Why 'User Friendly' Matters

Web design matters more now than ever before, with the global pandemic pushing so many stores and users online. However, with more web design comes more design for the sake of design  . A website that looks unique and trendy is great!... as a portfolio piece, but if no one can actually  use it, then it fails its purpose as a website. As a web designer creating sites for a client, it is always important to think of the target audience and how they will use the site. With that in mind, let's get into some trendy techniques!

Returning to Serif Fonts

Back in the days when print-media was all we had, serif fonts were intended to increase readability and reduce printing errors ( you can read more about it here !). Once we hit the digital age, we transitioned back to sans-serif fonts and their sleek, modern designs. A lot of that switch was related to CRT monitors and their inability to correctly and easily display serif fonts - the resolution just wasn't up to scratch. Jump forward to 2021 where we're moving from HD to Full HD to Ultra HD, that issue simply doesn't exist anymore.

Parallax Scroll Animations

Websites with parallax scrolling have been a trendy part of web design for years now, and that's simple because they do a lot for the user experience. They provide movement, visual stimulation, and smoothly take you through the 'story' being told by the site. That said, parallax animations are very difficult to get right, and when done wrong they can greatly hinder your site. What makes them trendy in 2021 is the more simplistic and minimalistic approach that people have been taking. Small parallax animations here and there to bring attention to certain information, or just to simply add some joy to a web page, are great modern additions to web design.

• There are a few general rules to take note of:
  
• Don't let the animation distract from the information
• Don't make it harder to complete a task, or navigate the website
• Only use parallax scrolls sparingly - don't overuse them
• Minimize the amount of movement in each parallax to prevent nausea
• Constrain parallax effects to a small area of the screen
• And most importantly, Include an option to turn off parallax effects.
  

Light Colours

The history of colours in media, both print and digital, is quite similar to fonts - since lighter colours became more washed out when printed, most publications that could print in colour instead of simply black and white, used darker and richer colours. These days, we have the technology to see bright and exciting colours as they were intended, and a lot of web designers are utilizing this with fantastic results. Brighter colours bring about a sense of joy and happiness to a web page, which is often conducive to more engagement from the users.

Negative Colours

In direct contrast, the other side of the design sphere has reverted back to the 90s and its clashing, contrasting colours - particularly the primary colours. These looks are bold and aggressive, and are very specifically tailored to a younger and more energetic audience. This design aesthetic is often connected to club culture, giving it strong roots in the music industry.

3D Visuals

One of the most recent innovations to web design is the use of 3D visuals instead of photos or minimalist cartoon graphics (which are still both widely used!), to create more of a quirky, fun, and up-beat aesthetic. This is another area that high-resolution monitors have vastly improved readability, and with 3D modelling software like Blender being free, it can be relatively low cost when creating graphics yourself. This low cost does come with the downfall of often taking a long time to create, and currently there aren't many resources out there to simply buy 3d assets for your website.

Animated Typography

This trend is great at adding movement and liveliness to an otherwise static web page, and the unique contrast that it creates because of this makes it a strong and effective way to tell a story on your site. Watch out though - too much movement will make text becomes unreadable and a hindrance to your website overall, but get it just right, and you have an eye-catching display that draws attention to a specific set of copy.

Let's See Where The Year Takes Us

Trends are changing all the time, and designing websites around them can often be volatile and risky, coming and going out of style as the seasons change. We have hand-picked this collection of trends specifically because we believe that they will continue to be effective design techniques for years to come. Though with the current online-climate, who knows what advances we'll make this year alone.