Web design is responsible for almost ninety-five percent of a visitor’s first impression of your business, and good design can assist you to improve sales numbers.
That’s why it’s more significant than ever to integrate contemporary web design into your marketing strategy.
But what are the modern web design trends for 2021 and how can you use them to refresh your site?
Read on for 10 modern web design trends you can steal to get inspired this year!
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White space
Modern website design returns to minimalism with a tide of useful white space, much like in print magazines.
Like natural currents, white space helps move visitors through the pages of your site, moving from element to element – and creates a visual hierarchy where no element distracts from the whole.
The white space of the breathing room allows the eyes of the spectators to rest. It also makes it easier to understand by defining the relationships between the elements on the page.
When two items are close together with little white space in between, human eyes will see them as a single unit. On the other hand, if two items are further apart, your eyes will see them separately.
White space permits visitors to recognize your website hierarchy. And, they utilize white space to discover the most important information on pages, so knowing how to utilize white space on your site will assist to improve your website’s user experience (UX).
See how that takes you straight to all the important stuff? The amount of white space it leaves for its modern site design allows your eyes to travel comfortably, giving you plenty of places to rest.
This modern web design example redefines minimalism with the thoughtful use of white space.
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Full page headers
Full-page headers are the way forward for modern web design in 2021.
Custom web Design Company can implement header variations, but a common setup is to add key text or call-to-action (CTA) buttons to the left of the header with eye-catching images to the right…
This is because readers tend to focus most of their attention on the upper left corner of your page.
Case in point: Discord’s website offering a voice and text chat app for gamers is a good example.
Discord features a fun, quirky image to the right of their header and highlights the benefits of their paid service on the left. Their CTA buttons are clearly marked and tell viewers exactly what they need to do to get the additional experiences.
As you scroll down, you’ll find that Discord bundles the site elements into cards, making their information stylish, easy to find, and easy to read, while still maintaining the fun element. You can see how websites like this generate a sense of playful sophistication.
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Playful sliders
Modern websites often feature sliders that make viewing pages a whole new experience.
Implementing playful cursors on your site in 2021 can be as easy as changing the shape of the cursor or as complex as coding cursor-triggered animations. Either way, your visitors will have a great time interacting with unique sliders.
Example: Paolo Fornasier has set up a great slider on his online portfolio. The slider displays different photos with rippling animation and piano tone as it scrolls over the vertically aligned text in the navigation menu.
Due to the playful nature of the animation, users easily spend a few minutes hovering their cursor over the navigation menu.
Your slider doesn’t have to be as complex as this one, but adding a unique element to your slider will add spice to your website.
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Dynamic scrolling
Dynamic scrolling is another contemporary web design trend for 2021.
A variety of dynamic scrolling sets dissimilar scrolling speeds for the background and foreground of your website to provide visitors with a 3D effect.
Example: Take a look at the Crypton site to see how fun dynamic scrolling makes a site.
Background video can also fit into dynamic scrolling, where video only plays as users scroll – and with dynamic scrolling, you can trigger animations and make your images look magical.
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Custom illustrations
Illustrations bring your brand and website to life.
When it comes to illustrations, the modern web design for 2021 takes inspiration from the print edition and other traditional art formats.
Gone are the days of cookie-cutter archival images, with websites incorporating custom artwork into their modern web design in 2021.
Example: Take a look at the art of famous illustrator Alice Lee, for example. She has designed custom illustrations for popular brands like Macy’s and The Washington Post.
His art helped spark a growing trend of custom illustrations for brands that look like they’re straight out of a storybook.
And, illustrations continue to evolve beyond 2D design with increased coding capabilities.
Even now, digital designs attract 3D illusions that add another layer of depth to the internet.
For example:
- The slow change from one color to another with a gradient gradient
- Digital cutting styles that mimic designs cut from layers of paper
- 3D cursor interaction that users can’t help but interact with on your site
- Grid design
Modern web designers will continue to play with grids in 2021 – and an asymmetrical layout is likely to become even more popular.
Example: Jingqi Fan’s online portfolio shows how functional an asymmetric layout can be. Her site features plenty of white space and a minimalist style that showcases her project’s images, while the asymmetrical design keeps her site fresh, exciting, and engaging.
Many great designers use CSS Grid Layout to bring all the functionality of print layout to the web.
