Obviously it is important to be up to date and modern with our web design choices, but today's websites are also taking a page from yesterday's design in many ways. We are seeing many companies using vintage fonts, particularly from the 1970's and 1980's, and bright, energetic designs featuring primary colors and bold lines, similar to cartoons and comics from the 1990's. 2021 is also seeing lots of vintage imagery like cassette and VHS tapes, floppy disks, albums, retro computers, stamps, etc. Some of the other more popular imagery this year has included hand drawn illustrations and elements, grainy and textured visuals, 3d visuals, and lots of organic shapes. Also, while it isn't necessarily vintage or retro, elegant serif fonts, such as ones in the Georgia and Times varieties, that have been utilized less in previous years, are making a comeback on modern websites.
Color, as always, makes a huge impact on the overall look and feel of a website, and today's websites are using colors in a variety of exciting ways. Many web designers are leaning towards muted, warm, and comfortable colors that are easy on the eyes, making it a more pleasurable experience than crisp, white pages. This year we are also seeing many websites being made with dark backgrounds, or at least offering a dark or night mode, but on the inverse, there has also been a trend towards using softer pastel colors. 3d colors have also been popular design choices in 2021, as well as gradient color schemes, such as Instagram's logo. Besides just picking colors for their aesthetic appeal, more and more web designers are turning to science, using color psychology to choose colors that accurately depict the mood they are wishing to create with their web design.
Preferences in layouts have drastically changed this year as well. We are seeing less of the stereotypical grid designs for layouts and more asymmetric layouts. While rectangular layouts are still the thing, they are shifting to more fun, off-center, collage-like, quirky layouts than last year's plain, square, grid-like layouts. Many websites are trying to borrow from design layouts similar to what you would find in a magazine spread. Designers are also working harder to make sure that you are served the most important part of the website in bold ways to get users hooked faster. We are seeing tactics like using bold, oversized typography, particularly within the new trend of using text only hero images or using full height homepage hero images, essentially turning your homepage into a billboard for your business. Homepage videos have also been very popular this year, but at the same time, many websites have had success with websites with lots of clean, white space and less graphics.
There have also been many changes involving the way websites function as a part of design. Animations, particularly micro-animations, have been very popular. These are usually small effects such as when a user hovers over an element or clicks an element, they activate a small animation on the element they interacted with. Common examples would be something like hovering over a product photo and causing it to rotate and show the user a more detailed look at the item, or clicking a thumbs up icon and showing the thumb moving. Parallax animations, which give the illusion of depth and realism by using layers of art assets moving at different speeds, usually with the background moving slower than the foreground, has been a popular design choice in 2021. Neumorphism, which uses drop shadows to make web design elements appear like physical items, has also been utilized more frequently this year. Scrolling has also gone through a makeover, with more web designers opting for horizontal scrolling, or even using scrolling transformations, instead of the standard, traditional vertical scrolling of the past.
Technology has made many exciting changes to the way websites are being designed in 2021. More and more web designers are understanding the importance of mobile friendly design, considering the fact that in 2020 there were 4.28 unique mobile internet users in the world. To accommodate these users, web designers are opting to make their websites with thumb-friendly navigation, meaning most everything on the website can be done while holding a mobile device in your hand and scrolling and interacting with your thumb. With the increase of virtual assistant technology like Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri, many designers are working to include access to these interfaces on their websites. Chatbots, while they have been around for many years, are surprisingly making a comeback in 2021, due to users seeking quicker customer service than in days past.
It may seem like design choice shouldn't matter much in the overall success of your website, but the constantly changing design trends are nothing to be ignored. According to studies on the subject, 75% of people form their opinion of a website based on it's aesthetics and 38% will leave a website and not return is they feel the design is outdated or unattractive. On top of that, users tend to spend roughly 2.6 seconds forming their first impression of a website based on the most interesting portion of the layout, and they take roughly ten seconds to determine if they trust in your company, all based on their initial, aesthetic impressions. Simply put, staying on top of the changes in web design trends will help you stay on top of the competition. When you are ready to have a website that is built with today's aesthetics in mind, contact us! We pride ourselves on designing websites that are engaging and visually appealing, ensuring your customers will visit, stick around, and come back! We are located in the New Albany, Southern Indiana, and Louisville, KY area, but we are ready to help anyone, anywhere!