2019 has seen a raft of new web design trends that takes the web by storm and there are a number of high profile websites leading the way.
The first big trend of 2019 has been without a shadow of doubt a shift towards using Serif fonts on websites.
Previously Serif fonts were used for print and sans-serif fonts used for websites.
Whilst Sans is certainly easier to read, there are a number of websites now using Serif for their bold headlines and call to actions to help drive action on their websites.
You may ask why the shift all of a sudden – But its because Serif fonts are decorative and that’s why they were used for print but it’s slowly crossing over to the web and creating beautiful texts on websites.
Check MailChimp – Their new site rebrand not only uses new style illustrations, but they lead the way on the fonts.
2019 has also seen a rise in the use of black and white, paired with sparse color we are seeing websites with incredible outcomes and really delivering a serious impact to website visitors.
Compared to white and white space – which creates a spacious and clean look and feel, black and white has the same effect but on another level.
When sparse colour is added for things such as navigations and mouse hover effects it really adds another dimension to the website.
Illustrations, as used heavily by MailChimp have really grown in use in 2019. Illustrations are replacing images and clip art.
As illustrations are unique, they bring a new clean sense of authenticity and originality to a website that wont be seen else where as illustrations are as unique to a website as a Roald Dahl story book.
This is brining new depths to a website, a new flare of creativity and uniqueness to websites.
It allows websites to step away from the corporate and have their own unique personality shine through and help create an emotional connection with the audience.
Contrary to the increase in black and white websites, on the flip side is an increase in websites using bright, bold and daring colours to drive a visual impact.
This works very well for illustrations, call to actions and for having that immediate WOW factor as soon as a visitor lands on a website – Paired with illustrations and used sparingly with black and white websites, bright colours used to a minimal effect will have a huge impact.
2019 has also seen a shift from clean straight boxy edges and clean lines to using more organic curvy shapes to add new depth and dimension to a website.
When using shapes it adds a new depth and allows designers to communicate messages in a visual way and to add some level of emotion through the use of shapes to a website.
This moves away from a clean edge flat feel and gives sense of a spacy dynamic website with a lot more fluidity to it.
Shapes are also leading designers to “break the grid” and move towards more fluid designs that are far more fun and less serious and corporate than the clean box columns of 2018.
This is giving designers more flexibility and allowing creativity to shine through, no more do things have to all be line, we are seeing diagonal lines and bright colours merged to create a new angle on websites in 2019.
As this trend picks up more, we will start to see websites and the web in general become more unique and a lot more visually pleasing than all being uniform.
Interactive backgrounds continue to be on trend in 2019 as picked up in 2018 they continue to go strength to strength in 2019.
PayPal is a great example of a website that uses video in the backgrounds to draw in engagement.
Just like a TV advert, video brings another meaning to a message, it can showcase dynamics of a business that words never could and engages people far more quickly – A 10 second video could say more than 1000 words on a website or blog post ever could.
These 2019 web design trends are already in motion and this is the direction of the web.
We are really looking forward to seeing more grid free designs in 2019 and into 2020 as designers really get to express their creativity at what we hope is not the loss of conversions.
