The Top 6 Web Design Trends for 2024
At the start of every new year, people are making resolutions, setting goals and figuring out ways to build upon last year’s work and trends. This often goes beyond the personal; it’s a great time to apply this energy to improve your business and website.
The Value of Keeping Up with Web Design Trends
With how fast trends seem to go in and out of style, it’s easy to see it as a waste of time and resources. But that’s far from true.
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, keeping up with trends can keep you ahead of your competitors. Digital trends can make your website more easily found by these potential customers.
They can also help improve user experience, making your site better for visitors and making them more likely to do business with you. This involves making your website easier to use, offering more eye-catching designs and painting your brand more favorably as a company that keeps up with the times.
2024’s Top 6 Web Trends
In 2024, web design will change with new trends and popular features. The experts and web designers at ThreeSixty have compiled a list of 6 trends we expect to see this year.
1. Focus on Immersive Internet
There is an expectation of the birth of the immersive internet, introducing new ways to enhance productivity and efficiency.
Immersive internet refers to a digital environment where users experience a more engaging and interactive version of the web. It typically involves the use of technologies like virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) to create a more lifelike experience. The goal is to make the internet more than just a source of information, transforming the web into a space where users can interact with content in a more dynamic and sensory way, akin to real-world experiences.
There are several other ways that this is created beyond VR and AR. For 2024, there are 4 key design strategies that will be used to integrate immersive internet:
- Utilizing More Interactive Elements
- Reinvention of Parallax
- Gamification of Various Features
- Micro-Interactions
a. Utilizing More Interactive Elements
Over the past several years, websites and businesses have been utilizing more and more interactive elements, and this trend isn’t going to slow down any time soon. We’re actually expecting it to ramp up in 2024.
This is a big year for movement and elements becoming more dynamic as more and more businesses find new ways to make websites more interactive and engaging.
Common features include interactive graphs, navigation features and engaging user interfaces. This includes small GIFs, kinetic typography and elements that respond dynamically to user interactions.
b. Reinvention of Parallax
Parallax isn’t new. It’s been around for a while but is on the rise, being used in a new way. This new way involves integrating more dynamic visuals and an overall more engaging experience.
Instead of just background banner images moving as you scroll, this new interaction of parallax is elements moving as you scroll or doing something as you scroll. Integration of this creates more interest to site visitors and can increase the length of time people spend on your website.
c. Gamification of Various Features
The gamification of various features on a website involves incorporating game-like elements into the web design. This is meant to engage users and can make websites more interactive and memorable, encouraging users to stay on the site.
This can be seen with progress bars, inclusions of rewards, badges or quests, leaderboards, interactive tutorials, achievement notifications and personalized avatars.
d. Micro-Interactions
Micro-interactions are a small, subtle feature included into web design that facilitate user interaction and enhance the experience. These interactions are focused on accomplishing a single task and providing immediate feedback to user interactions. The goal is to make digital interfaces more intuitive, engaging and human-centered.
One example of a common micro-interaction is a login box shaking after a wrong password entry or icons that change upon interaction. Other examples include:
- Button Animations
- Loading Indicators
- Input Field Feedback
- Toggle Switches
- Hover Animations
- Swipe Actions
- Sound Effects
- Pull-to-Refresh
- Animation for System Status
2. Minimalism vs Maximalism
Minimalist design continues to be popular, presenting only the essential information without compromising visual appeal. This approach is beneficial for SEO due to fast load times and ease of navigation.
In contrast, we also expect to see a rise in maximalist design in 2024. Maximalist web design is a trend that counters the minimalist approach, embracing excess and abundance in design elements. This style is characterized by its boldness, complexity and vibrant use of colors, patterns, textures, and typography.
3. Skeuomorphic Design and Illustrations
Skeuomorphic design is a style in user interface design where design elements mimic their real-world counterparts in appearance and how they are interacted with. This approach makes digital interfaces intuitive by using familiar visual cues from the physical world.
For example, a digital notepad app might feature a graphic that resembles a physical notebook, or a "delete" icon might look like a trash can. Skeuomorphism aims to leverage users' real-world experience to make digital interfaces easier to understand and use.
This design style was particularly popular in the early 2000s but has given way to more flat and minimalist design approaches. However, it still finds use in certain applications where mimicking real-world objects can enhance usability. With the rise of immersive internet techniques, our team expects to see a rise in skeuomorphic design once more and has begun to see it in the later parts of 2023.
4. Use of Boxed Navigation and Smooth Card Layouts
Boxed navigation is becoming increasingly important in managing the wealth of information on websites. Smooth card layouts with curved edges are expected to be a dominant design element.
5. Typography as a Design Element
Typography refers to the font choice on a website. It involves choosing typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, spacing and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).
Using it as a design element takes this simple feature and utilizes it to make written language legible, readable and visually appealing. It can be attributed to its powerful role in setting the tone and personality of a design, conveying brand identity and enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal.
Effective typography enhances user experience, guides the reader's attention, and contributes significantly to the message and tone of the content. Its evolution and rising importance in design reflect a broader recognition of how type can influence user engagement, brand perception, and the communicative value in websites.
6. Increased Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI plays a significant role in web development, transforming how websites are designed, developed, and deployed. AI technologies are being integrated into web development tools and workflows, enhancing user experiences, personalization and automation.
This can help you improve your website with less knowledge and limited time, allowing you to capitalize on your resources and skill set.
For more information on how to utilize artificial intelligence to help your business, read our blog about the AI Revolution.
Improve Your Web Design This Year
The beginning of the new year offers the perfect opportunity to redesign your website, cementing your business as a leader in your industry. For help improving your web design, contact our team today.
Or, read this blog for more information on revamping your website.
