If you want to design a website, you always have to pay attention to the current trends in web design. Web design trends are constantly changing due to the ever-evolving technologies. As a web designer, you should always be up to date with these changes, because: Every year there are new trends, old ones either stay or go out of fashion.
Only if your website is appealing in terms of both content and design will users like to stay on your site and come back. It should be as innovative and unique as possible - this is the only way to stand out from the crowd.
To give you a small overview of the current web design trends for 2022, we have compiled a list of the 10 most important trends in web design in the following article.
The current web design trends are one thing above all: diverse! The most popular ones right now include bold colours, minimalist design, dark fashion and interactive web design. No matter for which company you are creating a website, there is something for everyone in the trends.
The choice of colours is an important part of web design. Aspects such as determining the appropriate colours and the respective colour gradients are particularly important to create a good image.
The trend this year is to use bright and bold colours to spice up websites and attract the user's attention. But the complete opposite, namely the use of subtle colours with smaller colour gradients, is also one of the trends in web design.
Here, as with all other extremes, you need to decide for yourself what kind of colours and gradients best suit the look and feel of your business and generally fit in with your overall web design.
The choice of font and font size should also be optimally coordinated with your web design. If a website is primarily text-based, this is called "typographic web design". In this context, the focus is more on the text and should therefore be emphasised accordingly.
The current trend in web design is towards bold typography, also called Bold Font. Here, mainly large letters are used, which jump directly into the eye. In this case, the text is the elementary part and no longer only has the role of a space filler.
Since, as already mentioned, new technologies are always developing, this also enables new options for scrolling. Normal scrolling without any effects was yesterday!
As a web designer, you can decide for yourself how the web design should look when scrolling on your homepage, as there are already many different scrolling trends that are particularly popular at the moment.
Parallax scrolling is an increasingly widespread web design trend. Parallax scrolling means that the background moves at a different speed than the foreground when scrolling. This results in a 3D effect and brings a certain dynamic into your web design.
On smaller screens, such as a smartphone, the use of parallax scrolling could be difficult, as this type of web design can quickly become distracting on small surfaces.
The idea of long scrolling is that the user does not have to click on the next page to continue reading an article. Long scrolling is simply a long page that the user only has to scroll down.
The idea behind this trend is that users are generally less likely to click on the next page than to scroll further down. That's why it's better to offer them one long page than several short ones.
Another web design trend is horizontal scrolling, which is similar to swiping on a smartphone. This is then a kind of carousel that you can click through. Instead of overcrowding a single page with all content, these carousels divide the topics into shorter sections.
Here, the entire page is not scrolled horizontally, but rather individual sections that fit together in terms of content. These can be either articles or picture galleries, which can be optimally staged in this way.
With so-called "storytelling in web design", a story is told with the help of scrolling. This can be used to present complex articles in an interesting and simple way. This article is not necessarily text-based, but rather relies on the use of graphics or animations that change as you scroll.
The intention of this trend, storytelling in web design, is to present oneself as a company and to present one's own services in an exciting way. With this method, you achieve that what is shown is more likely to be remembered by users and you also stand out from the competition at the same time.
Just as with scrolling, you can also let your imagination run wild with the design. There are many different designs that have been in vogue for several years or are new. Here we have listed some of these trends for you.
The web design trend "neumorphism", which has been around since 2019, is a composition of the words "new" and "skeuomorphism". In this case, it is a very soft and gentle design on a website that works with shadows to highlight certain elements. This then has a 3D effect and leaves the impression that the elements are floating.
Glass morphism is an extension of new morphism and also one of the newer trends. Here, too, very soft-looking surfaces are used. However, it is the case with this trend that semi-transparent surfaces are added, behind which the written items can only be seen in a blur. This makes it look like (frosted) glass - hence the name.
With glass morphism, just as with new morphism, the soft design with the shadow effects is retained.
But there is also the opposite of the bright colours and animated elements. Namely, minimalist design. Here, websites are reduced to a minimum and show only what is necessary.
In this field, a trend of its own developed a few years ago: Flat Design. Flat design is exactly what the name says it is. A plain and simple design. Based on flat design, minimalism design then emerged
Of course, these two trends have the advantage that, firstly, this type of page loads faster and thus follows the motto "mobile first", as no complex elements have to be loaded. Secondly, the many technologies such as animations do not distract from the content or the articles written.
