The Top 5 Website Design Trends

The beginning of the new year is a great time to do a refresh of your website or to finally launch that website you’ve been meaning to make forever.

The first step in a redesign or a new website launch is making decisions about your new site’s design. To do this, you need to make sure that you’re up to date on the most current website design trends. This is a crucial piece of planning your new site because it ensures that your site looks current and fresh.

So, here are some of the hottest trends in web design for 2020.

Large Features With Lots of White Space

In the past few years, the trends in website design have been leaning toward simpler sites. Designers favor simple fonts, clean lines, and lots of white space surrounding each feature on the page.

In 2020 this trend is evolving to include large text in bold, simple fonts paired with or layered over a singular simple image. These big, bold features are all surrounded by ample negative space.

The effect is that the user’s eye is drawn directly to the text and the image. There aren’t blocks of text, grids of images or a moving slideshow to distract from the features. The white space around the features also emphasizes them by calling out the emptiness of the rest of the page.

This design trend exemplifies the importance of drawing users in immediately by focusing on the most important information and graphics.

Text-Only Above the Fold

Another website design trend that’s gaining popularity in 2020 is having only text on the top portion of a webpage. These designs focus entirely on the text in large, interesting font above the fold.

Usually, the text above the fold is a title, like the brand name, in a bigger font and a tagline in a smaller font. This trend isn’t about having a block of text above the fold. It’s about making words into art by carefully choosing dramatic fonts or by having the text done in the style of hand-drawn illustrations.

The key to this trend is using the fewest words possible to get your point across and draw in users.

The text should be over a solid color background so that an image isn’t drawing the user’s eyes away from the words. There should also be plenty of negative space so that the text doesn’t look crowded.

This design trend is a great way to quickly convey information without overwhelming the user.

Split Screen Images

Large images have always been a great way to pique a user’s interest and draw them into your site. Many websites use a slideshow widget to show off multiple large images above the fold. Some websites opt for one stunning image with a semi-visible grid of images below to encourage scrolling.

A new trend for 2020 does away with both of these tactics. The split-screen design utilizes two images side by side to span the whole width of the page. It’s particularly effective when the images are slightly contrasting. This causes the user to want to look more closely at the images.

While this design doesn’t allow you to feature lots of pictures above the fold, it’s a striking way to feature your best images. It also creates interest in seeing more because your best images are prominently featured.

Including a barely visible text box under these images above the fold is a great way to encourage scrolling on the homepage.

Monochromatic Color Schemes

Simplicity and clean designs remain the dominant tenants of website design for 2020. The ultimate exemplification of this is sites with monochromatic color schemes. Instead of including multiple colors in their website design, these sites feature shades of a single color on another background color.

The most popular monochromatic color scheme is simple black and white. These color schemes create depth by using various shades of grey. They usually feature clean, black outlines against stark white space. The text is almost always black on a white background.

Though a black and white color scheme might seem boring, the look is remarkably sophisticated. The stark contrast along with the depth from the shades of grey is striking without being too busy or overwhelming.

The key to making this color scheme work is to incorporate monochromatic images with text above the fold. A great way to do this is to layer text over simple monochromatic design. Just make sure the text is still easy to read.

Layers

Speaking of layers, they’re a popular website design trend this year as well. Layers give your site depth. They also draw in the user’s attention by giving them multiple elements to look at.

The best way to add layers to your site is to use an image for the site’s background and layer text on top of that. Another great way to add layers to your site is to use a layered image for your background image. A layered image may take the forms of similar colors layered on each other in different geometric shapes.

The most important thing about using layers in your website design is to make sure there’s not too much going on. You run the risk of your site looking messy and overwhelming if you add too many layers or if your layers are too complicated.

Aim for simple texture.

Implementing 2020’s Hottest Website Design Trends

Keeping these website design trends in mind when you design or redesign your website will help guide you through the design process. The result will be a professional, eye-catching website that will catch and keep the attention of the people who find themselves on your site.

Remember that clean and simple website design is still the goal, so don’t incorporate all of these trends into a single page. Choose one or two and commit to those.

Still feeling baffled by designing a website? I’m happy to help. I can guide you through the whole process. Get in touch for a consultation today.