Your website is one of the most important elements of your 2023 digital marketing plan. You want a site that invokes your brand’s personality and guides consumers along the path from visitor to customer. Whether you’re building a new website or giving your old one a makeover, let’s look at some of the hottest trends we’ve seen so far for web design this year.
Nostalgic Design
If you were surprised to see kids wearing bell bottoms again, wait until you see the website trends. As Gen Z enters the workforce, they’re bringing with them nostalgia they’ve inherited from their Millennial and Gen X parents. In web design, this means a return to sleek modern font faces (the Gothics have made a comeback) as well as two-tone color schemes and cartoon-style illustrations. Additional nostalgic elements we’ve seen include:
- Simple shapes
- Modernist line work
- Old-school textures
Bold Fonts
With the nostalgia of the late 90s and early 2000’s web design comes not just a return of bold font faces but an increase in their volume. The sleek modern, and giant gothic fonts lend themselves well to oversizing. Brands are adding size to titles, slogans, and their calls to action to get users to engage.
Negative Is a Positive
Brands are less afraid of negative space (white or blank areas) on their web pages. Minimalism has always held some sway in web design, but it’s coming into its own in 2023 when websites must streamline for mobile usage. Allowing for plenty of negative space on a web page offers three key benefits:
- Guide users to important information
- Make your site load faster and be more responsive
- Make your site easier to navigate
It’s Okay to Scroll
If you’ve been in web design for a while, you’ve heard some variation of the phrase, “Don’t put anything below the fold.” For a long time, a core design rule was to have no (or no important) information below the first part of your page so that people didn’t have to scroll. The idea was simple: if they needed to scroll, they wouldn’t and would bounce away. In 2023, however, that rule doesn’t hold true anymore for two key reasons,
- Mobile users have needed to scroll down web pages for a long time and are used to doing it.
- Social media has trained people to scroll down pages for more information.
You still want to have your most important information above the fold, including your call to action. However, if you offer users a reason to scroll down, they’ll happily do so.
Bringing These Trends Together
These aren’t the only trends we’ve noticed in 2023 web design, but they are the ones we see that have the biggest impact on user experience and brand building. They also work well together. For example:
- Utilizing white space allows you to add layers and texture to your image designs without overloading users’ senses.
- Two-tone color schemes allow illustrations and images to pop off the page and draw attention to specific elements like products and specials.
- Oversized modernist or gothic fonts that pop as a user scrolls down the screen help to encourage page exploration and establish sections.
Are You Looking for New Ideas for Your Website?
Media Components can help you build your website and market your brand. Whether you’re an entrepreneur starting out, a small business, or a large company, we have digital marketing solutions we can tailor to your needs. Contact us today.