The downside of this trend, however, is that users quickly get bored and won't stay long on your site without some kind of entertainment.
Another extreme is web brutalism. This has its roots in the architectural style of "brutalism", whereby all ornamentation or beautiful facades were dispensed with and only the "brutal" truth was shown.
It is similar with web brutalism. Standard fonts, uncoordinated colours, simple backgrounds or natural images without revision.
Mostly web brutalism style websites are a statement that the web designer wants to make and break any rules of web design.
Another web design trend is split-screen design. Here, the screen is divided vertically into two halves - this is supposed to imitate the design of a magazine.
The design of these two pages is then up to each person. An example of this might be to place a large image on one side and an article or any text on the other. Another suggestion could also be to combine a list or a field for navigation on the left with the respective text or article on the right.
The disadvantage: On small screens such as a smartphone or tablet, the use of a split-screen design is always somewhat more difficult, as they cannot be displayed in an optimally legible manner.
At the latest since Apple's update in 2019 that iPhones work in dark mode, this trend has also become increasingly popular when designing a website.
Black lettering on a white background becomes too tiring for the eye after a certain time, which is why many people switch to a black background with white lettering.
Dark mode also helps with the battery performance of smartphones, as dark pixels do not draw as much battery as light ones.
Accordingly, however, company logos and colour gradients must also be adapted to the dark mode.
Back to the 90s! That is the motto for this design. Not yet really established, but sometimes already to be found as a current web design trend, are websites in retro look. In this context, web design elements are created in 90s design and trigger emotionality and nostalgia in the user.
Of course, this does not mean that we simply copy old patterns and adapt the performance of the site to that of the 90s, but that the retro design is built into today's technology.
However, this design is by no means suitable for every company and should only be used for extremely creative or unusual items.
Another popular web design trend is the use of illustrations on websites. These are not just simple pictures, but images that are meant to complement the text or article.
When it comes to illustrations, one of the top web design trends at the moment is isometric illustrations. Isometric illustrations are about creating three-dimensionality of individual elements on your website.
This type of illustration is especially popular on websites offering digital services.
You can also opt for a mix of a photo and an illustration. In this case, graphic elements are inserted into the photo elements.
Independently created illustrations set you apart from the competition and make your site unique.
In the meantime, it is becoming more and more common to do without standard layouts in web design and to become somewhat experimental. Of course, there are no uniform rules, which is why there is nothing to be said against standard layouts and the use of design templates.
These standard layouts, which can still be found on many websites today, consist first of all of a large banner on which the topic of your page (H1) can be read on a meaningful background. Below this you will always find a call-to-action button.
Three categories are listed at the bottom, each with an icon above it. A short text is then written underneath in the middle.
This uniform layout in the web design ensures good navigation on the part of the users and thus an optimal user experience. It becomes clear to them at a glance what the page is about and stimulates curiosity.
Design templates, which can also be found in the WordPress content management system, for example, help you as a web designer to design the layout easily. Above all, they save time and are easier to insert into the web design than self-programmed layouts.
By using design templates, websites are very structured and uniform.
If you don't want to follow these "normal" trends, there is of course also a huge contrast. Experimental layouts in web design are characterised by a certain asymmetry. What is orderly and uniform in standard layouts is not taken into account in experimental layouts.
Some examples of this are, for example, headlines or text placed half on top of images and not properly next to them, very large blocks of text with light or dark font colour or overlapping articles.
Just make sure that despite the experimental layout, there is a certain structure and simple navigation on your page. If users are impaired due to poor navigation, they will leave your homepage again very quickly because they could not find what they were looking for.
If you have a classic, conventional company, this type of layout is probably not for you.
Templates for both standard and experimental layouts can be found on WordPress.
When navigating through your website, it should be easy for users to find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. The use of a menu bar at the top of the page is particularly helpful here. This shows categories or topics that make navigation easier.
Here, too, there are various ways in which you can implement this navigation in your web design.
Although this menu bar is good for navigation, it often cannot be fully displayed on mobile devices. For this reason, a new web design trend was developed, namely the so-called "hamburger menu". No, this does not mean an order at McDonalds, but the display of the website menu.
