8 of the Best Website Design Trends to Inspire You in 2020
Design is not what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Steve Jobs
Website design plays an important role in improving user experience – apart from being visually appealing it also has to be functional and intuitive.
Given that we live in the digital age where new websites keep on mushrooming every day, it’s essential to make a way to distinguish yourself from the others.
Let’s not forget that people are quick to judge everything and that you have only about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression with your website. Otherwise, they won’t stay long enough to explore all the great content that you have to offer.
This can, in turn, lead to a domino effect – Google will notice your high bounce rate and conclude that your website isn’t relevant enough which will lead to a drop in your search engine rankings.
OK, this is the worst-case scenario, but the thing is that there are so many new tech possibilities that you can implement in 2020 and make your website design shine.
That’s why we’ve rounded up some new website trends to help you live up to the expectations of your visitors and Google alike.
1. Speed Up Your Loading Times
This is more on the technical side, but it’s of crucial importance for the performance of your website.
Your content might be cool and interesting, 40% of your visitors won’t stick around to check it out if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load.
But if you think that something like this can happen only to smaller companies, you’re wrong. Even the likes of Amazon aren’t immune to such problems. The online retail giant reports that they suffer a 1% decrease in revenue for every 100 milliseconds of latency.
Besides that, Google released its Speed Update in July 2019, meaning that page speed now officially qualifies a ranking factor for mobile searches.
Here’s what you can do to speed up your website speed, increase conversions, and be in Google’s good books:
- Reduce HTTP requests. Your visitors’ browsers need to make a separate request for accessing every individual file on your website. And as you know, every decent website a lot of files. The first step is identifying the number of HTTP requests your website makes, eliminate unnecessary images, particularly the larger ones, compress the remaining images, and combine CSS files together.
- Check your DNS speed, and chose a faster DNS provider.
- Use a Content Delivery Network to host exact copies of your website’s static files and serve them to your visitors based on their geographical proximity to a particular server.
- Take advantage of external hosting servers and store your videos and larger files on them. That way you can declutter your server and accelerate it.
2. Implement Creative Scrolling Effects
Non-traditional scrolling is an idea that’s worth experimenting with, as it will most certainly grab your visitors’ attention.
The old-school vertical scrolling technique is almost a relic of the past if we bear in mind that you can spice things up with an innovative horizontal scroll that can be placed at the top of your website to showcase your most attractive content or products.
This is a clever method for engaging your audience and showing them how they can benefit from browsing through your website.
Infinite scrolling is another eye-catching solution.
One-page websites have earned their popularity because they’re suitable for mobile browsing. However, many regular websites have adopted this trend as it’s extremely practical and it makes it easier for visitors to consume more content.
Faster load times plus the fact that visitors stick around longer on single-page websites make the infinite scroll a powerful SEO weapon.
On the other hand, despite numerous benefits of infinite scrolling, this method can lead to certain glitches. For example, it can be a bit disorienting and visitors can easily lose their pace. This issue can be solved with sticky or jump-to-section navigation.
3. Offer Dark Mode
This is not just a fad – Instagram, Viber, Google, and many other popular apps embraced the dark mode design and offered their users an option to switch to it.
There are several reasons for this. Some are purely practical, while others have everything to do with aesthetics.
First of all, a dark background is significantly easier on the eyes, especially when used in dimly lit environments. People find it uncomfortable to look at blindingly white screens at night.
Another practical reason is that dark themes consume six times less power than maximum white which is great for those who tend to forget to charge their phones and want to save some battery juice.
At the same time, dark mode accentuates your colors and other design elements and maks them more conspicuous and vibrant.
Finally, it perfectly fits the synergy of moody dystopian schemes combined and bold, neon colors that will dominate 2020.
4. Try Hand-Drawn Design
After years of polished, glossy design somewhat devoid of personal touch and emotion, hand-drawn elements will humanize user experience.
This imperfect but charming style in the form of sketches and doodles will give your website a unique, individual tone.
In addition to that, hand-drawn elements come off as fun, inviting, and user-friendly.
You can even combine photos and illustrations, thus creating an interesting mix of these two realities.
5. Go Interactive
Instead of simply serving your audience with content, allow them to actively participate by answering questions or performing other simple actions.
This type of content generates 2 times more conversions than static content, and according to 88% of marketers, it’s a great way to stand out from the competition.
That’s the logic behind Netflix’s latest effort, as the streaming company released the first interactive TV show, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which allows its viewers to influence the storyline and characters, thus creating different outcomes.
This immersive approach lets viewers become part of the story which tremendously increases their engagement.
The same applies to websites – introduce quizzes, polls and surveys, assessments, different calculators, and contests, and make them all about your audience and their choices and preferences. Not only will you build loyalty and increase retention, but you’ll also be able to generate a lot of valuable customer information and feedback.
Naturally, such an innovative approach requires a well-oiled development and design process, and an agile development team capable of delivering the right outcome.
6. Be Bold
Especially when it comes to fonts and bright colors.
As we’ve already established, people have grown impatient and they tend to skim through the text on a web page without reading everything, which is why you need to make important points stand out with properly visible fonts and striking colors.
Similarly, vibrant colors, paired with gradients and a lot of white space (which doesn’t have to be literally white) will improve user experience and make browsing through your website fun.
The latest trend is using bright colors and bold fonts instead of images. They’re equally catchy and effective, and yet they don’t take as much time to load, which makes them perfect for mobile users.
Another benefit of this style is that it will make your calls-to-action pop and be conspicuous.
This year, functionality, usability, and responsiveness will play the most important role in web design.
People use different devices to browse the internet, so if you want to keep a steady flow of traffic, your website needs to be optimized. These simple web design tips can significantly improve your customer experience and boost your conversion rates.
7. Leverage Minimalist Design
While the last couple of have been all about optimizing web design for mobile and smaller screens, the future will be increasingly focused on making your design fit wearable devices.
This will mostly concern navigation which will have to adapt to smartwatches and fitness bands in the sense that it will have to be extremely simple and intuitive.
Let’s not forget that ever-decreasing attention span which will also have to be accommodated for better user experience.
If we bear in mind that people suffer from information overload, it’s nothing strange that they find it hard to focus on a single thing for a longer period of time. Instead of that, their attention span is split into covering different things for shorter periods of time.
That’s why minimalist design is essential – it simplifies navigation and improves usability. In other words, by not having to waste their time trying to figure out how to move around your website, your visitors will be able to immerse themselves in your content.
To additionally grab their attention, try wowing them with large-scale, high-quality photos. Instead of using too much text to set the tone and communicate your idea, place these stunning visuals to the foreground and let them do the talking.
This trend works like a charm with maxi typography – large photos and huge fonts will help you make a memorable statement.
Throw in oversized menu elements, and you’ve managed to grab your visitor by the eyeballs.
8. Tap into Retro Trends
Web designers like to step back in time and borrow inspiration from grainy B&W photos full ow dust, noise, and somewhat dull colors.
You can also draw on the 80s and 90s nostalgia, with the fonts and visual cues popular back in the “Stranger Things” era.
This way it’s possible to cut through the noise of modern and futuristic design trends and stand out.
Naturally, these retro designs don’t make a come back in their original form – they need to be upgraded to be more palatable to the digitally-oriented and aesthetically-demanding today’s audiences.
So, pick an era that best matches your niche and put your design through a vintage filter.
These couple of trends are only some of those that will reign in 2020, so make sure to jump on the bandwagon and update your website design accordingly.
