Design Trends For Websites 2023
Every year brings a new list of design trend predictions for websites. 2023 is no different with design forums discussing 30-plus trends that are expected to dominate web design. From science fiction to cinematography, the trends are varied.
With competition constantly increasing, it is all about the user experience and improving user engagement.
Word of warning!
A trend is, by definition, time limited. Very few businesses want to completely redesign their website every year in response to a trend. We like incorporating flavours and highlights, making sure the web design has a degree of longevity as well as being spot on trend.
The right web design trend can give you the right results
Your website design needs to give a great user experience, which in turn will result in improved engagement rates, and more CTA clicks. The visual design, coupled with brilliant optimisation and structure, will give you the results you want from your website.
Want to know more about the trends for 2023? Give us a call. We would love to chat about what could work for your brand.
Remember your market
Knowing your customer profile will help decide which trends will appeal to your market, and complement your brand.
For example, if your customer base is 43 to 58 years old, they fall within the definition of Generation X. They may be on your website looking for products or services for themselves, their children, or their parents. A busy generation, with tech knowledge but little time for fuss, the trends you follow need to be based on simplicity.
Gen Y will respond well to videos, visuals and a modern design. Aged 27 – 42 years old, considering themselves to be tech-savvy, they want to be treated to something clever.
Gen Z has an interesting age range (11 – 26 years) for website marketing, with many not yet having easy direct website access or the ability to be the direct consumer. Y2K is seen as vintage nostalgia but it needs to be quick, be great on a mobile and have strong links to socials. You may need to appeal to Gen Z and Gen X to appeal to the user and the purchaser.
All the trends can be appealing to all Generations if incorporated in the right way. That’s where we come in.
Here we highlight four of our favourite design trends to give you a flavour of what you can expect to see in web design in 2023.
Colours.
There are some strong colour statements this year ranging from neon to pastel. Yep, we know! How extreme can a year of website design trends be?!
Pantone announced their colour of the year as Viva Magenta – “a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a new signal of strength. Viva Magenta is brave and fearless, and a pulsating colour whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration”.
Y2K.
If you are of an age when you think of retro and vintage being the 1960s/70s, think again. It’s all about Y2K. Historically, nostalgic trends were a 40-year cycle, but with everything moving at a faster pace in life now, it seems we are now on a 20-year cycle, and 2000 is back!
This works well across all Generations, either bringing a nostalgic feel of memories of days lived, or as a throw-back to technologically simple times.
As with any retro trend, the trick is to be influenced by, and give a nod to, the original with a modern twist.
Colours lean towards metallic, and shiny, based on candy bright monochromes.
Fonts were weird and wacky back in the day! Technology allowed designers to have more fun in the 2000s giving a futuristic fun style to fonts. We had no idea back in 2000 that the future would be about accessibility with font size, colour and form being led by readability. Fun can still be had though with this Y2K style in 2023.
The look can include glitches (think dial-up days of slow loading and blurred images), or a scrapbook design and can even incorporate a changing cursor. Whilst having a cursor that turns into a Pacman may not match your brand, we are sure we can design something suitable for the cursor to morph into to add that Y2K fun to your website design in 2023.
Movement.
Websites in 2023 will be dynamic, incorporating movement.
Text – whether floating, merging, changing colour, or appearing. You name it, text movement includes it all in 2023. It can draw a user’s attention to specific information, highlight a call to action, or just add some fun.
Scrolling Effects – making the website dynamic through scrolling effects can keep the user on your website for longer, as they become involved in the website and want to see what will appear next.
Animation – adding a full 3D experience will enhance the user experience. This could be in the background with text and images overlaid, or be the dominant feature of the website. To link in with the Y2K trend, why not add a loading animation to keep the user engaged and interested before the website is shown?
Overlapping text and images.
This is a great way of maximising screen space and works well on mobile sites. Text can be vertical, horizontal, dynamic or static.
This moves away from the traditional grid approach where images and text stay in their own space. It brings a magazine look to the website and can be very striking. There can be a readability cost which means the effect needs to be used with care.
