Website Design Trends 2018

As a creative studio of designers, developers and thinkers, we are constantly looking forward and constantly trying be ahead of the game, while still implementing the same user experience that our partners love. Let’s take a look at some website design trends this year that will provide you with that edge, point of difference and creating more value for your business and brand.

Minimalism and Bold Colour

Bright colour, bold and minimal design are the benchmark for today’s website designs. Although we’re including it in our website design trends for 2018, simple design will never go out style. With advances in monitors, colour saturation and brightness, minimalism doesn’t have to be dull. What we’re seeing with minimalism right now is a recognisable focus on one dose of content, without clashing from other components. This could be a photo, logotype or simple block of text. Elements such as navigation, contact information or footers are almost buried in the design. The minimalism and bold trend will continue with even more blank spaces. Especially white spaces for a clean, multipurpose functional design. See an example here.

Engaging custom photographic content

Consumers can spot stock photos from a mile away, it’s very easy to see through the ‘feeling’ in the images. For business’s and brands that are in an industry where emotional connections are central, this is an easy way to lose that authenticity. It’s far too easy to see through the image of a staged “Pretty Young Woman Smiling At Her Desk”, and to see how posed/forced that smile is. By using custom photography you can focus on capturing genuine authentic moments that run through your brand, and creating something that people can connect with.

Custom Illustrations

We’ve all seen how valuable custom photography has been over the last few years and how it can elevate your brand and help differentiate from competitors, If it makes sense and aligns to your business’s vision to create custom illustrations to showcase who you are and what you’re about, then do it! We will be seeing a lot more of this and it will be magnificent. Bring it on

Loki Creative website design trends - illustration

Small Animations

Animations are increasingly becoming popular, they are beginning to replace static images and graphics on websites. Small animations are advantageous for captivating the user throughout your website, thus creating more value. A popular use of animations is scrolled triggered animations where as you scroll down the page, animations appear and play, making the experience a lot more enjoyable for the user.

Gradients

In 2018, expect to see gradients loud and proud with bright, bold colors. A popular use of these colorful gradients is putting them over images or as backgrounds, like how Spotify uses them.

Subtle scrolling effects

Parallax scrolling has been and gone, with many designers recognising that slow load times and a negative impact on usability represent too high a price to pay for the effect. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be joy in scrolling. Check out how this creative scrolling technique is very different and playful.

Death of the ghost button

Given the ghost button is already quite trendy and we also loving using it ourselves when creating minimal sites, it’s great for keeping a website clean and not cluttered but these buttons simply don’t call the user to action. The result can be a 20% decrease in clicks. The problem is that ghost buttons don’t offer sufficient contrast when placed over busy imagery or text. Similarly, if button text colour is too similar to background image colour, there can be a contrast issue.

Minimal Studio Shots

Images with a plain background that focus on a particular product or detail. They are best at drawing user’s attention on a specific item. This trick is used in e-commerce industry heavily. Now web designers are adopting it to increase call to action

Split Page Design

The website design trends of the split screen website seems to be growing ever more popular as we move forwards into 2018. Dividing a page into two parts allows you to group content into semantic areas. It’s a fun, functional, and responsive way to create engaging design. It’s pleasant aesthetic with a natural hierarchy allows content diversity without overwhelming users.

Loki Creative website design trends - Split Screen

Video implementation

Video implementation is another one of those trends that aren’t new. When you are trying to convey a complex idea and static images just don’t do the job, a great way to remedy this is use a video. Videos are a great way to get your viewers attention. It pulls them into your brand and will make them want to see what your brand is about.

To discuss what website design trends could work for your company, get in touch.