Web Design Trends 2020 and Why You Shouldn't Follow Them Blindly
Trends are great, they can help you gain perspective and understand what the digital market is going for but are they a good fit for your business/website/product? How would you know? If you know who your end-user is, you’ll know. Always think of your end-user. Your end-user comes first and then your business and brand style. I’ll come back to that with more articles and information as this is something I find most of my clients struggle with.
Past this disclaimer and let’s see some 2020 web design trends:
Dark theme website design. We’ve seen it before, we know it from Spotify, Netflix, big applications, and tech platforms. This trend is going to pick up steam from here especially when designing websites for creative businesses. It feels dramatic, sleeker than a plain white website. There are claims that it reduces eye strain, attracts user attention, and gives a feeling of luxury. Is it here to stay? We’ll see. For now, it’s just a trend and it’s definitely not for everyone. I’d say it’s more adequate for creative and visual products. If it’s done right, it puts the focus on content and allows it to stand out. I would suggest it for websites that don’t need too much copy or websites that aren’t content-heavy but only if it doesn’t affect usability and after you’ve clearly defined your end-user.
Neon Colours. That’s a bit of an all-round trend that started in 2019 and continues in 2020. We see it in products from clothes to furniture. For website design it fits perfectly with the dark theme trend, think of readability on a dark background. It can be very tricky to pair the right neon colours with a black interface but again depending on the user and type of product it can stand out and attract attention the right way.
Monochromatic, duotone, filters. It’s not really new but it’s picking up in 2020. Duotone, filter effects using two colours over a photo is gaining momentum. Spotify already used the duotone effect with the dark theme background long ago. It’s a good choice if you’re looking for a contrast. Make sure you have high-quality photos although this is a requirement for any website anyway. If you use clean typography and don’t overdo it with additional visual elements it can be simple and effective, usability-wise. It’s a good trend. You can find some Squarespace template examples here.
Photo by Efe Kurnaz
Maybe you like trends. Maybe they go well with your brand and business. Maybe they’ll make your product look cooler. But before you go on and ask your designer to update your website ask yourself this: Are you the user?
Just because you’d use something in one way doesn’t mean the user will use it the same way. We all have different mental models. So, who’s your user? Who’s your customer? Is it, for instance, an older person using a desktop? Or is it a teenager using a phone? What are you selling? What is your business trying to solve?
These days usability is just as important as your brand identity. Usability is the ability to use a product/website with ease and fast. If it takes time for the user to find what they need, they’ll go away from your page. And maybe you just lost a client. That’s how simple it is and that’s how I explain it to my clients. You don’t want to make your users think too much, they don’t want to have to think too much in order to understand or use your solution. Keep it simple.
Clearly, ignoring typography, for instance, is like ignoring what’s taking up most or half of a user’s screen. I’m not saying that you should ignore aesthetics or any other vital component of visual design. Everything has to work together to provide the ultimate user experience. But think of it this way: Ignoring usability is like ignoring user expectations altogether. Users and clients will reject whatever doesn’t make sense to them very fast. You’ll lose to the competition. And this clearly doesn’t apply only to web-design. It applies to every product out there. If it takes time to figure it out and find the solution, it’s not a good design. Follow the trends but usability comes first.
