Emerging web design trends and techniques for 2020
There are a number of emerging User Interface Design trends coming in 2020 and beyond – we’re seeing designers experiment with extremes, reinvent previous styles and ceaselessly experiment with new techniques. At the same time, there are some popular styles that may have had their day such as the ubiquitous flat illustration design, or will be morphed into something inbetween?
Dark Themed Design
We think there will be a focus on UI design giving users an option to enable dark themes on website pages. Dark backgrounds make design elements stand out, creating a higher contrast ratio with the use of other colors, but still improving visual ergonomics by reducing eye strain. Coincidentally, the dark mode design aesthetic also fits in perfectly with other prevalent 2020 design trends that include dark and moody color schemes combined with glowing neons as well as futuristic yet dark cyberpunk and dystopian styles.
Custom Product Text When Browsing Products & Services
If you’ve heard of Web Personas, then you understand your different customer types and demographics. So tailoring the product text a male or female sees on landing on your product page or services for the 2nd or 3rd time, using personalised product text and Call to Action Buttons can help convert the customer into a buyer. Yes personalisation has been around for a while, but altering what the visitor reads that is geared around their interests, social signals, behaviour etc, gets under the psyche of the buyer can reap dividends in improving online sales. There are platforms that can help you do this that sit above your your CMS.
Bold & Bright Colours
Bold and bright is hot right now for a reason! As more brands seek to stand out among a sea of competitors online, more website owners will continue to adopt bold and bright colors. Think of supersaturation. Not only are brilliant and deep colors immersive, but they are also attention-grabbers, which are something many online brands can use.
Not only that. Going against the grain, where most web designs have defaulted towards safe shades and shadows, demonstrates a brand’s forward-thinking, daring, and even eccentric personality. And, depending on that particular brand’s target market, that can be a great thing that induces loyalty and association. Simple, effective, and the kind of stunning website design that makes you want to reach into the screen and grab the product. The inclusion of a simple serving suggestion adds further weight to the message. Smart mobile devices are also technically hi-spec in screen resolution and are the perfect device for displaying and showing off these brighter and bolder graphic arrangements.
The End of Flat Design?
“Flat design, which has proven to have a myriad of issues when user-tested, is going to start the pendulum swing back in the other direction, creating a hybrid of the two extremes,” suggests Alana Kucharski. “Elegant, simplified elements that still give you context to their action will be the happy medium. Buttons, for example, won’t just be words with a box around them; nor will they be strictly bevelled, with gradients, shadowing and imprinted text. Better context clues are starting to emerge, allowing the user to interact with the site the way it was intended.”
Microinteractions
Microinteractions, sometimes called UI animation, are a relatively new phenomenon. They’re tiny design elements but can play a significant role in creating ‘human’ feeling websites that delight the audience.
“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.”
A classic example of a microinteraction is Facebook’s ‘Like’ functionality. You might not ever have even noticed it but when you hit that little ‘thumbs up’ icon – just look at the tiny animation that happens.
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