. All of these trends are working together to ensure you are able to quickly identify, and navigate to, the information you need to answer your questions or solve your pain points.
With web design trends like these, the internet is only becoming more accessible and user-friendly, and we're sure here for it. And in case you haven't already, be sure to click around our new website to see some of these new web design trends in action!
