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Website Design Trends for 2023

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Zara, Staff Writer

Thursday, 18 March 2021

Website Trends

Just like everything in life, trends come and go. As the digital face of your business, your website should be a shining example of everything that makes your company great. But if it’s been some time since your website was designed, or if you threw it together quickly yourself, it could be in need of a facelift. 

Paying attention to what’s popular within web design will help your business grow online. Here are some of the top website trends to look out for in 2023 and beyond, to make that happen. 

  • Neumorphism

  • Parallax effects

  • 3D visuals and illustrations

  • Horizontal Vs Vertical design

  • Dark mode

  • Inclusion of chatbots

  • Calming colours

  • Fluid shapes

  • Elegant serif fonts

Neumorphism

If you’re not au fait with all things design, then the best way to describe neumorphism is using colours to make objects such as buttons appear as if they are floating on the screen. It’s a clever way to add depth to interfaces so that they don’t look flat and basic.

It takes a very skilled eye to pull off neumorphism since the colours and tones have to be just right. But if your website has a lot of buttons within its graphics it can make it look a lot more modern. The effect looks amazing on mobile too, which is how most people browse the internet these days. 

Neumorphism - Website Trends

Parallax effects

You’ve probably encountered a website which incorporates Parallax effects on its home screen without even realising it! These animations run in the foreground and the background of a webpage, moving at different speeds. 

In doing so, the moving animation provides a sense of depth to what would otherwise be a 2D ‘flat’ background. Subtlety is key here though, as too much movement may distract the user from the actual purpose of your website, or overall customer journey.

3D visuals and illustrations

Similar to parallax effects conveying a sense of depth to a 2D page, key website trends for 2023 include the implementation of 3D graphics and visuals. 

Next to static text, a 3D visual is a great way of captivating the reader further. If your page is full of informative content, you could look to hire a graphic designer to create a 3D infographic to support your content, for a more realistic and immersive user experience. 

Custom illustrations are also a great way to differentiate your site from your competitors. Moving away from the overuse of stock imagery, you could hire a graphic illustrator who may be able to offer more of a cohesive visual catalogue of unique edits and designs to match your vision.

3D Illustration - Website Design Trends

Horizontal vs Vertical design

The majority of websites you interact with daily, are likely to include text that reads horizontally, as well as vertical scrolling as standard, throughout the page.

Don’t be afraid to be more creative and daring with your website's layout. A developing web trend is the incorporation of vertical paragraphs of text, as well as wider homepages, which offer a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom. 

Don’t forget to include icons which inform the user if they need to scroll horizontally, as even if the design looks impressive, you still won’t want to negatively impact the overall user experience of your site.

Dark mode

Eye fatigue is something we all have to contend with as we spend increasing amounts of our day looking at a screen. Dark mode gives users the ability to switch the background to black instead of white, which is kinder on our vision. It’s something that a lot of social media platforms already use, and is also pretty easy to integrate into your website too.

Some WordPress themes already have a dark mode button which can be added to your toolbar. Or, you can have a web designer custom make you a feature to enable this for you. 

Inclusion of chatbots

This additional feature is likely to only be a relevant trend, depending on your business, or business strategy.

While not necessarily suitable for sites which host blog content, you may see an improvement in interaction with the customer, if you host an E-commerce platform. 

Chatbots can help you in answering the customer’s request quickly and efficiently, improving customer service, whilst also giving your company an initial identity. 

Website Trends

Calming colours

Along the same vein of protecting our eyes, when you do use colours on your website make sure they aren’t headache-inducing. Instead, try a softer palette with muted tones being particularly popular as of late for website design.

If your company colours are quite bright, then it’s possible to incorporate flashes of colour without it being overpowering. Alternatively, ask a graphic designer to draw up some brand guidelines to create a wider colour palette that suits screen use too. 

Fluid shapes

A website trend gaining more popularity, is the inclusion of more fluid shapes and designs to your site’s background. Steering away from the inclusion of harsh lines and pointed edges, fluid shapes can often complement the muted, understated colours, which offer an overall calming user experience when browsing a website.

Fluid Shapes - Website Trends

Elegant serif fonts

A friendly reminder that Comic Sans was intended to be used in schools and not for professional business use! Nailing your fonts is incredibly tricky, seen as few of us are trained graphic or web designers. In short, it’s so important the font accurately fits the purpose it is being used for.

Fonts also work differently on screen than they do in print. Lately, elegant serif fonts (serif means with glyphs and flourishes) are in vogue. Changing up your fonts is a great way to refresh your website without making major changes as it’s one of the easiest things to switch back if you’re unsure. 

To sum up

Don’t shy away from updating your website regularly, since doing so is also great for your SEO. Most of all, you want to make sure your website accurately reflects your business and shows your products or services off in the best light. 

Find a Web Designer on Bark today to implement the website trends mentioned above, to help your business reach its potential online.

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