Web Design has never been a never-changing course.

It is dynamic in nature – Web Design is always evolving and will keep evolving over time.

“Ever wonder why some Web Design trends seem to vanish after some time?”

In my research last year, I noticed quite a number of changes in Web Design trends.

Of course, website visitors are the most important aspect to consider in your user interface designs and they will be making use of your website for their needs. So, the design procedure needs to be planned with your website visitors in mind.

Web Designers have been contending with several challenges since the arrival of modern devices which includes smartphones. Nonetheless, this has not changed the way that web design strategy is being articulated with highly creative designs, clear, consistent and innovative style. In the year 2017, I noticed quite a number of web design trends that evolved to adjust and fit into mobile designs rather than desktop designs. In the year 2018, I found several designers who brought about complete exploitation of mobile functionality, executing ideas and practices that no one has thought of before, while the designs stay well-suited with desktops.

Please keep reading as I have outlined top web design trends that will remain relevant in the year 2020:

Web design Trends to be used in 2020

Drop shadows and depth

Shadows in web design is definitely not new as we have all used shadows at one point or web design project or another. Web browsers and inline design structures are evolving, this makes it quite imperative that shadows also evolve.

When shadows are blended with grid layouts and parallax in web design, we discover an in-depth impression of a fairer world. This explains how flat web designs have managed to evolve over the years, which results in a revolution in website shadow trends. Shadows in web design are one of the many techniques that help us design a flexible effect on the numerous aspects of the webpage, while at the same time brings about an improvement to user experience (UX).

Some examples of the shadow technique are web design include the application of soft shadows as hover to represent a link while merging different of color gradients, this results in a three-dimensional effect applied to the shadows on the web page.

Brand Relevance with Social Media

With consistent activities on social media, you can keep your new and old visitors updated about past success of your product or service and how loyal customers have picked you instead of your competitors. This helps them understand what makes your services the best. People want to see proof and testimonials from past clients and customers will do the job.

This could be displayed as logos of clients and companies you have worked for or customers’ testimonials.

Mobile Responsiveness

Responsive web design was definitely the most important features of web design in 2018 and studies have shown that the highest number of website visits take place on mobile (smartphones) rather than desktop. Most of the shopping, browsing, etc. occur on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. A portable screen which has all the necessary and important features such as menu, submenu, etc. is here.

Mobile responsive web designs have changed and evolved over time. The menus are getting minimized to fit into the small screen.

Live Chat

Most websites have a small window that pops up around the bottom right side of the screen. This is a website feature that allows a trained representative to instantly help you while on a web page. This website feature eliminates the problem where visitors have to wait to get a response for their most important queries.

Bold and Big Fonts

Website typography is one of the most powerful tools in web design. Several customized fonts are constantly changing as we witness a growing number of device resolutions that are becoming smarter, easier to use, and are becoming more legible.

Many browsers now support manually introduced typefaces, these are permitted by CSS-web-enabled browsers (this excludes Internet Explorer). Large texts, serif headings and contrasting sans serif are becoming a trend as they help create dynamic complements, which as a result, improves visitors’ UX experiences as they read contents on the website.

Web design trends that were carried from over the past years to 2020

Responsiveness

Having a responsive website has become a MUST-HAVE feature.

Responsive web design wasn’t so necessary until 21 April 2015 when Google started taking down websites that were labeled non-responsive.

It’s no news that Google repeatedly informed website owners and webmasters about its intentions to prioritize website responsiveness as a vital strategy. Yet, webmasters and website owners didn’t realize Google’s seriousness and responsive website until the day that they realize their websites were nowhere over the search engines.

If your website is not responsive to mobile devices, I suggest you do just one thing as soon as possible. Make your website responsive.

Web Hamburgers

As a professional web designer, never say no to Hamburger menus for mobile devices.

When Mobile Responsiveness Emerged:

The emergence of mobile responsiveness gave birth to Hamburger menus.

When a person visits certain websites on smaller screens, site navigation becomes hidden under a single menu. The site navigation will remain hidden until the web visitor clicks on it.

This hamburger menu helps to save many whitespaces.

Focus on User Experience

When it comes to web design, user experience (UX) must be your main focus.

Your website must be amazing if your aim is to drive active user engagement. This strategy is helpful and greatly contributes to the success of your online business.

Google pays much attention to visitor behavior. This means your website must load very fast.

YES to Colorful Designs

Ensure your website and other designs are colorful. Say NO to boring colors which do not work anymore.

Typography

Typography is another aspect you need to keep an eye out for.

Websites and other designs look good when they have appealing fonts.

The era of Arial font types is far gone. Now we welcome Google’s array of fonts.

The magic of Storytelling

Ever heard of the magic of storytelling?

While Storytelling attracts a great crowd, Visualized Storytelling is out to gain the hearts of millions of readers.

I suggest we leverage the power of visual storytelling on our websites and experience the magic.

Design trends that web designers should stop using in the year 2020

Content Sliders

Carousels were once thought to be a nice way to attract web page visitors, but recently, they’ve been recognized as silent conversion killers. Content sliders on web pages reveal so many drawbacks. Furthermore, sliding images alters normal human tendency and acts as a major distraction, making your web visitors miss some important information on the page.

Automated Pop-Up

Using popups that slide or glide into web pages on their own should be put to a stop. As these moving, flashing and twirling little devils keep irritating website visitors, they attract too much attention, which as a result, possess a disadvantage.

Eliminate Sidebars

The new era of website design should bid farewell to broad sidebars that have no bearing with your main content other than distract your visitors. These sidebars should be done away with. Trash your old designs and create a new layout leaving out these sidebars. If you must include sidebars on your web pages, I suggest you plan something innovative such as linking it to your main contents. This way, your website visitors would remain focused.

Eliminate Flash Intros

Website visitors find these extremely annoying because they are most times, too slow and take too much time to load. Furthermore, they do not work on Apple mobile devices and Google does not recognize them. I would advise you avoid them in any case.

Abule Graphics is a Web Design and Digital Marketing Agency in Nigeria with a passion to help Businesses grow from ideas to established brands through Brand Creation and Digital Marketing Communications. 

Please comment below and let me know how this tip has helped you.