In order not to permanently display the whole bar, it has instead been replaced by three strokes on top of each other. One click on this icon and the menu appears large and in the middle of the screen - this saves space above all.
Sometimes website owners write the word "menu" under this icon for better navigation, but actually this is not necessary, as the burger menu should be known by every user by now.
Just like the experimental layout, there is also an experimental navigation that you can insert into your web design. The standard navigation is that the hamburger menu is located at the top right of the homepage, and this is exactly where users expect it to be.
Experimental navigation here means that the hamburger menu is either on the left-hand side or not present at all. At this point, web designers like to experiment with the design of the menu and/or the menu bar.
Just make sure that users can still find the menu and are not completely lost. This is because the user-friendliness suffers.
However, if you do not want any of these trends, i.e. neither a hamburger menu nor an experimental navigation, you can use the fixed navigation. This is, as already mentioned, the standard bar that displays the main topics of the menu.
Often, when you move the cursor over this menu display, more subtopics appear. More and more web designers are deciding to reduce the height of the top topics when you scroll. This provides more space for written articles.
Some users find this fixed navigation better because they can always see the menu, no matter how far down they scroll. Other users, however, find this a disadvantage, as the menu may cover the content or the written articles - the menu bar is always visible.
When designing a website, it is always important to make it as pleasant and interesting as possible for the customer. There are several ways to do this, such as an interactive web design. An interactive web design is a great way to improve the user experience and thereby make your website rank high on Google.
An interactive web design brings some advantages for both the owner himself and the customers. For example, a homepage with interactive elements increases the company's profits. Since the attention and interest are aroused by the "playful" preparation of content, they spend more time on your site. This leads to more traffic, which at the same time leads to a higher Google ranking and more customers. More customers = more sales.
Interactive web design can include animations, for example. These animated, i.e. moving, contents have a great effect on your website and encourage the user to interact with the website.
Animations have become an integral part of web design and can be found everywhere on websites. These animations include, for example, animated GIF images, animations triggered by scrolling, so-called hover animations or the "flying in" of the menu bar by clicking the hamburger icon.
Through these small but fine animations you get the sympathy of customers and remain in their memory as a company.
The hover effects just mentioned are among the most highly regarded trends in web design. Moving the cursor over something, for example, which then moves or gives more information about certain things - these are hover effects.
This visually highlights content or articles on a homepage and moves the user to interact more with that page.
Microinteractions in web design are when users participate in an interaction on a website and something happens as a result. Microinteractions are therefore intended to show them that they have successfully made a change to a page.
The hover effect just mentioned, for example, is part of these microinteractions. So is pulling down a page to reload it, answering surveys, clicking on rating stars, adding items to the shopping cart and much more. These are all examples of microinteractions in web design.
Using polls or quizzes on websites gives you an optimal chance to engage users in your content. In addition, well-designed polls and quizzes are fun, so visitors spend more time on your homepage.
The results of these surveys are not only useful for the user, but also for the web designer. By asking specific questions, visitors can find out which products offered are right for him or her. In this way, you can use the evaluation to determine the needs and preferences of the user and ensure that they are only shown articles that are tailored to their person.
Providing boxes for comments or questions is a great way to get feedback from users. Since you have designed your products and services for the customers, as a business owner you should make sure that they are satisfied.
When customers are satisfied and listened to, they are more likely to trust you and your business.
Another way to respond directly to questions or problems is to set up a live chat or intelligent chatbots. This way, users can be helped in real time.
If you want to learn more about this topic, take a look at our article "Interactive Web Design"!
In the chapter "Popular layouts" we reported on the typical structure of a page in the standard layout in web design. Here we talked about a large banner stretched across the entire screen, on which the theme (H1) can be found. These large banners are also called hero images.
The use of a hero image in web design works in the best case to complement the text or article and is also sometimes presented in the form of a short video. Videos are of course even more interesting to watch at this point.
Every template on WordPress now includes such static or rotating hero images.
We have social media to thank for the fact that animated GIF images are once again part of web design trends. These are short animated images that show small clips from films or series in a continuous loop.
On modern websites, GIFs are a fun idea and do not require direct insertion of videos - these would again take up more memory and a longer loading time. Just make sure that you only use them selectively and not too often. Because GIFs run in a continuous loop, they can quickly become annoying.
