8 Latest Web Design Trends in 2019
Every year, there is a new list of innovative web design trends. This is because the customer needs are ever evolving and as a result, the markets are continuously changing. The companies that adapt and stay one step ahead of their competitors thrive while the others fade away.
The designers have an interesting relationship with the web design trends due to the conundrum of the pressure to innovate and the pressure to conform. Innovation is cool but is not devoid of the risks of failure. In contrast, designers have reasons to stick to certain design choices year after year as they yield results. Yet, it is innovation that disrupts the list of the top web design trends every year. The following content presents a list of 8 latest web design trends in 2019 that tell us a story of retention as well as the innovation of the web design trends:
1. Minimalism
Simply put, the less distraction there is, the more effective the content. It goes without saying that in this information age, less is more. There is just so much content out there and as a result, the online world is in a disarray. In addition to this, considering the decline in human attention spans, it is important for websites to accommodate less but specific information, so that the viewers do not have to waste time in order to find what they are looking for. Time is money and so you shouldn’t waste the time of your audience if you aim to drive organic traffic on your website.
Minimalism is best supplemented by effects like fade-in, more availability of white space and contrasts in the web pages. These features of the design present the typography quite clearly and allow the viewers to evade distractions effectively. In 2019, the website must be effective enough to show exactly what the viewer is looking for, using way lesser content than before.
Minimalism though has been a timeless classic in terms of aesthetics, but it has emerged as a dominating trend in web designing with a lot more significance than before. In 2019, the theories regarding the attention span have received considerable validation, making minimalism the go-to choice for web designers. Hence, it is expected to stay among the top web designing trends in 2019.
2. Dichromatic Color Choices
Like content, minimalism also applies to the colors. It is indeed great to have a number of different colors on the web page, but having a few colors or no colors at all can make the design more memorable for the viewers. This is because the impact will be greater. A dichromatic or black and white color choice help unify as well as condense the brand and enhance the effect of the message.
One such example of a leading color trend is black and white palettes. White being reserved and relatively clean and black being assertive and relatively strong present a meaningful contrast. A monochromatic trend is also noticeable in 2019, but it does not have the added effect of contrast that a dichromatic design can assert. A single color used on the webpage can also be boring for the viewers.
Due to the absence of multiple colors, the content seems less saturated, precluding the chances of overburdening the viewers. In a dichromatic design, the edges are sharper, clearer and noticeable. Due to this contrast, the typography looks clearer as well and adds to the effectiveness of the brand’s message. The saying “Old is New” perfectly applies here given that the black and white color scheme is back with a bang in this day and age.
3. Three-Dimensional Organic Illustrations
The designers are trying to blur the dichotomies of the digital and the physical world through realistic illustrations. The trend of incorporating shapes such as squares, triangles or rectangles having sharp edges and smooth lines has been dominant in the past; thanks to the sense of stability these shapes provided. But 2019 is the year of 3-D illustrations that look more realistic, hence mending the gap between the digital and physical.
The 3-D illustrations are best complemented by either movement or illusion of movement, making the design a little more alive. Broadly, this design choice is a part of one of the top trends to make the digital world more real, even though in the sense of an illusion. In 2019, designers tend to create a mirage of reality in the digital world. This is because it gives the website and in turn the company/individual whose website it is an up to date and modern look.
4. The Bias of Meaningful Movement
Extending on the blurring of boundaries between the digital and the physical, the designers have a bias towards content that involves meaningful movements. An example of such a meaningful movement is more video content. But that too, unlike the past, has a minimalistic tendency in 2019 to facilitate the focus on specifics for a greater effect.
Video content, as an example of such meaningful movements on the web page, not only adds to the diversity of content but also saves the viewers from searching the specifics through the text. Hence, this web design is necessitated for those web pages that cannot evade the requirement of more written content.
