2018 Web Design Trends That Will Change The Way Users Interact With Your Website

Effective Web Design is all about engagement. Find out what web design trends in 2018 are going to have the biggest impact on the way users interact on your website.

 

2018 Web Design Trends That Will Change User Interaction

2017 was an excellent year for web design, but a threatening year for data security. While malware and ransomware stole data from Yahoo, Uber, and Equifax, Russia meddled with PPC ads to tweak the US elections. A lot of crazy things happened in 2017, but 2018 is going to be a completely different ballgame!

For those in the design industry, there is plenty of great news. This year is going to be the year of new design trends in both website design and graphic design that are targeted at converting visitors into sales. As we’ve all seen in terms of website design, what’s trending today, will be obsolete tomorrow. So, what are UX/UI designers looking to tweak in the coming year?

Here, we have compiled a list of leading design trends that are already defining the dawn of the new year:

 

1. Standing Out With the Use of Bold & Bright

bold and bright

We have already seen the widespread use of negative space trending in design. The perfect match for white space is the use of bold fonts to draw the user’s attention to specific messages. With mobile becoming such a high priority, the use of bold fonts and bright colors is going to play a huge role in making readability more streamlined for the mobile experience. The use of fonts will also play a much larger role in upcoming web design due to the fact that they load much faster than images and scale more efficiently all helping a faster load time and superior performance. With Google’s most recent statements, there is no debate that faster loading sites like QuickSprout and https://omegaseo.co often rank much higher in the SERPs.

 

2. Mobile Friendly is a Big Priority

The use of images is important for impact, but mobile first is most certainly causing the use of images to recede. In web design, we’re seeing a huge push to replace images with icons and text. Google has already rolled out their new mobile-first index. This means Google will create and rank its search listings based on the mobile version of content, even for listings that are shown to desktop users. Google has also just released a public statement that page speed will become a key ranking factor for mobile indexing and that this will be an official roll out in the coming months.

 

3. Graphics to Replace Those Images

hand drawn web icons

With images on their way out, graphic designers are having a hay day creating icons. This year is going to be the ideal year for 2D design, which will lead to faster loading times, better UX and higher conversion rates. We’re seeing a lot of hand drawn icons coming into play this year as well as a resurgence of gradients. I know, who would have thought, but many web designers are making a big impact using fast loading css driven gradients instead of large background images. The hand drawn icon craze may have been an extension to the hand sketch craze that became so popular in video marketing in 2017.

 

4. Speaking of Video, Video and Animation are Booming

Video marketing has a direct impact on web design and 2018 is going to be huge for video. SEO company, The HOTH, stated that 2018 is the year of video SEO and you know it’s true with statistics like this;

 

There’s no debate that people just engage better with animation, consequently in 2018 you’re going to see a lot more web friendly video usage and animated gifs to motivate consumers.

 

5. The awakening of micro-interactions

Communicating effectively to your audience is important in web design and that’s exactly why micro-interactions are becoming a major player in web design for 2018. Facebook has already pioneered the micro-interaction trend, and it is only a matter of time before other websites pick it up too. The idea behind this design trend is to introduce real-time interaction for the users. Many old-school sites still ask their users to reload forms or leave a page upon submission of reviews or submission of a comment. In case of micro-interaction supporting websites, users can communicate with the site in real time. They can scroll to leave ratings and expand a section of the page to leave comments, instead of opening a whole new web page. Micro-interactions are designed specifically to engage with the user in a very appealing way.

 

6. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

How can anyone talk about 2018, without mentioning VR or AR even once? It is the year for 360! Companies are using VR to give virtual tours of their workplace. Tourism companies are offering an in-office experience of exotic holidays using AR. Users can scroll each item and visit each angle while using a 360 device like Oculus or Google Cardboard. In fact, 3D is becoming very mainstream for promotions, advertisements, and gaming. Programmers and designers are still fine tuning the codes necessary to support 3D websites and applications. However, rendering something in 3D for a 360-degree view is going to be no walk in the park even for some of the best designers of 2017.

 

7. Including the human factor in design

Satya Nadella may have made it more obvious lately by focusing on designing products that are more accessible for all users, but inclusivity has been a topic of discussion among website designers, graphic designers, and engineers for quite a large part of 2017. The trend of inclusivity means to include designs that enhance the human experience. The idea is not to design for “more” people or “most” people. In fact, the idea is to design for the specific user of specific website or product. Brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Target, Apple and Facebook have finally declared their unequivocal support for expanding access to all users. It includes designing apps, clothes, and products for people with different abilities. 2018 is going to be a great year for designers and user alike, thanks to the evolution of human-centric designs that allow businesses to engage with more people on a more meaningful level.

 

We are standing on the cusp of an iconic revolution in the history of design technology. The new trends in design will not only facilitate the integration of differently-abled users, VR users and new websites and they will also boost the AI industry.