Photos and images have become standard in web design. However, in order not to get into trouble with copyrights or licences, you should use stock photos as a web designer if necessary. Stock photo agencies are used when companies do not have their own image material.
In itself, this is not problematic, but unfortunately in most cases you can see that these pictures are stock photos. Emotionality and trust can only be created if the pictures look professional. Therefore, try to obtain your own image material and use it on your homepage.
If you decide not to use stock photos, you should use your own photographs in your web design that show people you ideally know. Of course, you will incur more costs than with stock photos, but the result will be much better than with "other people's" photos.
In a fairly new web design trend, you will also find some photographs with a graphic insert. This means that one half of a photograph shows the original and the other half shows a hand-drawn graphic. This is a great idea for creative websites and makes your homepage unique.
Embedding videos in your web design is now one of the increasingly common trends. Whether this is the hero videos mentioned above, the use of YouTube videos or self-recorded videos.
If examples are given in the article, videos can be used as supplementary explanatory videos. The use of explanatory videos or demonstration videos is always recommended to make the content of the articles easier to understand.
Another type of video that you can insert into your web design are so-called 3D videos. WordPress, for example, has templates to help you design them.
It has been proven that users prefer to watch short videos rather than read through a long article. Therefore, sometimes it might be a good idea to replace an article with a video.
Videos only sometimes have the disadvantage that they can affect the loading time of the page. As a web designer, you should bear this in mind when using videos and perhaps not use too many videos.
Now you know some tips and tricks on how to improve your web design and which trends are best to follow. But remember: there are always two versions of your website. One is the desktop version and the other is the mobile version.
Especially in today's age, the motto when creating a website should be every time: Mobile First! More and more users are accessing websites via their smartphone or tablet. If any applications, designs or (interactive) functions do not work, this has a bad effect on your Google ranking.
Therefore, the web design should always be a responsive web design.
For a good Google ranking, it is essential that your homepage works just as well on a smartphone or tablet as it does on a desktop.
Because: "Mobile First" is now one of Google's most important ranking factors.
You can find more information on this topic here: Web design
It is very important to follow web design trends if you want your site to be well received by your customers and users. Your website should reflect the identity of your company and look trustworthy and serious. Customers often judge credibility by the design.
If your website or web design does not capture the user's interest within a very short time, he or she will leave and you will have lost a potential customer.
Especially in web design, more and more designs are merging with technologies, which is why you as a web designer should always stay up to date with current trends and technologies. Then try to optimise your site according to these as best as possible. Above all, the Google ranking factors are constantly changing and should be regularly adjusted on your homepage.
Another advantage is to recognise trends early. The earlier you discover a trend, the faster you can optimise your web design accordingly and keep up with the trend - as long as it suits you and your company.
This way, you ensure that your customers don't lose interest in your site and that they have a great experience on your website.
The bottom line for web design trends is that they always increase the user experience on your site. The more interactive and interesting your web design is, the more likely it is that users will stay longer and make use of your services.
Thanks to the diversity of these trends in web design, you have a wide range of options on how best to build your website.
Especially when your homepage is in its initial phase, it makes sense to follow trends in order to build up and expand your clientele. If users find something they know and like on your homepage, their interest and trust in your company increases.
One tip is: less is more! Don't frantically try to include ALL the latest trends on your page. Navigation should never be impeded by any unnecessary designs or micro-interactions.
However, with all these web design trends, please always bear in mind: not every trend is suitable for every site. Only use the trends that you like and that match your image and the image of your company. If you have a rather serious company, experimental layouts or technologies such as animations are out of place here. Always adapt the trends to your company and seek the help of a web design agency if necessary.
We have many professional web designers in our team at f5.design who can help you with all your web design questions and problems. We assist with building websites, with marketing strategies and of course with web design.
Our web designers are always up to date with current trends in web design and Google ranking factors.
We also prefer to work with the WordPress content management system for web design. WordPress also allows you, as the owner of the site, to make simple changes such as replacing images.
Let us help you optimise your website according to the latest web design trends so that it ranks highly and is visited with pleasure.
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Hey Katleen, you wrote this great. The only thing I always find very unfortunate is that so much effort is put into a great layout of websites, and in the end, most users call up most websites in the mobile version. And here many design elements are often lost or lost because of the structure in the mobile version are much stronger limits. Greetings Chris