There are many debates on how web design will develop in the future. One opinion seems to prevail, though: it is going to get more and more playful during upcoming years.
The websites we come across are no longer only practical. Most of them are art masterpieces and interactive projects whose first and main goal is to delight the viewer. This trend, however, is not as new as we may think. It harkens back to the very first days of web design when creators tried to promote new techniques the best way they could.
Nowadays, when these techniques are only limited by imagination, we can only guess what is coming.
The early web revolutionized itself in many ways, but it seems it is now taking a turn to the late 90s. Nobody is surprised, though. Fashion and interior design have already mastered the skill of taking us back in time and creating nostalgic feelings.
Websites of today also rely on clues from this period. Layouts are not that photo-centric anymore. instead, they work with diverting typography, bold grids, and simplified user interfaces. The texture is sophisticated, the colors are muted, and the experience is just as retro as it is supposed to be.
The star of the show is how this retro setting plays along with contemporary techniques. Advanced animations and interactions are present, but in an understated way that makes the site ‘easy’ rather than outdated. This all happens thanks to the variety of no-code tools that make web design an ‘every man’s skill’.
Gradients
Gradients have been around for quite a while, but they are used now more than ever. They’ve grown in complexity, and they are slowly becoming the most vibrant trend in web design that makes images seem deeper than they are.
Web designers constantly remind us of the importance of this tool. Ever since the great comeback in 2018 (check Instagram’s logo), gradients are used to make a website more interactive and creative.
Odds are great that gradients are not your favorite tool but try and think of a tool that unties a designer’s hands more than them. You can use them on a minimal layout just as well as with multiple colors, and that’s how the magic happens. They are simply universally applicable.
A huge benefit, for instance, is that you can use gradients to create an illusion of movement.
Moving the viewers
If you take advice from an experienced designer, the first thing you will learn is that typography is not only a writing tool. It helps you emotionally convey messages and inspire just the right feelings a viewer is supposed to have. 2022 has made this more obvious than ever.
Animation is also not something that just appeared in web design, but it has been reinvented in recent years. You can see it applied in illustrated graphics, page transitions, and even UI elements. This makes every design unpredictable and fresh, even if the designer didn’t employ complicated animations. The technique behind what you see is nothing more than side-scrolling and circular rotation. As an effect, you are entertained, but not overwhelmed.
Claymorphism
Claymorphism is the first true newbie on this list. The fresh design trend relies on engaging illustrations on websites, such as 3D hands or even humans. It is used to make websites more interactive and to bring them closer to the audience, which makes it suitable even in a minimalist scenario.
Behavioral cues
When you think about it, fitness apps did motivate many people to do their workouts regularly.
It is easier to take a long walk if you keep an eye on the number of steps you make, or the calories you burned. It is even more easy to do so when you get rewards and badges for a job well done. This is how behavioral cues in web design work – they deliver a user experience tailored to specific personalities and life habits.
Sites and apps that inspire you to undertake action are all around. It can be an app for your fitness routine, meditation, cooking, learning, or anything else. They are not only attractive, but also employ creativity, psychology, and behavioral design. In such a way, they influence people and change their behavior.
Marked borders
As a web designer, you know that all websites are created within a strict grid that holds on to their code. They are almost like puzzle pieces brought together on a page. The elements are arranged manually, and there is a clean separation of what goes where. The website may not function properly without this arrangement, which means there is more to it than simple appearances.
The arrangement is even more important if you take into account that users like a clean look. Most of them take well-organized websites more seriously.
This being said, 2022 makes a sharp turnaround to this trend. Simple layouts, borders, and frames are used on all websites, and sections are divided from each other. As a result, the browsing experience is organized and facilitated, and there is space for more relevant content.
Hero images
A hero image on a web page has only one purpose – to make a strong statement. The images are present nowadays more than anytime else but are now led exclusively by typography.
With a hero section, you will be able to bring imagery to the bare essentials and assign the ‘first-impression-role’ to the best image you’ve got. The hero section will then be simple, but impactful, and capture attention in a news line fashion. The better typography you use, the bigger the effect on viewers.
Interactions
We could talk for hours about how website animations turned into technology highlights. They have been present in all aspects of web design and were often assigned a leading role in page transitions and hero sections. In 2022 and onward, we should only expect large-scale animations to take the lead.
Scrolling is only part of the experience. The star of the show is passive animations that require viewers to engage with the site. They are automatically drawn towards clicking a button or dragging an item, for instance.
The cues and techniques used to inspire such behavior are still a mystery to the naked eye. Most of the time, we are talking about small black cubes that follow the cursor or navigation one simply can’t explain. The interaction follows a specific logic that makes visitors feel intrigued and inspired to look for more.
Enhanced scrolling
As we saw in the previous section, scrolling is the best type of engagement in web design. It produced interactive feedback and helps us understand behavioral cues. As time goes by, it turns into something you can’t go without, as viewers would not be interested in what you have to offer them. In short, a website is expected to produce an interactive journey.
Scrolling is everything but new, but it is surprising how popular it still is. Nowadays, it makes use of parallax effects, psychedelic images, and even breakthroughs in 3D. The more detailed it is, the easier it becomes to keep viewers interested. A great example is Stone & Style’s black crystal page, with immersive animations that lead viewers without actual cues.
Final thoughts
As you read, there are many innovations for experts in web design, and 2022 only shows a few hints. Designers seem to pave the path toward innovation, rather than following it. The goal is simple: making the web experience more creative and bringing it closer to the users.
We may argue that the key tools are retro throwbacks to a forgotten era. Or, we can say that designers are pushing handmade interactions to make sites more relatable. We’d be right in both cases: websites are there to amaze viewers, be that in a well-known or completely unconventional way.
