2020 marks the beginning of a new decade, and a new decade means new trends are arising in all industries. Web design makes no exception. We cannot say we didn’t expect design trends to change because thanks to the rapid growth of technology, UX and UI tendencies are continually improving and evolving. Technology advance changes users’ habits and affects the way people consume technology.
As 2020 takes us into a new decade, we expect technological enhancements to propel UX design into a new league.
Let’s check what the next decade has in store for web design trends.
3D designs
When the first 3D graphic movies launched on screen, they amazed the public worldwide. But now, 3D graphic exists everywhere, from street work to film and video games. The 3D graphic is proliferating fast, and so does web design, so it’s no surprise that the latest technological capabilities opened the door for designers to integrate 3D graphics into web and mobile interfaces.
For the next decade, we expect web design to feature hyper-real effects. Designers can rely on technology like WebGL to create interactive animations and models, to engage Internet users.
E-commerce websites can leverage 3D graphics integration because they can interactively present their products. More and more brands will use 3D render models to introduce products to emulate a real shopping experience.
Simple UI/UX
UX designers need to declutter layouts to cut through the visual noise. For a long time, designers didn’t understand how important simplicity is. Then Apple adopted a simplicity mantra and drew everyone’s attention. And simple also works for users because they fancy interfaces that consider their needs to limit color use and highlight the product’s elements.
People prefer clarity because it helps them understand what benefits a particular product brings. Users, especially millennials, want to absorb information fast and effectively, and they lose interest in anything that interweaves with their journey.
Dark Themes
The power of the dark side is strong in the UX world.
Usually, the decision to go with a dark UX is based on the personal preferences of the users. But the theme is interlinked with the readability of the website. The background influences the level of readability and usability. For heavy text websites, dark themes aren’t the best pick because they lower readability. But dark backgrounds are good options for highly visual layouts. For the sites that want to focus on the aesthetics of the product, a dark theme ensures a distraction-free background.
Young users prefer interfaces that allow fast scanning. Dark layouts absorb the light from other elements and reinforce the user’s ability to understand the message in a glance.
Software companies and even social media have created dark themes for the users that prefer these layouts, to switch between them easily.
Versed UX designers
In the next decade, UX designers will become more skilled in disciplines related to web design. The companies that offer web design services will also have a good idea of animation, prototyping, audit, and digital product design. UX designers will acquire knowledge in all these domains to design interfaces that allow companies to engage clients.
Why do UX designers need to work on their skills?
User experience and user interface impact the way users perceive the website. Even if they visit a site for the first time, they need to know where to click to sign up for a newsletter and browse for products.
When people are adjusting to seeing fewer elements on websites, designers cannot bombard them with intricate details. But elements allow designers to embed features on a website, so they need to find other ways to do it without affecting the user experience.
Neumorphism
A few years ago, Skeumorphism was a big thing in web design. And like any other trend, it came back, but in a new form called neomorphism (new+skeumorphism). Similar to simplicity, Apple popularised this trend through its products’ design. And like any other trend, Apple promotes, it quickly grew in popularity.
Right before Apple launched the IOS7, they decided to ditch traditional interfaces and adopt the flat design. With this decision, Apple killed the skeumorphism and encouraged the reincarnation of a new beloved child. And even if the process sounds like the action of a Netflix movie, it’s an allegory for bringing back skeumorphism under a new name and form.
If skeumorphic design created elements to match real-life objects, neomorphism focuses on details and precision. Designers strip down old elements to a minimum, to encourage the new trend. They use pale colors for layouts and hues in low chroma, observable only close to light shades like white, grey, or beige. Gradients are used solely to drive attention towards specific design elements. Neumorphism also implies the usage of mild and subtle effects, and instead of over-representing real objects, it creates elements that look more like clay forms.
Asymmetrical layouts
Symmetrical layouts are a thing of the past. People want to stand out, and the best way to do it is to opt for uncommon elements. Lately, we have noticed an exceptional growth of asymmetrical layouts in web design. The new decade marks the death of traditional template-based layouts.
Asymmetrical layouts are a hot trend because they bring extra character, personality, and dynamic to interfaces. With asymmetrical designs, there is a lot of room for creativity. Designers can unchain their skills and talent and use their artistry to bring new shapes to life. With asymmetricity, the web design world enters an era of endless opportunities.
But creating successful asymmetrical designs requires skills and practice, and we come back to why UX designers need to be more versed in 2020. Placing elements randomly on the grid doesn’t work. They need to know what items to pick, how to use and implement them, and when they can rely on the new layouts.
Keeping users in mind is crucial when designing web interfaces because, at the end of the day, they are the ones who are using digital products.