This article was published 2 years ago, therefore the contents of this post may be out of date.

Some say web design trends come and go, but there’s no point in following them.

A good website should not only be functional, but also visually appealing. It must meet both technical web standards and audience expectations. Audience expectations are generally focused on something new and exciting.

This is where web design trends come into play. They allow you to meet current audience expectations and make your website look noteworthy and timely.

This year also sees the rise of no-code web design tools like Tilda.cc that make building websites easier.

If you’re a web designer, staying on top of design trends can ensure that the most discerning client’s dreams come true on his first run, not her fifth.

Here are some web design trends for 2023. If you’re a web designer. Staying on top of design trends can ensure you deliver your most difficult clients’ dreams on the first try instead of the eighth try. Below are some web design trends I anticipate will surf their way into 2023.

1. Micro-Interaction

Micro interactions will bring more joy to web design in 2023. Instead of being used in a decorative way, micro interactions are used to enhance the design. To give the logo a floating effect or to let the user know the action is complete. They become less redundant and more organic.

2. The Aesthetics of 90s & Y2K

Aesthetics from the early days of the web are becoming more and more popular among web designers. Some artists tap into the internet’s old-fashioned brutality and rawness, while others delve deeper into retro styles. Whatever it is, the 90s and 00s are officially back in fashion.

Attentive’s 2022 Holiday Site

Attentive’s 2022 Holiday Site

But don’t think they’re clumsy and annoying. This direction has been cleverly reinterpreted to bring you an outstanding experience.

Keeping up with this trend requires web designer skills and a balance between a gritty look and a modern feel. There are different ways to capture this trend. Start rolling out these iconic features.

  • Pixelated designs and desktop icons
  • Bright menu colour blocks
  • Raw materials
  • Skeuomorphism

3. Claymorphism

Pomelo Paradigm Clay

Pomelo Paradigm – https://www.pomelo-paradigm.com/

Building on the foundations of Neumorphism, Claymorphism is a trend created primarily by graphic designers. Colourful designs, gradient-inspired landscapes, 2D and 3D illustrations, vibrant typography, and retro styles are gaining momentum as they grow in popularity.

As Adrian Bece explains on his Smashing Magazine post.

“Claymorphism uses two inner shadows (dark and light) and an outer (usually darker) shadow to achieve a soft 3D and floating effect. “

The great thing is that Claymorphism works well with another big trend of 2023: micro-interactions and animations. Some designers and developers have taken advantage of this by spicing up claymorphic scenes with a bit of some dynamic effects.

4. Loading animations

Back in the early days of the web, Loading animations were popular. But have long fallen out of fashion. Lately, we have seen many designers start incorporating loading screens into their designs, and this trend is expected to grow even more in 2023.

Quentin.xyz – 1980’s Operating System site loading animation

And loading screens are another way to engage with your audience and convey your identity on your site.

5. Typography

Over the past year, this category has seen a number of great trends, from overly simplistic typefaces with detailed pictures to traditional large typefaces and word breaks. Like the colour scheme, typography is a key UI element.

It’s hard to predict what will win the hearts of web designers in the next month and what your target audience will need to give them a chance to be impressed by your website. There are still some common typefaces to watch out for as they already give your site a modern look.

Dna Projecten Typo

https://dnaprojecten.nl

Integrated Typography

This 2022 trend will bleed into 2023 and certainly will be deployed in numerous niches to impress different markets. Thus proving valuable for all businesses. As a rule, it spruce up the hero section, and less often the middle part or footer of the any web page.

It’s main feature lies in the creation of complex digitised typographic masterpieces. It fit seamlessly into your design, which should take your overall effect up to the next level, and reinforce your message. But, at the same time, you need to break with uniformity and traditional layouts to give your site more a sophisticated, cutting-edge feel.

To keep up with this trend, follow these approaches:

  • Use a large, bold yet regular font combined with a scrapbook style canvas.
  • Look for unique, charismatic typefaces with brand personality, placed squarely on a clean, abstract canvas.
  • Combine typography with animation or 3D visualization.
  • Play around with typeface and dynamic effects.
  • Place font above images, illustrations, portraits, or over a light background or intersected with all/any of these components to reveal only a portion of the text.

Typographic Layouts

Typography layout is another trend from 2022 and will bleed over into 2023. It also welcomes the new year with a lot of popularity and power, moving forward and bringing some great solutions to the digital world and not contain many other visual elements.

A key feature of this approach is that it revolves around bold, striking, and complex typography, excluding many other visual elements. They often rely on meaningful words and messages to drive user engagement. Therefore, it conveys your message while making a visual impact on your audience.

The main features of this trend that you should replicate in your website design are:

  • A large, bold, but very simplistic font supported by animation or scroll trigger effects.
  • Large, interactive, beautifully animated typography.
  • Complex typefaces are combined with mouse-driven effects on a clean, drab interface.
  • Present clever words and phrases with traditional fonts and add favour to them with some micro-interactions, And hover/rollover effects.

Curved Text Designs

Curved text designs have been with us for years. And they are still in demand. They will be entering into 2023 with certainty and, without a doubt.

Hakaji Io Curved Text

Hakaji.io – Curved Text

And, why shouldn’t they? They are small but robust focal points that have found their place in the sun. They blend perfectly with impact-enhancing dynamic effects and micro-interactions. Not only do they grab attention and keep it for a while, but they also embellish the overall theme, make the design look ultra-modern, and even enhance the user experience.

These great solutions have different use cases. For as such. A full circle text designs are commonly seen within hero areas. While arc-shaped text decorate maps and widgets in the middle portion of the site.

How do you reproduce them?