The bias towards a dynamic web page emerged among the top designing trends mostly due to the evidence which suggested that video (moving) content is seven times more engaging than the static content. But in 2019, it is not just a bias towards movement, but also a bias towards its meaningfulness. The latest web design trend fuses minimalism with the video content for effective dissemination of the meanings. It is even more necessary in 2019 due to the latest move made by Google, which prioritizes video content over the standard web pages.
5. Chatbots
Chatbots have been around for years but they have emerged significantly in 2019. As a web design trend in the spotlight, chatbots have been considerably developing, accommodating higher levels of customizations than ever before.
This leap of the chatbots in every state-of-the-art website is because of the significant advancement in machine learning and artificial intelligence then past years, making them more effective, intelligent and useful.
The latest trends of the chatbots are accompanied by various supplementary features, which in turn, strengthen the brands. The color choice and the graphics that represent these chatbots as personified facilitators having a face, rather than alien text as they used to be before, also supplement their interesting presentation on the website. Indeed, chatbots have moved from raw AI to friendly mascots in 2019 and have emerged as a noticeable trend in 2019.
6. Touch-friendly Navigation
This is the age of smartphones! We are aware that browsing through the desktop has been overtaken by mobile browsing through smartphones. Hence it is important for the designers to curate the navigation according to the comfort of smartphone users, as this is where most of the traffic is going to come from. Developing a user-friendly interface and customer-centric websites, on the whole, can be the difference between success and failure. So do not take this lightly.
The importance of touch-friendly navigation is evident from Josh Clark’s study of the design’s relation with thumb. In his book, Designing for Touch, he observes how smartphone users hold their phones and what implications does their thumb movements have on the process of web design.
An example of touch-friendly navigation is the hamburger menu which was moved to the bottom of the screens recently. A navigation curated for thumb can win a competitive edge against other designs.
7. Nostalgic Throwback or Retro design
Among the latest web design trends, an element of nostalgia is very apparent. The older design trends become new again and present an interesting contrast to the new trends, yet maintaining their own grace due to a nostalgic throwback. This is the retro design aesthetic that has a tremendous significance in 2019.
The retro design aesthetics work the most effective for brands that want to be perceived as edgy. It helps the website standout because of its unique nature. Most of the designers are going back to the forms, patterns, colors, typography and design choices that were used in the 1980s. It is no surprise considering that everyone is coming up with ways of modernizing the website and the new becomes old very quickly because so many websites support it. The retro design takes full use of what was popular in the past to appeal to website users.
A leading example of such a retro design becoming alive again is glitch art. We are living in a time where graphics glitches are relatively rare in the technologies. The addition of glitch art on the webpage presents an interesting nostalgic throwback to the old times, yet maintaining a contrast with the present world technologies. These contrasts between the past and present play an important role in making the brand’s message more impactful.
8. Surprising The Viewers through Micro-interaction
You may have noticed the recent design innovation on Facebook or in your emails that augment the words such as “congratulations” with a surprising response when it is clicked on: of balloons and party poppers.
These responses are called micro-interaction and they are here to stay among 2019 top web design trends. The purpose of these responses is to add a surprising effect on the viewers. These surprises positively affect the engagement and strengthen the invitation capability of the web page.
Micro-interaction has been around for years, but in 2019, a specific kind of micro-interaction design choice is in trend. Previously, the kind of micro-interactions that were popular on the web page were of beep sounds and notification signals. But now, the micro-interactions are less obvious and more surprising, like the Facebook example given above. As some interactions that used to be surprising before, are no longer that much surprising. Designers are consistently looking for new ways of surprising the viewers and making their web page look a bit smarter in 2019
And There is More to Come
We are just a few months into 2019 and we have already seen so many new trends. The good and bad thing is that there will for sure be further disruption in the web design world.
The trend list above is carefully chosen according to a great retention capacity of these design trends and the plethora of reasons to stick to them. Yet, the innovative capacities of the web designers can be surprising. Even though these trends are here to stay, you can bet on the fact that are more to come in the rest of the months.
So keep on innovating and follow your instincts. Maybe you’ll be the one setting the next trend. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates on the latest web design trends!
