I always love looking at the upcoming trends when a year is coming to a close. It’s a great way to make sure that we’re keeping up with the trends in the big cities, but also great for an extra ideas for those clients of ours who do want to push the boundaries. So, let’s take a look at the trends across the web that 2020 have on offer for us.
Oversized Text and Element
To an extent, we see this a lot already and have done similar designs with our own website, Digida Marketing. 2020 looks to be bigger and better though, with oversized text titles, elements and even menu items. It’s time to stand out from the huge crowd online and make your website pop! We’ll also see more full width websites and imagery (which is great, because this is a style I do love!).
Solid Colour Blocks
We’re already getting clients asking for this, and in many of our design concepts we are now including blocks of colour, so I’m a bit thrilled to see this as one of the 2020 website trends. It’s a great way to use a range of colours from a logo, or to create pillars within a website (for example, a site might cover 3 or 4 different aspects such as education, volunteering, about etc). Alongisde the solid colour blocks we’ll also see a big increase in grid layouts. It’s already snuck in quite well in 2019, so expect more of this to come.
Plenty of Whitespace
We’ve always been fans of whitespace – it creates a great professional feel to any website, but also helps work well with those logo and brand colours. By having whitespace it helps highlight important design elements, call to actions, different sections and all while creating a tidy and clean appearance.
A Shift into the 3D
Another element we’re seeing in some of the top agencies and companies across the UK is introducing 3D elements to the website design (coupled with a lot of whitespace). I like, but do question how well this will suit the majority of our clients here in the Welsh hills!
Tailored Imagery – Illustrations – Graphics
It looks like 2020 will see an increase in brands using tailored illustrations and graphics, really moving away from the stock imagery and graphics that are available. Personally, it looks to me like brands are going to start really pushing from that personal “buy from a person” look – something we often go on about.
Accessibility
Now this is an interesting one, because as far as websites are concerned accessibility has been important for many years, but there’s a big push on the topic now. So 2020 will see more emphasis on making sure that websites are truly accessible, but also – social media as well.
Sharon Rosenblatt of Accessibility Partners explains:
“My clients are web designers, and I’m in the field of technology compliance—so the biggest trend I’m seeing is increased accessible design for consumers with disabilities,” she explains.
“I see this for two reasons: Firstly, unfortunately, a number of website owners and businesses are getting sued for not providing accessible websites for users with disabilities—across industries like retail, food service, hotels, air travel, and more!
Right now, the Americans with Disabilities Act is being used (and has for the past few years) as a driving force to level the tech playing field and increase more access to websites for people of all abilities.
But more important is the second reason. There’s been an uptick in responsible web design and corporate social responsibility. People are seeing a good ROI and marketability of accessibility, and it’s a nice thing to advertise.
So while I don’t feel that accessibility and inclusion are trendy and stylish, I know for a fact that they will be at the forefront of designer and developer’s minds, if my inbox is any indication.”
Microintentions
I love this one! For me it’s all about UX (user experience), a bit like the Hootsuite owl of old who’d start sleeping if you left the platform for a bit too long. So what are microintentions? Small design elements within a website that play a role in creating “human” feeling websites, and ultimately, make your audience smile.
Nikki Bisel at Seafoam Media, believes the usage and popularity of microinteractions will soar in the coming months.
“For years now, the focus has been on streamlining and “templatizing” web design,” she says.
“Over the course of the next year, though, one of the big things you’re going to start to see are microinteractions. At its core, microinteractions are meant to delight the user.
When you upload a file, hit the submit button, and see an upload status bar go from 0% to 100%, that’s a microinteraction.
When you hover over a subtle Call To Action and the colour saturates and the button gets bigger, that’s a microinteraction.
When you scroll down an eCommerce category page and focus your cursor over a particular product and a sale icon jumps up and down on the product, that, too, is a microinteraction.
Microinteractions let the user feel what they’re doing. They bring a site to life! They let the user interact on a level that feels tangible and palpable. The user gets instant feedback, direction, and emotional validation.
So when you’re designing, there’s a new meaning for “What do I want the user to feel?” Now, it’s not just emotions, it’s sensory, too.”
If you remember when Twitter updated their “click to love” button and it now produces small celebratory sparkles around the heart, that’s a microintention, and it delighted me when they rolled it out!
