September 09, 2022 - BY Admin
Wondering how to freshen up your website, but would like to do it in line with the latest, most up-to-date trends in web design?
Web design, like other aspects of design, moves fast. There are many emerging trends for 2022 and we’ll have a look at the main ones. But, keep in mind, they won’t all be right for your brand – we’ll help you to understand what might and might not work for your business.
Website design should always be user-led
In considering any new website design, you should always have user-experience uppermost in mind. It’s no good having all the bells and whistles if they don’t delight your user and add to the positive interaction with your brand.
Browsers and customers expect to be delighted by websites more than they’ve ever been, with a streamlined, intuitive navigation that allows them to get what they want as quickly as possible.
Making a big deal of negative space
Use of white space has always been crucial in professional, well-ordered and easy-to-use websites, but things are ramping up. Users expect white space – and not to be bombarded by multiple panels and navigational options. Think the opposite of a busy screen.
Negative space helps your site be more responsive, guide users’ focus and aids simpler navigational, so there are some real benefits to integrating it into your site, particularly if you’re an e-commerce business.
Check out the Pocket Penguins website to see a great example of the use of white space.
Bolder than bold typography
Bold, and potentially experimental, typography is getting bigger for 2022. It depends on the impact you want to make, and what’s appropriate for your brand, but simple statements and slogans in oversized type are increasingly used to make a compelling visual impact on users.
Brands that use this type of typography ooze confidence, authority and independence, inspiring tribal feelings of wanting to belong in their club. Ask yourself if this impact fits with the values of your brand, if not, don’t use it.
If you want to see an example, look at the Square Space website, which uses bold typography to get their information over with clarity.
Retro-style design
A definite trend for 2022, website design attempts to make browsers feel positive by taking them back to ‘golden eras’ in their past. Beware with this trend that it must align with your brand or seriously miss its connection with browsers.
Retro-style design can include simple shapes, two-tone color schemes, linework, vintage-looking typography, cartoon images and retro-feel textures, and be used just for a product or a whole brand identity. While these designs can seem ‘busy’ it can help to keep other design elements like navigation and carts as simple as possible.
For a great example of retro-style website design, check out the Shop Mr Beast website.
Refined hero sections
Sometimes called a ‘hero banner’ this is usually the topmost section, or banner, of your website that often is the full width of the website. It’s the header or message in bold, or slogan, you most want to impact browsers when they arrive at your website.
Making these hero sections as simple as possible is a kickback from when brands wanted as much information as possible on the homepage. Since it’s now known that browsers hate to be bombarded, it’s aimed for these sections to be as few and as minimal as possible.
A good hero section should just have: an impactful heading that makes your USP clear, a minimal paragraph of copy, a call to an action and one key image or video.
See the Apple website for a good example of a super-refined hero section.
Horizontal scrolling
You might be surprised, since we are so used to scrolling vertically through websites these days, however, more designers are integrating horizontal scrolling, particularly if they want to share a lot of images and/or interactive areas, like maps.
Horizontal scrolling is actually more of an intuitive experience than vertical scrolling and can give the user a positive experience. Think about how we swipe horizontally on smartphones. It’s so useful to share large galleries of images. But it must be integrated properly, as functionality issues are more common than with vertical scrolling.
A great example of horizontal scrolling can be found at the Coal House website.
Are you inspired?
These are just some of the ways you can refresh and update your website to use the latest trends and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to your online present.
Choose the design concept that aligns with your brand and always keep user experience as your priority.