Also known as Grid, CSS Grid Layout is a 2D grid layout system for Cascading Style Sheet, a coding language that describes the layout of an HTML site page. Grid allows web design and development services provider to create layouts for complex responsive web design more easily and consistently across all browsers.
The CSS grid layout still has methods to go before it becomes friendly with all interfaces, but it carry on to gain momentum as a top web design trend for 2021.
- Color trends in 2021
Modern website design explores color palettes and every year a new popular color for the web is released. It was blue in 2019 and it was mint in 2020. For 2021, trend forecasting firm WGSN and Color have named A.I. Their color of the year for 2021 Aqua which is a tech-inspired shade of blue.
Overall, Venngage predicts that online color palettes will become more subdued in 2021.
Gradients are a trend that continues from 2020 to 2021, and designers will likely continue to explore the depths to which they can take the design with gradients. And because gradients cover a range of colors, they’re great for targeting a large audience.
Color psychology will also play a big part in web design trends for 2021. Make sure to research the psychology behind the colors before you generate a new color palette for your business. Your colors must match your brand.
Some smaller web design trends in colors will likely continue from 2020 to 2021. It looks like:
Soft and cool colors (blues, teal, and gray) = background and background
Bright, warm colors (reds, oranges, even green) = Calls to Action (CTA)
Example: Check out the Trello website for collaboration and project organization software.
This website is a great example of incorporating muted color palettes and gradients into a smooth, illustrative design. They even showcase their CTA in a bright color!
- Bold fonts
Modern web design will play with fonts even more in 2021. San-serif and serif fonts are more popular than ever, and the vintage type is surprisingly making a comeback in terms of branding.
Underlined and bold characters also show their faces in many places – from brand names to landing page headers, where the most prominent type tendency is text dominating the screen.
Example: see how Startup Lab plays with bold cut-out images. These give the site a bold and chunky feel, while also presenting itself as a professional.
Fun, isn’t it?
Also, see how they incorporated stenciled letters into their brand name? It announces a somewhat grungy effect, which is nicely contrasted by the bubblegum pink of the page. A bold choice, but they did well.
Make sure you choose a font that matches your brand, your audience, and the purpose you have for your business.
Also, be sure to choose an easy-to-read font for the body text of any content you have on your site. The readability of your text is one of the essential factors to improve the user experience of your site. A simple, unpretentious sans-serif like Arial is a great choice.
- Increased emphasis on UX / UI
Modern trends in web design have focused on humans in 2020, and it will become even more prominent in 2021.
Your site’s user experience should be smooth, uninterrupted, and engaging in 2021. This means:
- Fast page loading
- Small footprint (use that white space!)
- Relevant and scannable SEO content
- Multimedia
Web designers combine functionality with creativity to create a great user experience, relying on a clean design while remaining creative and unique in all good ways. The best web designers throw a bit of a mess into the white, sterile world of tech.
Along with UX, your site’s user interface (UI) should be intuitive in 2021. This means:
- Voice interfaces
- Image captions
- Video transcript
- No annoying element
- Balanced motion design
- Improve the UX / UI of your site by:
- Provide visitors with easy-to-read content and easy-to-use interfaces
Hit their sweet aesthetic tooth
It is also important to note that mobile browsing will increase in 2021 compared to 2020. Over 50% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices, and that number is expected to increase.
For a website to have a successful modern web design in 2021, all of its elements must be perfectly translated on desktop and mobile. Mobile responsive animation and videography will become increasingly important in modern web design.
Chobani gives mobile consumers a sleek, completely responsive design that makes full use of white space. Their content is easily scanned with eye-catching and mouth-watering photos of their products.
With an easy-to-click CTA banner at the bottom of the screen, Chobani knows how to engage her mobile audience.
- Impactful and Engaging Stories
Finally, modern websites in 2021 will shine for storytelling.
To grow your site into a truly modern website, learn how to tell compelling stories in your content and ad campaigns.
With a compelling story and a sleek website design, your website is certain to engage and convert your target users.
Example: The website for the sustainable food brand Zume is a good example of using your website to tell a story.
Zume spotted a problem, decided to fix it, and they’re telling the world how they’re doing it by making meal preparation more efficient, one meal at a time.
The site is clean and scannable, and it has lots of images and infographics as well as a very engaging video explaining who they are and what they are for.
