Web Design Trends You Should Know About in 2021

by Kinga Odziemek

“The first impression is the forever impression”

The first few seconds of a visitor opening your website can either make them stay on your page or leave. Every business owner’s dream is to get more customers to their website and turn those visits into customers.

But does your website’s design meet the expectations of 2021’s trends?

This new year brings new opportunities and this applies to your business as well.

There are several ways you attract and engage an audience online. Apart from creating eye-catching social media videos, captivating graphics, and persuasive copy, you need a trendy web design that boosts sales and highlights your brand’s core values on your website.

To make your job much easier, we’ve compiled a list of web design trends you should know about in 2021. These trends will not only help your visitors stay longer but also help you stay one step ahead of your competitors.

Let’s get started!

Parallax Animation

Parallax animation has always been on the list of trending web designs but this year, we are hoping to see its full potential on the internet.

What is parallax animation?

Parallax animation is an effect that is created when the page elements are separated into foreground and background. This effect is perfect for giving theatrical vibes on a computer screen.

Although parallax animation can create a surreal experience, it’s essential to realize that too much of its use can prove to be harmful. Try impressing your customers at first sight by using these animations while you’re building your landing page.

While using parallax animation for your web design, follow these guidelines to create a better experience:

  • Keep the animation subtle and minimal so that your audience won’t feel dizzy
  • Allow your visitors to turn off the parallax animation
  • Keep the content on the website and animation in perfect balance

Retro Fonts

Think before you list any old thing as uncool!

We’ve possibly seen every old thing being cool again and becoming a trendsetter.

When website design becomes an essential element of your online marketing presence, the throwback fonts can bring the best out of your website.

While your competitor uses the same tired fonts visitors are bored seeing everywhere, you can add a bit of artistry with your retro fonts.

Here’s how you can use these retro fonts on your web designs effectively:

  • Avoid featuring vintage typography that hasn’t aged well and doesn’t match your brand’s image.
  • Give your retro fonts an experimental mix of modern design.
  • Apply bold fonts while you create beautiful infographics for your website.

Comfortable Colors

People are spending a lot of time staring at their computer screens. The last thing you’d want is to give your visitors eye strains with the color schemes you apply to your web designs.

To make interactions more comfortable, it’s high time that you focus on the color schemes that are pleasing to the eyes. This will avoid creating an overwhelming experience for your visitors.

Here’s how you can use comfortable colors to their best:

  • Instead of using pure black or white color, use more wholesome colors such as light pink, soft brown, etc.
  • Try to bring the best out of the subtle and cool colors.
  • Keep the design as simple as possible.

3D Visuals

While flat icons do their bit of guiding visitors on the website, the increase of high-resolution screens in the market are calling out 3D visuals to the web designs.

Many people would think that these 3D visuals would create a distraction, instead they enhance the overall experience.

Here’s how you can enhance 3D visuals:

  • Try to blend the 3D visuals throughout the other design elements of the website.
  • Select more minimalist layouts to create a better impact of the 3D elements.
  • You can use animated presentations to give your homepage a more quirky look.

You can also switch to gradient colors on the homepage to create the impact of beautiful three-dimensional color schemes.

Negative Colors

While earlier we talked about how comfortable colors can be pleasing to the eyes of your visitors, it does not apply to every business website.

In fact, the designers tend to opt for bold colors of entirely different nature. This is often done to attract the younger audience to your website and gives an impression of an exciting vibe.  

Here’s how you steal the limelight with the negative colors:  

  • Try to emphasize bold colors such as red, black, and blue.
  • You can use 90’s style fonts along with the negative colors to please both the younger and older audience.
  • Use elements and icons that blend perfectly with your brand’s color scheme.

Web Design for Causes

With a lot of ideas in your mind, you might be confused about choosing the best design for your website. If you have a perfect plan for starting an online business or building a website for your side hustle, then approach a web designer and the rest of your job is done.

Web designers have already started to put their creativity into more meaningful and impactful designs. This year, we’ll see more designs that talk about social and environmental issues.

With this new trend, you can stay one step ahead of your competitors by giving your audience an impression of your sustainability. As more people are looking to associate with companies that are doing their bit with the social movements, this web design trend can help you convert more thoughtful visitors into customers.

Here’s what you might try:

  • Try to use a minimalist color scheme.
  • Make use of bold fonts to draw your visitor’s attention to the content.

