Hello dear subscribers! Today we are going to pick a topic in which I am not a hard-core expert, to be fair. Of course, as a full-stack developer, I can tell you a lot about front-end design and programming and still, as you probably know, I am mostly specializing in back-end features and development. Nevertheless, I’ve always been a big fan of website design as a standalone form of art, and today we are going to talk about it from this perspective!
As a developer, I have to look through dozens or even hundreds of websites almost every day. During the last 10 years the website design as a sphere really made a quantum leap, and many modern websites feature graphics animation and technology that you couldn’t dream about a decade ago. And if you look at the official statistics, you will see that the profession of a graphic or UX/UI designer is getting more and more popular as the global internet grows with unprecedented speed.
So this time we are going to talk less about the technical issues behind but will rather try to point out the hottest design trends, colors, shapes, types of animation and graphics. This blog can be very useful for those designers who seem to run out of ideas, people who are currently developing a design for their project, and people who are only starting a career as a digital designer. So, if everyone is ready, let’s go!
Large White Spaces
That’s right, this trend has already been here for a while, but it looks like that it is here to stay for a couple more years. The great advantage of such a design is that it does not distract the visitor from the essential elements of the website, and in most cases, those websites are very easy to navigate through. Also, those white designs are usually pretty minimalistic, which means that you can facilitate your web pages’ loading and performance due to the “lightness” of your design. All-white websites are great for mobile applications when the visitor views your pages on a smaller screen.
Also, UX/UI designers frequently experiment with page coloring and design in order to highlight some messages of pages on the website. The research claims that the regular user perceives a white page as the one that features more important information or message, so it may be a great idea to benefit from this peculiarity in your website design.
Page-Wide Headers
Page-wide headers are not even a trend but almost a golden rule for the modern website design. It was noticed that the websites that feature lots of frames in their design frequently have a depressing effect on the visitor who feels unconsciously restrained. In contrast with solid frame design, page-wide headers are subjectively perceived as lightweight, non-dogmatic, and optimistic.
Interactive Cursors
What can be more engaging than an interactive cursor? That’s right, a well-designed interactive cursor that allows you to play with website elements, activate website animation, and deliver pure fun and pleasure for all the visitors.
Interactive cursors are very creative elements that suggest that the designer should switch his or her creativity to eleven. Even though, in most cases, such cursors have no practical use for visitors and the additional animation can make your website more “heavy” in terms of performance, they also may become a great advantage that will help to get your visitor’s attention.
Dynamic Scrolling
Yeah, the good old scroll-me-down designs are not impressing anyone these days. However, your website can react to scrolling in any possible way if you want to! Dynamic scrolling is actually any kind of scrolling pattern that differs from regular scrolling patterns. In most cases, it requires lots of animation and some creativity to invent a practical and, at the same time, an impressive scrolling pattern that will blow the minds of your visitors.
Custom Illustrations
Custom graphics and hand-drawn art is back as a website trend, and it seems like it is going to grow bigger in the upcoming years. Nowadays, we see how many designers step away from long-lived super-minimalistic policy and try to enliven their website with some interactive content, bright colors, fonts, and of course, custom illustrations. With the help of modern technology, you can even order an animated, cursor-triggered animation, which won’t be cheap but will definitely help you stand-out among your competitors. There are several simple tricks on how you can make your custom animation even more eye-catching by adding a slow-changing gradient in the background.
Bold Fonts
Bold fonts are also very popular these days. Designers often use them to highlight a message on the front page or to highlight any other information that should be sufficient for the user. Bold fonts are also frequently used as an alternative grid element.