  1. Understand the basics of the so-called curve effect. From arcs to circles to spirals, It stand behind it all.
  2. Decide on the sphere of usage.
  3. Decorate curved text with dynamic effects. Make it spin, rotate, move along an axis, and blink.
  4. Find a suitable place for it. The good news is that it can easily occupy the space you need. You can also overlay images and text and place them in the corners.

Final thoughts on the Typography

When adopting any of these typography trends, it’s important to pay attention to readability. Be bold and create intricate typographic centrepieces. But when the message isn’t delivered correctly, it does more harm than good to you and your business.

Therefore, it’s important to make sure you’re target audience understand the meaning behind it. The only exception is when the typography has no context and is used only to make an impression.

6. Bright Colouring/Pastel Gradients

Let’s be honest. When it comes to colour trends, the web design world ignores this niche trendsetter, Pantone. It may appear in some projects, but it doesn’t matter. But that doesn’t mean there are no trends. On the contrary, expect a mainstream parade. To start the new year off strong, try two big trends: ‘dopamine colours’ and soft pastel gradients.

Dopamine Colors

Dopamine colours are a rising trend in web design colouring that shows no sign of stopping. Derived from the term “dopamine fashion” (wearing bright, happy hues), this trend has been overcrowded in the fashion industry this summer. But, this trend is all about choosing a bright, bold and vibrant colour palette to make your site visitors happy and instill confidence.

How do you adapt this trend to the web user interface?

Just, like the fashion industry. The relationship between colour and emotion is complex. So there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. As personal associations with specific ranges of emotions are subjective. However, some studies have shown that certain colours are universally associated with certain emotions. Such like the colour of black, is widely associated with confidence and power.

So like everything, just experiment with bright and austere colour palettes. Purple, green, yellow, pink and neon as those colours work perfectly.

Pastel Gradients

If the bright neon that is splashes throughout the pinkish background isn’t really your taste then there is another trend in colouring and that is pastel gradients. This trend is helped by another trend, and that is claymorphism. This smooth, balanced, is impressionable solution might meet your preferences.

Lustahair.com Pastel

Lustahair.com – Pastel Colours

But not everyone can embrace the pandemonium of hues and tones. So Pastel gradients are perfect for those who want to evoke, and for things that look modern.

So general these gradient can be used anywhere from illustrations to product displays to icons. The result is a cool, creative, and sometimes dreamy aesthetic. The designer has come up with irregular and multicoloured mixtures to accommodate his scenarios for different applications. Take a look at the areas where pastel gradients show their potential.

  • Pastel Gradients goes perfectly well with claymorphism.
  • They blend into dynamic and animated backgrounds.
  • They are amazing when used in tandem with gritty, grain, liquid, or metallic texture.
  • They add an alluring element to videos or product teasers.

When implementing gradients, it’s important to remember that while they are versatile and trendy, they don’t necessarily require a combination of tones. Sometimes less is more. Cognitive overload is a real thing that drives customers away.

Moonbox Pastel Gradient

Moonbox – Pastel Gradient

So it’s important to strike a balance and ensure that pastel gradients enhance the overall effect rather than detract from it. I also recommend A/B testing to understand what your target audience expects and which solutions resonate the most.

7. Parallax Zoom Scrolling

Parallax has been with us for a long time. Like certain things in life we seen the best and worst. But we never stop evolving and progressing it. A few years ago, we seen horizontal and vertical parallax techniques being used to create great storytelling experiences across two axes. However, in this year we been pushing it to the limits. So, explore a new dimension, Axis Z, and expect more depth to your game.

Parallax zoom scrolling is the new trend. Many of use have already seen some big brands adopt it. They take visitors on a unique experience, exploring the site inside and out. This excellent three-dimensional movement needs to be replicated to keep up with this mainstream.

8. Metaverse

The Metaverse is an idea, an interactive digital space, a new online world. It may be hotly debated, but that means it’s coming to the fore more and more.In 2023, as web users get used to online spaces and virtual reality, the metaverse design style will become an important part of the visual language of web design.

The Metaverse is a form of virtual reality. Visually, this means that each element forms a coherent world. In recent times myself and many others have seen websites that take inspiration from the metaverse to create the overall 3D style of the page, instead of a single 3D illustration or element on the web page.

9. Lightweight Websites

In 2023, websites that are lightweight, fast, and optimised for user experience, both visually and on the backend, will become more commonplace. It’s a simple fact that users hate waiting. Additionally, more and more users are accessing website using a mobile device or network, which can be slow. The trend towards lightweight websites ensures that users get what they need and enjoy visiting websites.

Lightweight Websites

Throughout the history of the Internet, designers have limited images and graphics to make her website load faster. This is no longer strictly necessary, but you should be aware of how data-intensive your site’s media files are.

Technologies like WebP images and techniques like designing lazy-loading background videos allow you to add the media you want without sacrificing the user’s experience.

10. Re-establish the 404

The 404 error page is the dreaded destination of every website, it’s the place to redirect if yo can’t find what you’re looking for. While web designers have long see this particular age as a place to just show a funny graphic or light hearted copy. But in 2023 we going all in on entertainment. Through engaging animations and interactive mini-games. These 404 pages actively encourage visitor retention.

Similar to our tendency to sensory overload, this aesthetic ensures that even the unwanted but necessary aspects are directed towards entertainment. But it accomplishes more than that.

It’s part of a broader drive to create positivity in moments of frustration. With so many depressing events happening in the world every day, designers understandably want to do their part. These fun 404 page design might not change the world but it’s a good way to replace the joy of human error.

Secretsgravityfalls.tilda.ws 404

Secretsgravityfalls.tilda.ws – Custom 404

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Web Design Trends for 2023