- Support for Widescreen Displays
Every year we follow these “design trends” posts and responsive design is always mentioned. Often for good reason: it is here to stay. But that does not mean desktop is gone. On the contrary, most desktops are getting wider with larger displays and more room. It is smart to design your site for desktops just as much as smartphones. And I have seen quite a few websites following suit with layouts wider than the usual 1440px width. This widescreen layout style does not work as well on blogs or content sites because lengthy paragraphs are harder to read. But for business websites, social networks, or very vast web apps or webpages, wider is often better.
- 3D Buttons
The wildly popular flat buttons and ghost buttons are here to stay. They’ve been around for a few years and both of them blend nicely with material design language. And one other button style I have seen recently is the 3D button. This is where the bottom border is darker than the main button colour, so it looks like the button is raised off the page. Then when you click the whole button sinks down with a click effect.
- Dark Mode
With so many users opting for “dark mode” on apps and for things such as email, it is no surprise that more webpages are also creating designs with a dark aesthetic language. (Users have said they want to love using it, so designers adapted accordingly). What makes these dark mode designs so nice and probably why they are trendy is that dark interfaces are complemented with bright accent elements and easy to read typography to ensure that the design pops and is readable.
- Artistic illustrations
Artistic Illustrations particularly elements with line-style drawing and hints of animation are gaining popularity. This website design trend seems to have gained tractions because it looks and feels authentic, unforced, and a bit whacky. Absurd Design exemplifies this with a collection of artistic elements that are imaginative, creative, and a bit absurd. Each illustration is made to look like it was sketched out on the screen itself.
- Colour Changing Gradients
There was a brief period during the height of flat design that designers shied away from colour gradients. But they came roaring back and will be even better in 2020. From bold backgrounds with multicolour gradients to subtle gradients for texture or typography, this trend is everywhere. What we are seeing now, is gradients that combines multiple colours with quite a bit of contrast, rather than more subtle or monotone gradients that were popular as of late.