Fullerton
2018 promises to become a magical year for website design, with vivid colors, new experimental layouts, as well as some old trends resurfacing in a completely new, refreshed form. FInd out what trends 2018 has in store for us.
Broken Grid Layouts
The grid continues to be typically relied upon to add order and harmony to the layouts. With time, however, it’s gradually becoming a constraint, restricting the designer’s creativeness. In 2018, don’t be surprised if you run into designers who are testing these limitations by creating alternative/broken grid layouts to showcase creative content in a brand new, unique and original way. These predictions were made by InVision. They are releasing a brand new tool known as InVision Studio that will allow designers to produce any layout they want and use the tool to make it responsive. Their marketing website combined with the explainer video features a variety of fresh and different broken grid layouts.
Big Bold Type
You’ve seen the beginnings of the trend last year, using the large type to anchor home pages to make them stick out and grab the user’s attention. This trend has developed from a “content first” design consensus and it will carry on in 2018. The big type will make its way into body copy by means of well-designed pull quotes and subheading to produce contrast. Design agencies like Huge and Heco happen to be at the forefront of this emerging trend.
Non Distracting Animation
Website animation effects have been in existence for a while and also have an inclination to fall in and out of favor. In the 90’s, loud animated backgrounds were often used but at the beginning of the 2000s, they began to drop out of favor largely because designers overused them by animating everything. With CSS3 and jQuery, more elegant options became available. This year, we expect them to be used with more restraint in order to improve the consumer experience without adding unnecessary distractions.
Return Of Serif Fonts
It appears that serif fonts have never got much recognition from website designers. The reason for this might be related to screen resolution limitations of non-retina displays. The lack of custom font support unquestionably also played a large role in keeping serifs practically shunned from the web. Technologies have changed a lot since then and they’re now fully capable to support perfect serif rendering. During the last year, we witnessed a large push for custom fonts, and some brands are embracing it in 2018 as well.
Saturated Gradients
Gradients made a big comeback within the last couple of years. Their use went from standard to tacky and back to trending at the end of 2017. With every iteration, the trend evolves and its popularity changes dramatically. This year, saturated gradients are reaching the peak of their popularity. The Kaleidoscopic style gradient was prevalent in 2017, however, this year brings vivid colors with a more minimalist gradient pattern. Some websites have already started using this new trend. A landing page on Impossible Bureau’s website is a great example. http://world wide web.impossible-bureau.com/
Ultra Minimalism
On the opposite end of the spectrum, website designers in 2018 will most probably continue the minimalism trend, taking it to new heights. You’ve seen the best types of minimalism back in 2016 when it gained mainstream recognition. This season, we’re already seeing super minimalist text-only websites rapidly gaining popularity.
Brutalism
Brutalism, using its rugged negligence, stands on the other side of clean, light and well-arranged trends we mentioned above. This trend has confused many designers and surprised many more once the style started being used by 2 large e-commerce websites late last year. The design and style are drawing inspiration from the blocky, grey and immovable concrete architecture from the 1950-1970s. Some call it ugly, yet others refer to it as art. Regardless of your take on it, it’s here to stay in 2018.
The website design trends in 2018 leave lots of freedom for experimentation, creativeness, and expression. What’s your view on these novelties? What do you think about them?
