Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Every year it is exciting to be inspired by new web design trends and to look at current and upcoming developments: Which aesthetics will we have to say goodbye to in the future? And which trends will dominate the design world in the years to come? Web designer Sonja Hoffmann has her assessment for 2020 in her luggage.

The Best Web Design Trends 2022

Well, which trends have lasted until today? Here are the most important web design trends 2022 that you should definitely know.

Various sources seem to agree that the era of flat design will take a back seat in 2020. On the one hand, it is assumed that other designs will simply move to the foreground. And on the other hand, a change in the direction of semi-flat design could be announced.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Illustrations mostly drawn by hand and far removed from perfectionism are on the rise. This way, not only headers will have a more personal touch but firmly integrated elements such as icons and buttons too. Various experts in specialist publications agree that web design has had a too artificial and perfect touch in recent years. In the future, more attention will be paid to individuality and personality.

Lasting designs

Gradients came with the further development of CSS and will remain with us in the future. There seems to be sufficient need for exploration and development in this area. We can look forward to new variations and combinations in 2020. Color gradients also continue to occupy a firm place in logo design.

Loud colours and minimalism

The abundance of information we're confronted with today forces us to present our information in a clearer and snappy way. Sensibly used areas ensure that the user can work through the content more quickly and thus have a more pleasant and more efficient user experience. Minimalism, especially the use of whitespace, will continue to be an essential component of design concepts in the coming year.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Minimalism, in the sense of very simple and reduced design, is increasingly coming into its own in the form of monochromatic variations. Designers are invited to use loud and expressive colors in this area.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Natural colors aren't going anywhere

With its endless forecasts, the turn of the year once again brings suggestions for "the colour of the year". Which, most designers agree, will continue to be in the realm of nature. We will also see a lot of soft greens and blues in 2020, with a tendency for "mint".

Collages: layout, photos & strong typography

There'll probably still be a tendency towards asymmetrical layouts in 2020. Especially pictures and photographs are combined with illustrations and "bold typography". The exciting mixture of graphic elements and visual material thus rounds off the minimalist trend for the coming year.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Our users take centre stage

In the future, too, the focus of good web design will be on the user. Especially in the area of e-commerce, the user experience of the end consumer is the focus of all creative decisions. Clear designs that are easy to navigate and understand replace abstract and confusing layouts. The user journey should be as simple and straightforward as possible. Colour-coded call-to-actions will be used in a more targeted manner.

In addition to clearly structured online shops, responsive resign in particular will continue to be prioritized. Why? In the Western world, almost 60 percent of our mobile devices now have access to the internet. 

Now that Google has officially made mobile user-friendliness a major factor in its rankings, no one should neglect their mobile web presence if they still want visitors to their website in 2020. So we will not be exempt from the terms "mobile first" and "responsive" in the future either.

In addition, the embedding of SVG files remains a hot topic. Even if it is not new information, still too few websites use vectorised graphics. Especially on the smaller devices, vector graphics have considerable advantages - such as faster loading times and exceptional sharpness with one hundred percent scalability.

At the latest since the GDPR has sent us all into a panic, we are aware that our data is being stored. In the future, this data should be used more sensibly and tailored more to the user. Targeted ads are no longer a novelty. From now on, we will be able to receive push notifications from the websites we visit, even if the success of these is difficult for us website operators to track (What really arrives? What is actually read?).

It makes more sense to use chat bots and AI here as they're based on mutual interaction and offer a clearly recognizable added value for the consumer.

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We've had enough of motionless websites for now and 2020 will bring more movement and animation. The medium of "video" has so far been used relatively sparingly in web design. After all, the effects on loading time, bounce rate, and Google ranking must be taken into account when using moving images.

At the latest since the introduction of the new web-friendlier .webm format, this has loosened up somewhat. So in order to create more interesting web presences in the future, we will see animated illustrations in the form of GIFs more often. In addition, there will be more so-called microinteractions, which will make navigation through websites clearer and friendlier.

Microinteractions are small animations that show us as users that something is happening and should happen here. A playful form of "feedback", so to speak. As a user, you feel more integrated and can identify more easily with the website/product. In addition, these interactions can provide positive moments of surprise and serve as a guide to define the user journey more clearly. This makes the user flow easier - the user is more likely to find what they are looking for on the website.

