Being a web designer is not an easy job. It requires not just designing skills and creativity but also the insight into latest design trends. Only when you have a combination of both these things you can design websites that stand out and look modern. So here we’re going to share with you a list of top 10 web design trends that are going to gain popularity in 2018. Let’s begin:
1. Security First
Security of their visitors should be the top priority of all websites. Google has also made this clear since last year that it wants the websites to be completely secure. Company has been continuously nudging the website owners to implement SSL security in all their websites. We’ve also heard about major ransomware attacks in the recent days that affected whole world. With all these things happening, it has now become more important than ever to take care of security in web design. In 2018 this importance is only going to increase, so keep this in mind while designing your websites.
2. Mobile First
The dominance of mobile continues, and it will continue in 2018 as well. With number of mobile users significantly more than PC users, you can no more think from a mobile-friendly perspective. You need to think from a ‘mobile-first’ perspective instead, if you want to thrive in this new era of ever online world. All your websites that you design in 2018 should have mobile experience on the top in their priority. Your sites should look great in a variety of screen sizes, and with 18:9 displays becoming more and more common in mobile devices your website(s) must look perfect in those displays too.
3. Videos
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a hundred thousand words (sometimes also more than that). Professionally created videos give a unique edge to the websites, so you should use them wherever you can in your web design. Videos also make sense because they save time – a user on your site is much more likely to watch a video rather than crawl through a page of text. So use them wherever you can in a meaningful manner to make your website different from all others.
4. Micro animations
Another way to make your website interactive is micro animations. They’ve also grown in popularity in 2017 and there’s no reason why they won’t grow in 2018 as well. When they’re used in a way that they help people understand something more easily, they can have a profound impact on how others perceive your site (and therefore your business). There’re a variety of ways to implement micro animations in your site:
- You can have animated buttons that glow when a user hovers over them. This can not only add some flash to your site but also make it easier for your users to understand where they should click;
- You can have checkmarks that show up when a user successfully submits a form;
- Or you can also have other types of micro animations that explain something more easily.
Whichever animations include in your website, just keep in mind that they should help your users understand something. Also don’t overdo it – otherwise it can have a negative impact too.
5. Bold Typefaces and Bright Colors
These two things were a hit in web design last year, and they’ll remain hit this year as well. The reason is simple – color stimulates feeling, while text in big, bold typefaces makes critical elements of a website stand out.
6. Meaningful Pictures
Besides videos pictures are another important type of content that makes your website more useful, beautiful and easy to understand. So it’s important to use not just good looking but also meaningful pictures in your websites. Whenever possible, choose custom photos over stock photography. Because while stock photos can make it easier for you to publish your blog posts, they do not make as meaningful of an impact as custom photos tailored to your audience.
7. Particle Backgrounds
We talked about the importance of video above. However, one problem that webmasters encounter while using video in the background of their homepage is that of performance. The video backgrounds often make the site slower to load. Particle backgrounds provide a solution to this. They’re tiny animations made of JavaScript that don’t take too long to load but still manage to attract the attention of users with a moving background. They’ve become more popular in 2017, and in 2018 we’ll see them become more and more mainstream in web designing.
8. Grid Layouts
A variety of grid layouts also became popular in 2017. Besides traditional symmetric grid layouts a number of asymmetric grid layouts also became popular in the last year. In 2018 too we can expect them to become more popular than they already are. More brands may adopt them and use them in creative ways.
9. Depths and Drop Shadows
These are not new elements, but with parallax layouts and grids web designers are now playing with them more than ever. Today shadows are used not only to improve the aesthetics of a web page but also to add emphasis to something. For example, soft and subtle hover shadows exist from a long time, but now designers often combine them with color gradients to also improve the aesthetics of web pages while keeping the emphasis on links/buttons. We expect this trend to become even more popular in 2018.
10. Storytelling with Design and Data
The importance of data has been well-documented in last few years. It helps in everything from streamlining operations to persuading visitors. However, the later happens only when data is presented in a meaningful way. That is, when data tells a story. Therefore, now companies have started to put a lot of emphasis on effective storytelling with combination of design and data. These two elements are now combined in web design to present even the most complicated ideas in most digestible and effective manner. There’s no reason why this trend will not pick pace in 2018.
Final Thoughts
So this was our list of top 10 web design trends that are expected to grow a lot in 2018. Keep them in mind while designing your websites this year, and your sites will look much more polished, professional and modern than they otherwise would.
