What’s a great company without an amazing website design? Microinteractions, ultra-minimalism, and material design are some trends you should look for if you want a modern website design.
We all know our website is necessary for our online presence and building brand credibility. So, how can we ensure it will live up to our users’ expectations? Well, it might not be enough to create a website, and that’s it. As web designers, we should always look for ways to improve our products. So, how can we do that? Looking at the trends that are emerging every year.
2024 is a big year for web design trends. So, what will 2024 look like for the web design industry? Let’s find out the web design trends that will dominate in 2024 and how we can implement them.
- Interactivity
Interactivity is the future of web design. From motion effects to dynamic cursors, 3D objects, parallax scrolling and drag interaction, and so many other micro-interactions, we can let our imagination run wild and improve user experience along the way. It also goes hand in hand with web design trends 2023: scrolly-telling.
Adding these fun and interactive elements to our webdesign can drive engagement, create a gamified design, and make our users spend more time on our website. So, in 2024, we are saying goodbye to static designs and stepping into the era of non-flat elements that can take our UI UX designs to a level we never imagined before.
However, as a web designer, I must warn you not to overdo it. Yes, we should animate our websites, but we must do it in a way that’s both subtle and catches our user’s attention. This way, we don’t cause visual overload and decrease user experience.
- Bento Box Design
The bento grid is one of the most anticipated website trends in 2024. Yes, the bento grid was initially built to organize to-go meals. But designers and our clients are eating this concept up (pun intended). In simple terms, the bento layout refers to a grid with multiple cards and buttons in an organized manner. This increases our user experience by structuring our information in a manner that is both easy to understand and visually appealing.
Even more so, this type of layout is responsive and flexible, helping every website developer build products that look perfect on all screens. Bolt, Uinkits Design System, Diagram, and even the promotional video for Apple Mac – they all embraced the bento grids trend. So, it’s safe to say that this is the UI design trend in 2024.
- Digital Maximalism
Yes, digital maximalism is becoming more and more popular in the creation of a modern website design. Think: capitalized and abstract typography, bold color palettes, blocky card components, and an overall unconventional look. While this style ignores the traditional UI design rules of a website design, this strong visual design is what might make your website design stand out from the rest.
The beauty of maximalism in website design is that there’s no limit. Literally, we can just play around with typefaces and colors, and we can go wherever our imagination takes us. The only rule, nothing is intentional. We can combine the 80s look with contemporary methods if we want. Or layering aesthetics with a futuristic color palette. It’s the chaos of those details that make our design aesthetically pleasing.
For inspiration, check out Figma and Gumroad’s websites – and probably 90% of Dribbble designs.
- Colorful Gradients
When Instagram rebranded itself and came up with a gradient logo, they were ahead of the time. However, because of Instagram, colorful gradients have become popular for UI UX design – especially web design. This trend is common for both digital maximalism and ultra-minimalism.
Not only does it significantly improve our design's overall visual appeal and aesthetics, but it can also help our brands create a recognizable part of our identity. And it’s this flexibility that makes gradients a perfect option for website developers.
However, creating beautiful gradients is an art. So, remember to be careful when implementing it into your web design because you wouldn’t want it to be distracting or too much.
- Ultra-Minimalism
“Good design is as little design as possible.” – Dieter Rams
A modern website design relies on a minimalistic approach. And if you’re not a fan of the big, bold, and capitalized approach of digital maximalism, then you will love this web design trend.
Yes, minimalism has been a trend in the UI/UX design industry for quite some time. And it makes sense! The lack of unnecessary UI elements (such as busy illustrations or bold colors) draws the user’s attention to your message rather than how it looks. But in 2024, companies are taking this to another level and implementing “ultra-minimalism”.
The website for We Ain’t Plastic is the perfect example of ultra-minimalism. Simple colors, simple design, simple illustrations. And yet, there is still enough information and cool elements that make this a modern website design. This way, with the iceberg element, we can slow our users’ minds but still draw interest.
You can always learn more about these trends in the new UI UX Design Course from Traction Keys.