15 Web Design Trends in 2018 (+1 Bonus)
Isham Azad
Full Stack Expert | Technical Architect | Specialist in AI-Based Solutions | Vertex AI | React Native | Nest.js | Next.js | MongoDB | Python | BigQuery | API Development, and Back-End Web Development
1. Minimal and Comfort
Less is More: Minimalism trend continues with even more blank spaces. Especially white spaces for a clean, multipurpose versatile design.
Comfort is achieved through slow but detailed Animations. Short but Focused bold content on the screen. This makes sure the visitor gets your message at the very first sight.
As you already know — First impression lasts longer.
2. Futuristic Designs
Designers are Outpacing Movies in futuristic design.
While scrolling through top designs I daily come across at least one work showing great technology or big data visualisation. Data points have grown up to 20X since last 2–3 years, making it hard to analyse. But we solution, thanks to JS.
3. Custom Illustrations and Videos
An image conveys a message worth a thousand words. Along with it they save space and arose user interest.
According to a study dwell time on site increase by 100 percent on pages with at least one image or videos on them.
More impressively, shoppers are 85 percent more likely to purchase a product after watching its demo.
If you want an example, check Invision’s youtube channel. They upload a new demo video of their latest product in design space — “Invision Studio”.
4. Shadows for Extra Depth
Shadows create depth illusion, this makes them popular in designers community. With it, you can convert your flat design into semi-flat.
You can use shadows and colors (with slight variation) for the following:
- To make CTA’s appear raised as they are ready to be clicked.
- To establish a visual hierarchy between elements.
Caution: Don’t use shadows excessively.
5. Responsive Web & Logos
As Google moved to Mobile first search. Web Developers are now comfortable with Responsive Web Designs. And this comfort now can be seen in logo designs too. Thank Google.
In 2018 responsive website and logos are must for Brands to retain their presence in front of target audience irrespective of their device.
6. Minimal Studio Shots
Images with a plain background that focus on a particular detail. They are best at drawing user’s attention on a specific item.
This trick is used in e-commerce industry heavily. Now web designers are adopting it to increase CTA.
7. More Negative Spaces
Web Designers continue to use lots of negative spaces. Blank space force a user to look a something that’s unique. Guess What?
You got it, it’s none other than your product for sale with an optimized CTA.
8. Animations, Gifs and Cinegrapghs
Motion catches a user’s attention faster than anything else. Users love to see stories, don’t want to read. The reason behind Instagram’s success.
Use animation, Gifs and cinegraphs to create eye-catching landing pages, banners, newsletters and more. You will be familiar with these three terms as you already use social media.
Use Integrated Animations to guide your users through navigation, loading screens, etc.
9. Micro-interactions
They are everywhere — I personally like them. They are different from animations. It’s hard for me to explain the difference, you can see an example below.
Micro-interactions are used to create highly dynamic user interfaces. The user doesn’t need to visit and scroll through pages.
10. Bright Gradients & Vibrant Colors
Gradients are back After a long time are back on the web. Gradients 2.0 with distinguishable colors are becoming popular.
11. Big Bold & Creative Typography
Web Designers are turning Typography into a tool to create exciting innovative artworks. In 2018 Web Designs don’t revolve around a few typos. A combination of 5–6 typos are used.
Jumbo size characters are replacing images. 2018 will bring big and bold typo into design trends.
12. Particle Backgrounds
Your website has to load within 2 to 4 seconds otherwise the user will leave. This is said by all popular SEO blogs.
What’s the relation between speed and particle backgrounds?
The answer is simple. A particle background loads faster, has less distraction and is eye-catching. This avoids all the possible problems that come with video backgrounds.
13. Create More Space with Split Page Design
Double in half-price: Dividing a page into two parts allows you to group content into semantic areas. For example separating text from images, etc.
This way you can show more content on the same page without disturbing UX.
14. Monocolor and Hybrid Icons
Mono-color icons are easy to read.
More than one colors can be used for icons with outline leaving whitespaces inside. These icons are not heavy.
15. Tell Stories to Retain Users
Telling stories is the best way to connect with and retain users. Big brands do this very well. You can use illustrations or interfaces to tell your story to your audience.
Choice of medium is on you.
16. Make Your Content Print Ready
No matter how digital we go, the print is something that you can not ignore. I myself print content that seems useful.
Reading mode in browsers use your print CSS to show the content. Better add it to your usability tests list.
Credit: I would personally love to thank all the Designers involved in the industry and community. Especially those on Behance and Dribbble for providing examples.
\*/ All the Images used in this post are linked to the original Sources and Designers. In case I missed someone, remind me on twitter or Facebook.
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Article By Rohit Kumar