Web design industry trends you need to know about in 2020

Now that 2019 has gone, the new year comes with a lot of new trends that can attract visitors to your site. If you already have a website or you think about building one, you need to pay attention to the newest and hottest trends in web design this year. 

You can hire a web design company that can help you design the website you want. But you can also get more information and build your own website also. 
 
Here are some web design tips and tricks, new trends to follow this year and mistakes or functionalities to avoid and why. Like this, you can make an attractive and eye-candy design for your website that attracts visitors and offers a nice and pleasant user experience.

Dark mode

You have probably noticed that 2019 was the year when all the important companies have started to integrate dark mode into their websites or products. For example, even if Android had this option for some time, Apple introduced it last year. At the same time, it was introduced in many apps like Chrome or YouTube. Facebook also worked on this and introduced dark mode on Messenger and Instagram. 

The dark mode is a functionality of the user interface. User interface (UI) is represented by everything you, as a user, see when you use an app or a website, from buttons and screen to text and images. The trend with dark mode had its beginning only in 2019, but it will continue to spread in 2020, so it is a great functionality you can add to your UI. 

Why is it important to consider this feature when you design your website? The newest feature of Google Chrome is the “Night Eye”, a feature that transforms all websites you access in dark mode, even though they do not have this feature on. The good thing is that some websites can turn to have an awesome design with dark mode activated, like YouTube. But the bad thing is that not all websites have a design that goes well in dark mode, so it can turn out to be messy and ugly, like Ikea's. 

So, to avoid altering the experience of your users, think about enabling a dark mode option. 

Adaptive design

This is not the newest trend in web design but it will continue to be of interest at least one year more. Why? Because technology is constantly evolving and newer and newer devices are launched every year. This means that people can choose their devices from tablets, phones, and even folding phones. They can access your website from these devices and this is why it has to be adapted to every device. 

So, adaptability is one of the key features of web design and the focus is on mobile phones. These have conquered the market and the people, being used more than laptops or computers. They come in all forms and colors and with a lot of features that substitute a laptop very well. 

Keep in mind that while you work with adaptability on different devices, some features and options on your website might disappear when changing the size. And this makes it even harder for your users (whether it’s a regular person or an essay writer) to find the information they need. 

Be careful to have key elements that can be accessed by your users from every device. The menu button which allows your users to get information about contact details and about prices and services should be available and accessible at any time. 

If your website is not adapted and the information you provide can be found elsewhere, most users will exit the website. 

Push notifications

Push notification is another web design trend that is quickly beginning to gain its momentum in 2019 and it’s pretty controversial. Push notifications are those notifications that appear in the corner of your screen, reminding you of different sorts of things or promoting new website services. 

While most websites ask their users permission to send push notifications, they can prove to be rather annoying and unpleasant. This is because of their frequency and importance. 

However, on mobile phones, they are appreciated and aren't so annoying. Think about the moment when you watch a movie and a push notification with some irrelevant topic appears in the corner of your screen. 

It’s important to consider a few things if you are going to implement this feature. Analyze your target group and their online behavior. Take into consideration its needs and design a strategy for these notifications also. Keep in mind that these notifications should be helpful so you need to match the topic with the right frequency.

Motion design, Inclusive design and Speculative design

We live in a fast-paced world, where everyone needs something and it needs it now. People do not spend the same amount of time online reading articles or searching for the information they need. So, you as a web developer need to find ways of sending the same message by using less text and more visual elements.

This is what motion design means: sending information without using text. You can start using GIFs that are more efficient. They do not need a lot of time to load and you can send complex messages in a simpler and more efficient way. 

GIFs can also make the visitors stay more time on your website, as they will be attracted by the efficient way of sending information. 

No one wants to read a huge text to eventually find the information they need. For example, everyone at such top resume reviews services as UK writings knows that the best thing about GIFs is that they are adaptable to every screen, so anyone will have access to them regardless of the device they use. 

However, keep in mind that GIFs shouldn't be more than 5-7 seconds long. If you want to send longer and more complex messages, you should consider adding videos. 

Think about the inclusivity and accessibility of your design. It needs to be easy to use and understand by every visitor from the beginning, making your website something visitors enjoy. Accessibility means making your website accessible to every human, no matter his disabilities. So, you need to attract visitors to your website, but also make a design suited for every human.  You can use the core concept of speculative design to think about and anticipate the effect of your design on the society. 

Chatbots 

Artificial Intelligence is the latest emerging trend that all websites want to implement. It refers to intelligence displayed by computers that mimic the behavior and thinking of people. How can you use it? By adding chatbots to your website that provide support to users. 

You have probably noticed that users have all kinds of questions and some of them repeat over time. With your website’s popularity increasing, so will the number of questions or requests from your users. 

Even though chatbots were invented a few years ago, they get improved every year and are more and more able to answer difficult questions. However, there are two types of chatbots you can choose from: one that is more like a FAQ and one that uses Artificial Intelligence to answer questions. 

Even though the second one is more expensive than the first, it is able to identify the question in a base and reply instantly 24/7. The downsides are that they can’t identify sarcastic questions (yet!) and if they see the question for the first time, they aren’t able to answer it correctly. But the technology is improved every day and chatbots will become better and better. 

Alex Tsitsihar, web and app developer, currently works on an assignment help uk service essaybot for AssignmentGeek that will help them correctly identify the users’ needs and match them with a writer. This will save both time and resources. 

Minimalism, Sustainable UX and JAMstack 

Minimalism is a broad concept characteristic of Nordic countries and it’s an art movement that began after World War II. It encourages living with fewer things, assuming that your mental health will be better because you will have fewer things to care about or that can distract you. 

In 2020 we will see a lot of websites that adopt minimalism. This means that the entire website will not be overloaded with information. That the navigation bar will be hidden and all the information and elements will be at a minimum level. 

If you want to create a minimalist web design as can be seen on Assignment Geek’s website, you need to give up multiple fonts and shades or complex geometrical structures. A minimalist website will make the user experience more pleasant and the search for information will be done easier. 

Minimalism is also a great method to make your website more sustainable. Climate changes are more and more obvious and everyone is becoming more aware of his impact on the environment. Sustainable UX is the latest trend in the web design industry that aims to create simpler websites that do not consume a lot of energy with data loading. The internet is a huge polluter because data is hosted on a server, which needs energy to work. So, the internet consumes about 3% of the world’s energy and it is rising.

Minimalism design is a huge part of sustainable UX, so choose to add fewer elements to your website. And choosing a green host for your data would be great, as you would reduce the carbon footprint of your website.

You can choose to design a static site using the JAMstack approach without adding dynamic elements. This means that the information will be displayed the same for every visitor, you will save costs from utilizing cloud storage and the performance will be improved. 

Headless architecture

With an API-based system, we have reached a stage where web developers have almost everything that they need. In 2020, content and commerce APIs have proved to be the most efficacious way of sending information to the right page on the right channel. This has made it easier for developers to build and maintain websites when compared to the old monolithic suite days. Headless approach, where business users get the control they need, is not new but has been growing multifold with each passing year. This year, headless CMS is expected to soar even higher.

Conclusion

There are some web design trends that had their start last year, but they continue to be of interest in 2020 too. That’s why you should consider adding a night mode option as it makes your website more elegant. One of the most important trends you need to implement is the adaptive design. Nowadays newer and newer devices get invented and people begin to use them. That is why your website should be adapted to every device. 

Choose to present the information using more visual elements, like GIFs or videos. Minimalism began to gain momentum, so try to use the minimum of design elements like fonts and shades. Consider building a chatbot that will help you handle all the user’s requests and make a strategy for push notifications to avoid being annoying.