Use of Emojis

Your website is like a customer service tool that gives an impression to your audience to feel welcome. It provides them with a sense of belief that your website is there to solve their problems. This can be only done when you communicate better.

One way of communicating to your audience is through one of the best means - emojis. Gone were the days when words were used for communicating as emojis are often relied upon by every generation.

By using the language of emojis in your content, you can communicate your brand’s message in the best way possible. The key is to be playful with these emojis.

Best way to use emojis as your web design:

  • Integrate the emojis in perfect balance with the background color of the homepage.
  • Don’t overuse emojis.
  • Be playful with emojis and integrate them with the content you want your audience to see.

Muted Colors

Let’s consider that a customer is looking to buy a number of items from your website. If your website doesn’t convey trust among your visitors, you’ll fail to convert them into customers.

Whether you’re looking to launch an online store, a service website or simply providing an evergreen look to your already existing website, the muted color design should be your go-to web design.

Using a light color palette with contrasting dark fonts will make the design very much alive.

Focus on muted colors in the following ways:

  • Keep the borders of the homepage in sync with the font style.
  • Find a subtle distortion in the light and dark backgrounds.

Black Outline

Want to keep your web design simple and effective?

Black Outline web design will be perfect for you. You can not only use these black lines on the borders but also as the page dividers or on the gallery boxes.

The best part of using this web design is that you can control the thickness of the black outlines. Every time you change the thickness of these borders, the design would tend to have a different type of impact on the visitor.

You can also make use of this design to display cool banner ads on your site.

The Black Outline web design will surely seek your visitor’s full attention on the content that you display.

Gaussian Blur

A soft focus on gradients and images can do wonders for a web design. Although this design has been on the internet for quite a while, we feel that it won’t fade anytime soon.

If you’re not sure of your expertise to tempt your visitors with animations and cool effects, we’ll advise you to choose the design of a Gaussian blur of colors.

The biggest advantage of using such colors is that it will never distract your visitors from the content displayed on your website.

Here’s how you can use Gaussian blur effectively:

  • Try to be playful with the colors.
  • Find a decent contrast between the colors and the typography.
  • Try to use bold fonts that overlay the background color.

Captivating Questionnaires

If you’re looking to start a blog of your own, have a look at this web design. This web design can fit perfectly well with the eCommerce websites as well. Instead of the standard cards, this web design uses a series of cards with animated transitions.

This design will provide an interactive experience to your customers that will help them stay on your website for a longer period. Owing to its simplicity, this is the perfect web design option for blogs.  

You can also integrate quizzes for your visitors to give them a personal touch.  

Digital Interpretations of Physical Products

If you’re looking to set up an eCommerce store, this is just the right trending web design that will help your products look inspiring. This design will allow you to be creative while designing elements that best describe your products.

This web design further allows you to add different colors across the page and different shapes to your products for the best impression.

Your website will not only differ from the plain and standard eCommerce store of your competitor but also feel more organic. Customers look for ease of familiarity while buying something online and this trend will help you implement your dream design.

eCommerce platforms like Shopify and its alternatives even allow you to choose a customized website design template. If you are a template-lover, then you must try their unique themes!

Color-less Design

If you’re facing difficulty while choosing the right color scheme for your website, a color-less web design might seem to be the right option.

As the name suggests, the white color makes for a clean design that is further highlighted by the hover elements.

Yes, the hover elements available with this design would turn the simple black and white image into a live color image.

Isn’t that eye-catching?

Here’s what you can do to create an even more engaging experience:

  • You can make use of animations and other dynamo effects.
  • You can keep the design minimal so that your customers can read the content easily.


Cartoon Illustration

Illustrations and infographics have always been a fan-favorite among designers. This way they can not only be at their creative best but also engage the visitors on the site.

Cartoons tend to connect with people on a personal level and make a significant impact on their actions.

With this design, make sure your cartoon illustrations fit perfectly well with the background. Keep the background simple to bring the best out of such illustrations.


Conclusion

Design trends are influenced by cultural changes and change the means of communication significantly. We can’t wait to see more trending designs that will develop this year.

In this blog, we’ve tried to cover trends that can fit according to different industries and brands. We’ve only listed 14 trends here but this shouldn’t stop you from exploring the one that fits your brand the best.

Trends keep on changing and no one knows what lies ahead.