An example of a micro-interaction:

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone
Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone
Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone
Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

3D and 3D light in web design

As a side effect of the spread of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), we can expect more 3D elements integrated into our web designs in the future. However, AR/VR will still not make the breakthrough into web design next year. The reasons for this are, on the one hand, too high costs. But also the contradiction with optimised loading times and designs that focus on the end user. Because the use of new technologies naturally makes the most sense when there is an obvious added value.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

As a cost-saving alternative, i.e. a kind of "3D light", elements placed on top of each other are very much on the rise. Especially with light shadows, they suggest a slight three-dimensionality and create more depth.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Focus on data protection

Since the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR ) came into force in May 2018, a number of violations have already been punished. Among them also serious ones, as Heise Online reports in this article. In the meantime, a concept for the assessment of the amount of the fine has been agreed upon, which takes into account, among other things, the turnover of the company as well as the severity of the offence.

Furthermore, we can expect the enactment of the ePrivacy Regulation (ePVO) in 2020, which will clarify the legal situation regarding tracking tools. The ePVO was originally intended to be published together with GDPR. Both regulations first serve data protection. In this article, lawyer Mario Steinberg explains what the ePrivacy Regulation will entail for website operators. 

Web Tools and Frameworks

Next year we'll still have to endure an abundance of "programming aids" in the form of frameworks and an increase in supposedly easier to learn languages. The market has almost reached saturation, however, and our developers have reached the limit of their goodwill. Frameworks initially intended to simplify the implementation of designs have also caused complications in the past. In the future, although maybe not yet next year, simpler uniform solutions will be sought after.

High hopes for React

JavaScript remains an important part of web programming, supported by React, a JavaScript library for creating user interfaces.

Although React has already gained in importance in 2019, it has not yet reached its peak phase and will increasingly come under our eyes in 2020. With the help of React, we will most likely continue to integrate UI elements in our websites and web applications in the future. For frontend developers, this is definitely a tool worth learning. This is especially true in the WordPress context, as the new Gutenberg block editor is based on React.

PHP, Ruby, Python, Node.js, Java, and .Net also remain relatively equivalent programming languages for the backend.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

Frontend and backend will have an even bigger user-focus

In the future, we will not only generate and analyse backend data, but also extend this to the frontend. In this way, we will learn to understand more about what is clicked when and how on our websites and can thus adapt the UI more efficiently and improve the UX permanently.

Conclusion: 2020 and beyond

Based on current developments, we can assume in the long term that the web will become even more interactive in the future. I definitely see greater potential for experiences that are directly and individually tailored to the individual user. For example, through an unusual and creative navigation of site, as in the case of Bruno Simon's portfolio.

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

In general, the Internet should be more fun - be it through more creative and personal approaches in the preparation and reproduction of information. A wonderful and playful summary of web design trends for 2020 is offered by the New York agency Red Collar on this site .

Web design trends 2020: These designs are currently setting the tone

I would also like to mention the implementation of voice navigation. Even if this technology will probably not have its big breakthrough in 2020, we can prepare for it in the long term. And, once again with a focus on the user: websites that are more carefully tailored to groups of people with disabilities.

Thus, we can conclude that 2020 will be an exciting year in terms of web design, in which we want to refine our accumulated knowledge and present it in a more accessible way - and with more personality and fun in the process.

Do you have any feedback on the above developments or other web design trends in mind for 2020? We look forward to your comments!

Web design trends 2020 - your questions

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6 Comments on "Web design trends 2020: these designs are currently setting the tone

  1. Great article. I is really interesting to see how these trends are basically the same in 2021, except they have a more interactive concept as predicted in this article. Thank you for sharing.

    1. Thanks for your comment. A lot of trends seem to remain throughout a longer period of time. I think that´s mainly because it takes a while for the majority of website owners to adapt.
      The future is more interactive and personal – especially from a UX perspective that´s a pretty good way to go to.

    1. Hi Cate,
      AR and VR have been marked as „the big trends for the coming year“ for a little while now but never quite made it through on the web. It is used a lot in applications yet is still a niche for websites. One of those reasons is the high cost in development and design (3D models etc), another is the question of „need“.
      Are there really that many websites out there that would benefit from integrating a VR or AR application on their site?

  2. Hi.
    Thanks for sharing the great insights on web design trends. According to me, mobile responsiveness was a revolutionary change that has really impacted web design and we are not using flash anymore.

    Regards

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