10 Web Design Trends for 2019

Web design trends are always changing. I think that we can all agree that some of the coolest and engaging design trends a few years ago are not as appealing for today’s users. Some website design trends change year to year and even if they are subtle, they are always worth paying attention to when deciding how to update your website’s creative. Continue reading to learn what design trends to look out for in 2019.

1. Text Going Off Images

Websites are no longer designed like flat squares and design elements don’t exist in organized grids. Designers are starting to move away from clean pixel perfect layouts. Why? This style makes images look less constricted. Placing text that runs off of the images and is slightly misaligned adds to this design style (you can see an example of this here). The end result looks really nice and can help user focus on what you need to tell them instead of the image.

2. Bold Colors

It’s important for your ecommerce website to stand out from the crowd, and more importantly, your competitors. More websites are beginning to use color schemes that are bold and bright. Color is a powerful element that, if used correctly, can draw a lot of interest to the users who land on your site by setting a mood, influencing their emotions, perceptions, and actions. Over 90% of our assessment of a product that we are considering to purchase is made on color alone. So it only makes sense to use bold colors in order to stand out from the background and just give your site more energy overall. Picking colors that aren’t distracting can be difficult. At Electric Enjin, we use tools like uigradients to find the right combination of gradients and Adobe Color to find the right combinations of harmonious colors.

3. Original illustrations

Steer clear from stock photography in 2019. Shoppers are interacting more with original illustrations and photography rather than overused and unnatural-looking stock photography. People are following brands that have a natural look on their website and use candid photos, such as user generated content. Clean and simple illustrations can be used to change the entire personality of your website, although we don’t see digital illustrations used often because they can be costly. But imagine how unique your website can be if you use your own content instead of paying for stock photography that anyone of your competitors can also have. You have full creative control over your original illustrations and photos, allowing you to customize them with your brand’s style, colors, and messaging.

4. Transition animations

Transition animations are big now, and they are going to get more popular in the coming year. A lot of websites are using animations in their background or to transition through images on their website. In addition, some websites use this element to reveal animation as you scroll through their site. By using animations, you can draw the eye of your visitors to a part of your website that you want them to pay attention to without distracting them from the main information. Animations will not only make your website more interesting and engaging, but will aso add a lot of your own brand personality to it.

In addition to the benefits above, there is also a fun way of telling a story by using scrolling. This can be done with engaging animations through the whole experience. We’ve officially labeled this unique approach as Scrollertelling (Scroll + Storytelling). By revealing benefits, features, and the brand story through animation that’s tied directly to the scrolling, the viewer is able to just focus on just the major takeaways. It’s an amazing approach to engage users and convert them into actual customers.

You can see an example of this type of animation on our about us page and also on apple’s microsite.

5. Microinteractions

Microinteractions are events on your website that create an engaging moment for users. These microinteractions communicate something to users in a creative way, they enhance your site, and they help people see the results of what they are looking for quicker.

For example, a microinteraction in the navigation menu of your site could improve it tremendously if you are trying to get users to see a call to action as soon as they are on your site. Also, if you want users to see tips, statistics, or any other call-outs of information, using hover states can provide that information in an interactive way.

When you add microinteractions to your website, you are taking the user a step further in terms of engagement. These animations respond to what your visitors click or interact with on the page. By using microinteractions, you are creating a unique and positive experience for users by handing them the power over what they see on your site.

When microinteractions are done right, they can change the perspective of your brand; they can generate positive feelings from users and influence their actions.

6. Hyper-personalization

Hyper-personalization is content that is designed to be unique and personalized to each individual user experience, making it more relevant to the user. Hyper-personalization will take information based off what the user likes, what they have purchased, how they have engaged with the site, and in the end, it will create experiences that drive them down the sales funnel based on their past interactions.

Amazon is a great example of a brand that uses hyper-personalization successfully. Finding what you want on Amazon can be difficult with all of the products its database has to offer. If it weren’t for hyper-personalization, Amazon wouldn’t analyze your previous behavior and push products to you according to what you like or what you search for. If you want to use hyper-personalization on your site, you should probably start first by collecting data and segmenting your customers so that you know the persona group that the information is coming from. In order to do this, you can use a sign up form or do social media surveys.

7. Fullscreen Navigations

Full screen navigation is flexible and enhances the user experience. Some examples of this type of navigation are from these site that use it and do a great job: awwwards and drygital. When using these type of navigations, you are giving the user a more engaging experience with top level navigation. Menus are the principal way in which user interact, imagine if it is full screen and creates a better way of guiding users to the desired content on your site. This design tactic also allows you to put the content or information that you want users to see up and front, so there is no way that they can’t really avoid it. These types of menus sometimes include interactive videos or virtual talks.

8. Tactile Design

Blending tactile with digital can add some emotional connection with the imagery on your site. Tactile web design brings users to a new experience on your site with the touch of realism added. Simply, tactile design makes objects appear real in the digital space.

You can start using tactile design on your website by adding more depth to images. This is done by adding more shadows to them so they look like they are in 3D. By using tactile design, you are bringing images to life and adding more emphasis on what you want your visitors to see when on your page. It can be a subtle change, but a little touch of realism can cause a big change in the user experience of your website.

Tactile design can make a site stand out by providing visual interest and emotional connections. Because of its realism, it can be easily relatable to what it is actually representing. In addition, it modernizes your site and grabs more attention.

9. Pinterest-Style Gallery or Product Organization

Broken and asymmetrical grids (similar to a Pinterest board) are a fun way to add design to your image galleries or product organization. Grids help maintain a sense of design consistency throughout the website, but this disorganized grid trend has gained popularity because it breaks from the usual while still maintaining consistency and not coming across as sloppy or distracting.

In order to create a good asymmetrical design, there must be some thought put into it. You can do this by creating a hierarchy with planned asymmetry. Hierarchy can be achieved by grouping colors, textures, images or typography and organizing them in meaningful patterns so that users can categorize the information in your site. Size and color can also be used in your gallery to show what elements demand more attention. 

10. Single Page Design

Single pages are websites that use only one HTML page. In this type of design, each menu item is an anchor for something on the page – meaning that once an user clicks it, it will go to that section of the page. In this type of design the most important information should be on the top portion of your site so that it does not get lost at the end of the page.

People want information in the quickest amount of time. For this reason, and for the fact that they are so easy to manage, single page websites are trending. Single page designs are good if you want users to grab the information they need from you in a quick way. Although, if you want to improve your SEO, this would not be the right fit for you. While search engines prefer speedy, clean and simple, mobile-friendly websites, there is less content and less pages to be found through search with this type of a design.