Introduction
When the well-known marketing technologist Leland Dieno was asked what makes a website so important in today’s digital world, he said, “Your website is the center of your digital eco-system; like a brick-and-mortar location, the experience matters once a customer enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.”
A good website does not happen just like that. It requires a good web design that can empower your business and make your brand a stand-out. Similarly, a good web design does not come just like that. It requires a sense of imagination for looking at the output even before it is published.
Leading Web Design Agency in Toronto, ITXITPro with its proven expertise in UI/UX design and custom web redesign, can help produce web design that meets your customers’ expectations and builds your brand identity.
Here, we explain in this blog post what essential design trends are expected to play a major role through the year.
Five Essential Design Trends
Here we will see the following five design trends that generate a positive impact.
1. RESPONSIVE & MOBILE-FIRST DESIGN
With each passing day, more number of people is increasingly accessing websites via their mobile devices. This will drive more organizations to adopt responsive and mobile-first design, in which UI/UX design will come to play a prominent role.
A responsive, mobile-first concept involves designing a website for mobile devices first and then adopting the same functionality for desktop and laptop devices. The concept driven by responsive design principles will enable websites and apps as well to adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and be acceptable on all devices.
Another major design trend will be AI-based User Experience design tools. As AI technologies and ML get more sophisticated, they will usher in the increasing usage of AI-based User-Experience (UX) design tools, especially tools on visual design and creation of user-flows. The focus then will be more on end-to-end functionality.
Top Web Design Agency, ITXITPro, specializes in UI/UX design, and is well-conversant with the latest UI/UX design trends. It can assist organizations in incorporating the latest UI/UX design trends in their websites that will guarantee their clients’ superior digital user-experiences.
2. HOVERABLE ICONOGRAPHY
A website’s user-interface should be simple, stable, and straightforward. This will make it convenient for the users to interact with the site with minimal effort.
Till date, designers’ have been adopting shortcuts in iconography, which, though made things easy for them, made the interface’s accessibility difficult for the users.
Aside from this instance,
Certain icons, particularly those used in headers, have become too common. Users can easily make out what they are meant for and what happens when they are clicked and used.
Certain other icons can be interpreted only in one way and used.
Instead of sticking on to these icons, designers’ should focus on using icons that are known and interpreted less frequently. This will compel the users to seek assistance on how to use such icons. Herein, hovering iconography will come into play; it will give each icon a brief description in the form of a hover-triggered helper text. This will assist the users as well as help avoid screen clutter.
In this year, we will see the usage of hoverable iconography in a big way. Designers will start incorporating hover-triggered helper text above symbols where required. Users’ will then be better able to understand what they are meant for and also gain the confidence to interact with the website iconography; and finally, enjoy a stimulating user experience.
3. MORE TEXTURED ELEMENTS
Many years ago, skeuomorphism introduced varied real-world textures to the screens of computers and mobile devices. Initially, people found them intriguing, but as time went by, they began seeing it as an intrusion that violated their viewing experience. Soon the trend lost its appeal and fell by the wayside.
However, digital texturization is slated to make a big impact. Web designers’ will use organic shapes more to inject subtle textures to their designs. As a result of this, textured elements will come to have a major presence in websites.
More website backgrounds will feature textured elements like rounded shapes and lines in varied configurations. This will add visual appeal to the UI without in any way diverting main attention from the overall design. ITXITPro with its strong skills in UI/UX design can tweak your website by infusing attractive textured elements in your website to make it more palatable to users’.
4. UNCONVENTIONAL SCROLLING
More websites are witnessing longer web pages these days. This is compelling users’ to scroll lengthy web pages to get to the information they are looking for.
Thankfully, scrolling helps. It will not only reveal more of a web page but also coax the user to keep moving down and see what comes up next. When compared to this, traditional vertical scrolling cannot properly handle the task.
This is where unconventional scrolling comes to the fore, and we will see it play a major role.
Horizontal scrolling allows users to drag the scroll bar or swipe sideways to see what lies to the left or right of the central screen. Another type of unconventional scrolling is parallax scrolling. Based on the principle of foreground elements moving swifter than the background ones, it creates a more realistic depth. It will take the user inward or outward from the horizon line thereby creating a sudden three-dimensional movement. This will offer the user an immersive viewing experience.
5. SMART AND EMBEDDED VIDEOS
Videos are a hot flavor with the ability to grab attention instantly. They help to get your message across and make your website more interesting.
The upcoming year will usher in the age of well-planned and well-executed meaningful videos. Web designers’ will come to include meaningful videos where required. Like, for instance, the home page of a website; more websites home pages will see a full-width video area, making them instantly recognizable. It could relate to either the brand or its products presented in a positive light with a message to the viewer without sounding too intrusive or testimonials that speak about customers’ impressions.
Another point that’s not to be missed is that today’s users prefer to consume content in the manner they like. Some users would like to read but do not have the time to do so, like in the case of blogs. Video posts, known as Vlogs, an ideal alternative for users to watch or listen to, will become an essential design trend.
It must be mentioned that videos can slow down the downloading speed of websites. Hence, web designers’ will need to judiciously use videos and avoid the overuse of auto-play video backdrops and parts.
This year will also witness what’s called the rehabilitation of the 404. For long, the ‘404 Error Page’ has been a much-reviled page dreaded by the users’.
However, web designers found ingenious ways to spruce it up and make it palatable to the users’, with either a humorous graphic or a lighthearted content to coax the users’ back again and again.
This year we will see the page getting more prominence with interactive mini-games and engaging animations, giving it the spotlight it so badly needs. This is expected to encourage users’ to not just be back but also stick around for longer. Those opting for custom web redesign can now look forward to keeping their user base intact and engaged with a website page that sports an entertaining ‘404 Error Page’.
Also read, MARKETING MISTAKES YOUR ECOMMERCE BUSINESS NEEDS TO AVOID
Conclusion
Like every aspect of life, web design is an ever-evolving art that’s influenced by changing trends.
Tt is vital for organizations and individuals alike to stay in tune with web design trends. This is where premier Web Design Agency, ITXITPro is ready to help with a custom web redesign that incorporates the latest of this year’s UI/UX design trends.
Let your website welcome in the new year with a custom web redesign that will give it not just a fresh coat of paint but will also involve more users’ to actively interact with it.
