6 Inevitable Web Design Trends In 2020

You can’t know the future. Yet, we will do our best to guess what awaits in the world of web design in 2020. Last year has brought in some amazing trends. We have seen more bravery and attempts to cut through the noise. We have no doubts some of those will carry through to the new year. We also remain certain that web designers have other innovative ideas up their sleeves waiting for the right time.

9th January 2020 3 min read time

Article by Tomasz Lisiecki

I help companies and startups to get their ideas across the finish line. I believe websites aren't there just for looks. A good website brings new leads, generates sales and creates a brand awareness.

Our 6 web design trends

Oversized text
Illustrations
Lots of white space
Voice User Interface
Microinteractions
Full-screen forms

Oversized Text and Interface Elements

In order to highlight important facts, structurise the layout and grab visitors’ attention, web designers started to incorporate large, prominent elements. This covers pretty much any element a website may consist of such us buttons, photos, illustrations and so on.

The trend has been going for a while in 2019, but we believe it will really take off this year. Especially that designers have started to tailor website experience for users with disabilities. The bigger elements are not only easier to spot, but also to read and understand.

An oversized hero text example on twitch.tv — *twitch.tv*

An oversized hero text example on sonos.com — *Sonos*

Custom Illustrations

The marketing has shifted towards personalisation. One of the way to make a website more personal and “human” is with custom illustrations. Whether it’s an isometric graphic, a flat vector picture or a hand-drawn illustration it all tells a story that your users will want to hear.

Having tailored illustrations on your website is always a great way to convey your brand identity.

Custom illustrations in the background of Digital Ocean's hero section — *Digital Ocean uses illustrations in their background images.*

Plenty of White Space

Along with the minimalistic movement in pretty much every industry, the web design opts in for white space between elements. It provides us with a breath of fresh air. It can increase legibility, highlight important design elements such as buttons, sections, columns and create an overall tidy and pleasing appearance.

Whitespace on the Afresh website — *Afresh Technologies*

Voice-Controlled Website Interface

Hands-free interfaces have proven themselves useful and convenient. Voice assistants such as Siri or Alexa have seen the boom in popularity in the last couple of years. Mobile applications such as Google Maps featured the voice search to receive directions. We believe that websites will join the trend in 2020.

annyang! is a javascript library for website voice control — *annyang! is a library that allows users to control your website with voice commands.*

Interactions and Animations

Further on the note of personalisation, little things matter too. While videos are nothing new, we think we will see more interactive and animated elements on websites. After all, motion is engaging and eye-catching. It’s biologically proven that our eyes instantly gravitate towards motion, so next time you design a website think of parts that you would draw the most attention to.

*The Unsubscribe shampoo producers use scrolling, transition, and other animations on their site.*

*Animated campaign on Cash App’s website.*

*Interaction Design Lab uses an animated* Home page.

Full-Screen Forms

Online forms play an integral role in the success of a website. They enable visitors to contact a business, provide feedback or create an account. Expanding the forms to the full-screen size makes them more inviting thus reducing the abandonment rate. Larger website forms also provide more screen space for guiding users through the process.