Essential Design Trends

It seems as though every day that goes by there are new web design trends that are taking over. While that may seem overwhelming to try to keep up with, it’s also a good thing, both for designers and the users who peruse the sites they develop.

Here is a list of the hottest design trends going in the web design world in the last couple of months.

Design Trends: The Use of All Colours of the Rainbow

The thought of rainbow colours being used all at once on one page might sound terribly gaudy and almost childish. And that is very true for many web designs.

But when done right, rainbow colours can make a page look incredibly sophisticated. These days, savvy web designers are using them in a classy and simplistic ways that add just the perfect amount of colour to make a page stand out without being an eyesore. In fact, some of the biggest corporate names are using them on their websites, including the likes of Southwest Airlines and even Spotify.

The colours used can be implemented in a variety of ways, such as using rainbow text against a dark background, subtly in the actual backdrop with lighter elements at the forefront, or just a single colourful object against a simple canvas.

Design Trends: Moving Away From the Hero Header

The oversized hero header has been around in web design for a long time, but designers seem to be moving away from this trend in favour of something more simplistic and minimalist in nature with an above-the-fold scroll structure and additional elements with a more subdued feel.

Instead, the current trend seems to be leaning towards lighter headers with a few parts sprinkled around. The good thing about the decline of the hero header is that the minimalist nature entices users to look there because it’s unique. This trend is still in its infancy so it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Design Trends: Dark, Energetic Patterns

Perhaps one of the more impressive web design trends going on today is the idea of implementing dark, animated effects on top of darker hues. Dark on dark is mysterious and mesmerizing, and encourages the user to take a look around and engage with the site’s design. It’s highly versatile as there isn’t any set size or type of animation, nor what such effects do.

For designers who are looking for something a little more unique to do with their websites, the dark on dark concept can work really well. There’s also something quite interesting about mixing dark colours together without much colour that draws a person’s visual attention.

Designers who use this with success use plenty of variance in the dark colours to ensure that the elements are easily seen and that there’s no mistaking the movements. Setting the right mood can be done by using lots of rick blacks with a good dose of undertones to set the tone for the project.

The Bottom Line

This month, web design seems to be all about interesting colour usage. From rainbow colours to dark shades, proper use of colour can really make a website’s design undeniably interesting.