Ever since the advent of the web, three decades ago, it has brought tremendous changes in our lives. The developments in web designing have also been noteworthy over these years. It is mandatory to keep up with the changes in web design to survive in a highly competitive market. Take some time in updating your web design today to save it from getting out-dated tomorrow.
This article contains the top 10 trends that you will need to watch out for in 2020 to survive in the competition.
- Simple Design
A simple and minimalistic design is a sign of sophistication. Moreover, a simplistic design can be interpreted in thousands of different ways; so it can mean differently to different people. Use as much white-space as you can and make sure that no element steals the light from the visual hierarchy. The design is to enhance the experience while reading or looking at the content on the website. So, the web design should serve its purpose and take away readers’ attention from the actual content. Many experts in the industry expect to have a stripped-back style of design and attract the audience with that. It is such a design that includes a minimum number of colors and the content being in complete focus. Here, content is given more priority than the design and thus, more space is utilized for content then the other designing elements. More than being visually good, such a website will also take less time to load and thus, improve the user experience.
- AI
Artificial Intelligence is proving its applications in many fields and web design is not left from it. There are two major applications of AI in web designing. The first one is the artificial design intelligence. This lets you automate the entire web designing process. The design becomes quite easy, cheap and fast because of ADI and this buys the developers more time to work on something more crucial. The designers who adopt this method will only understand the real benefits that come with using this technology in designing their website. The second application of AI in web designing is contextual. This will make the website more human-like and enhance user experience. This includes augmenting Virtual Reality (VR) in the web design in such an effortless manner that use would not even notice the change and still have an enhanced experience. It is all about tailoring the personal experience for the users based on the circumstances. Using this, they can be displayed different content and design also depending on their location, operating system, language, etc.
Apart from this, the AI technology has also let you include the chatbot services for 24-hour service and support for your customers or users in general.
- Voice
Voice is growing at a tremendous rate and is trending currently and will continue to do so in the upcoming years too. Technology has provided the people with Siri and Alexa and that has made them habitual of speaking the things they want rather than typing them with fingers. So, it is becoming mandatory for websites to include the voice feature to let the users request by speaking about it. We owe it to the audio controllers for having seen such a change in our digital experience. The voice module VUI is enhancing the navigation across the website. More than any other kind of website, the eCommerce websites will get a lot of benefit from this as it makes the online shopping process very easy and simple. As its applications are clearly visible, it is predicted that many companies will integrate the VUI feature on their websites and voice search will become more and more popular with each passing day. This will not only improve the users’ experience but also make it easy for the smart speakers to search for the query fed by their user.
- 3-Dimensional Modelling
3D Models and Rendering is not a new trend as such. But, there had been many barriers in its path before which have now been removed and it is expected to grow in 2020. One of the main reasons for it not being so popular before was that 3D modeling was very expensive then, and thus, most of the designers could not afford it. These costs have now dropped a little and are expected to drop a furthermore and we will get to see many websites with 3D modeling. For example, a 3D model would rotate slowly around the screen and will let you navigate the website by scrolling and clicking on the model itself. You need to keep in mind that such models when included in the website, it will affect the loading time. Still, it is expected to see this technology evolve and being widely used in 2020 and years after.
- User focus
Users are the most important entities on any website because they are the ones for whom the website was developed in the first place. But, most designers forget to think from the users’ perspective when designing the web-pages. You need to make sure you understand the kind of questions or problems with which the user would come to your website and then design in accordance with those thoughts to design a more interactive and user-friendly website. This trend is surely going to see an elevation in the year 2020. If the user does not find what he/she is looking for on the website, then they are bound to leave and look somewhere else. So, keep your design so apt that users can find immediately and very swiftly a solution to their problem. So, an organized structure of the design is what is expected by the users.
- No more flat designs
Flat designs – simple designs or block-color designs dominated by the end of the first decade of the 21st century. At the same time, it has had its own critics and it is now believed to be given up on. There have been many issues while the flat designs were tested for users and such behaviors are not affordable by the websites in today’s time. Simple designs are still acceptable, but some context is required. Buttons cannot just be some words placed in a box. There have to be some animations to make them catchy. The gradients have also gone out of style. So, it’s high time you too give up on flat designs and go for something more creative.
- Facility for disabled people
Accessibility is not only going to be trending, but it is going to be one of the major priorities of the web designers. Everybody must be welcomed with open arms. The website should be designed in such a way that it is easily accessible by people with disabilities too. Many businesses are being sued for not having this facility on their websites under the Disabilities Act. Apart from this, it is a part of your corporate social responsibilities. You can use this to advertise and look better among others who do not have this facility provided on their websites.
- Data is the new oil
Data has now become more important than it was ever before and its importance is the only gin to increase with each passing day. Collecting data is very important for each and every type of industry and the data collection is going to model the web designing world in the year 2020. The designs should be developed with the perspective of user data and user behavior. The designs should now be made based on what is known to work efficiently rather than on what will work supposedly.
- Micro-Interactivity
The animations in the user interface of the website are considered as micro-interactions. The animations can add life to the elements that were earlier just lying lifeless on the page. This change is a step towards enhancing the user experience and that is the prime goal of any web design. While uploading an image, if you see the status of the image file being uploaded, the marker moving from 0% to 100%, and then a pop-up coming up to indicate the success of upload is an example of micro-interaction. The color of a button changing upon being hovered, the card flipping upon being hovered to show detailed information about the image on the front, etc. are all micro-interactions. Try to include them in as many elements of the website as you can to make the website more user-friendly and creative. These add tangibility to the website and users can feel what is happening. The best example is when you press the Like button on someone’s post on Facebook. The ‘thumbs up’ symbol on the button would animate and you can get a feeling that you actually liked something. This way, the micro-interactions can connect to the users emotionally. Individually, these small changes would not make much difference, but when integrated to form the whole website; it will make the website appear lively. It will leave an impact on the user, no matter how long he/she stayed on the website, and this will make them come again to your website.
- Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality is a mixture of reality and virtual reality. It has not seen a breakthrough yet, but it most likely to see it in the year 2020. AR is supposed to benefit the most from the eCommerce websites and many of them have already known this fact and included AR on their websites too. There is an option on the Lenskart website that lets the users try the spectacles on to see how they would look on their face and thus, they can choose the best as per their choice. This is an application of AR. This can also be done with other eCommerce websites that sell clothes, shoes, make-up, jewelry, etc. This will make the online shopping experience more convenient and take out the fear of mystery from people’s minds. AR is surely going to be one o the trends of web designing in 2020.
These were just the top 10 of the trends in web design in 2020. There are going to be many other trends too. Just see that you try to make your web design innovate, creative, and unique. Keeping up with the trends will only let you survive in the market because there are many substitutions available and the options will only increase with time.
