15 Web Design Trends for 2021

Just like the current year, the web design industry is going to undergo rapid and revisionary changes in the next year. To help you stay on the shoulder of giants, in this post, we highlighted the top 15 web design trends of 2021 for you.

1. Dark Mode and Low Light UI Design

One of the hottest design trends of the year is Dark UI. In 2020, many giant brands such as Instagram, Facebook and Apple offered an alternative dark theme in their products. Dark themes are popular and, predictably, this will increase in popularity in 2011. The main reasons for the good reputation of dark themes are:

It is eye-catching and looks ultra-modern.

A dark background allows highlighting the colour and shape of other design elements.

It helps mobile devices (with OLED/AMOLED screens) save battery power.

It results in reduced eye-strain, especially in low-light environments.

2. Whitespace and Minimalistic Design

Just like Japanese culture that puts a high value on balance and simplicity, the minimalistic approach in Web Design to get rid of unnecessary elements and content that does not support user task. 

In 2020, minimalistic websites received very good acceptance from users. Perhaps, Google is the best example for the minimalism concept in Web Design; if you look carefully to Google Homepage, everything is entirely designed around the central Search Box and branding, and all inessential elements are avoided.

Nowhere negative space is more important and effective than a minimalistic designed webpage. More empty(negative) spaces around an object bring it to light and help the grab the attention of people. So, it's should be no surprise that in the eye of a minimalist Web designer less is more or imperfection makes perfect.

3. Better Support for Mobile Devices

It should be no secret that the number of people who are using mobile devices such as phones and tablets to surf the Internet and check social media is increasing exponentially. Hence, in upcoming years, website optimising for mobile devices will remain as one of the most important tasks of Web designers.

Designing websites compatible with mobile devices includes but is not limited to responsive Web Layouts that fit into every screen size, boosting loading time of the mobile pages and customising graphics and pictures for portable devices.

4. Soft Shadows, Layers and Elements

If created and adjusted meticulously, shadows and floating visual effects add depth and focus to your design and let it evoke positive emotions. There is no better way for intensifying elements in a webpage than using the right amount of 3d shadow around it. This will make your webpage slightly 3D looking and current.

3D web design trend is applicable not only to pictures and artworks but you can employ it to draw the attention of visitors to any visual element in your website including text, image, video, etc.

5. Dynamic UI

As it's said, Motion Creates Emotion. With a dynamic website, users can interact with the UI and the appearance of the page according to their personal preferences. For example, visitors can trigger an animation or tweak an object to change its visual properties.

While the right amount of animation adds salt to your website, overusing it will adversely affect page loading time and user experience and though, people will leave your website earlier.

6. Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

PWAs are the latest trend in web design and bridge the gap between web and mobile applications. PWA allows the webpages to run on mobile devices and have user experience similar to native apps. The best is that unlike web apps that entirely rely on the Internet, most features of PWAs are available offline.

Since its inception in 2015, PWA has remained as one of the most cooling trends in the web design, and we can expect that it will become the mainstream in the industry in the near future.

7. Bold Fonts, Better Colours and Gradients

To capture the visitor's attention and make an impact, there is an increasing demand for designs with bright/neon colours, better typography and novel gradient effects.  Now there are thousands of websites on the Web that are using vivid colours, big and bold fonts and stylish gradients to inspire users and keep them inside the circle and the number is increasing day by day.

When Instagram rebranded its logo with a gradient image, web designers recognized the value of gradients in designing elegant and modern web elements. Since then using gradients could be found on every website. Now, Designers make use of the newer version of the gradient, gradient 2.0 to make the minimalistic pages less dull and more attractive.

8. Single Page Websites

Single Page Websites also called parallax scrolling website, is a kind of websites that users get information by scrolling on a single page rather than clicking on different pages. Just like social media, the layout of a Single Page Website is image-driven and mobile-friendly offering a simpler user interface and though, conversion rate.

Besides, because different page parts are generated dynamically when user scrolls, the initial loading time of single page websites are shorter. The cost of designing and maintenance of a single-page website is usually less than a multiple page website. This is one of several reasons for why myriad of companies are changing to a single page design.  And it's expected that thousands of websites will do the same in 2021.

9. Voice User Interface (VUI)

In recent years, using devices. such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, etc has become a fad in getting information on mobile devices. All help people search the internet or interact with their device using speech command. In 2020, the voice functionally become a trend in website design and it's expected to see more websites with integrated VUI in the next years. 

10. More Embedded Videos

Experience shows that people prefer watching video clips rather than reading on screen. In 2020, embedded videos are one of the top Web design trends. We predict that this trend will extend to the upcoming years and more videos and multimedia appear on homepages in 2021.

11. Innovative Typography and 3D Design

While the 3D design was around in the Web world for many years, immerse 3D elements reincarnated in the body of AR and VR in recent years. With Virtual and Augmented Reality getting more momentum, web owners tend to use these techniques combined with innovative typography and 3D design to prettify their home pages. No doubt that we will see more Virtual Reality Enabled web designs in 2021.

12. Advanced Machine Learning Interface

AI and chatbots are the emerging trends of the web in 2020 and definitely will be in the spotlight in 2021 too. With the help of AI and ML, websites offer interactive Chat-boxes through voice and text and can process user's data more quickly and securely. tailored advertisements, better detection of fraud and generating suggestions for better page layout and SEO are just a few examples of applications of ML in web design.

13. Streamlined Navigation

With Streamline Navigation getting popular in 2020, you should say goodbye to annoying navigation headers and confusing popup menus. The concept behind the Streamlined Navigation is simple but effective; let the users navigate with the graphical elements anywhere in the page without having to scroll footer or header. This will lead to smoother navigation and a better user experience.

14. Fabulous Photos and Graphic Mixing

The era of showing customers realistic photos is approaching its end. Now e-commerce platforms are trying to engage visitors' minds by showing them attractive and unreal images. The photos shown could be an amalgamation of the real product and an abstract photo or alternately, some elements of the photo are changed to help provoke the customers' imagination. 

This causes users to stay more in a webpage and thus, increase the rate of conversion. So, it's very likely that many online stores will make use of this psychological trick in the near future to increase sales and revenue.

15. Power Storytelling

As the experts say, No story, no sales. This highlights the importance of storytelling in sales, both offline and online.  When you sell products offline, you have the opportunity of impressing your customers face to face, but you have no equipment other than codes and pixels in an online store. That's why should put more weight on storytelling in your online shop.

 Treat your product/service as a sword in hands of your customer. Who will be the ultimate hero in your story? Undoubtedly your customer especially when they have your product/service.  Lead your customers through their journey in your website providing them attractive graphics, animations and positive reviews from other users. 

In this article, we reviewed the top 15 web design trends of 2020 and 2021. This helps you keep up-to-date to the fast-changing industry and stay one step ahead of your competitors.