What’s striking about a website is that it can be anything you want it to be. Its design ideas and functionality can be customized the way you want it. It does not matter why you made the website. It could be for blogs, news, or business purposes – it can be anything. The fonts, images, content, and overall layout depends on you. These aspects of your website can be very powerful as this may determine whether it will gain constant visitors or not.
So, if you already have a website or if you are planning to create one, it is important to put a lot of thought into the design and its functionality. Even if your website is already established, you could still have it rebuilt and redesigned. Proweaver will work with you to build a website from scratch or have your website re-designed. However, even though you get to decide its layout, it is still a good idea to pay attention to modern trends.
There are a number of trends associated with custom web design. All of the most popular and successful websites follow these trends, and this is because it is what their users like. Even though it is your website, it still needs to appeal to the users; otherwise, they will not visit your site. So, here are the top 10 modern web design ideas and trends you should consider when designing your website:
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Broken Grids
Normally, when a website is designed, everything is laid out on a grid. This ensures that the contents are symmetrical and that everything fits properly. Though it’s a common layout option, your website may look plain. A great modern idea that can help your website look more stylish is by using broken grids.
Broken grid is the concept of arranging your content asymmetrically. By ditching the symmetrical layout, you are highlighting the contents on your website you want your user to pay attention to. It also creates movement, so the user’s eyes know what content to see next on your website. The power that a broken grid gives you when it comes down to designing your website is immense, and if used properly, you can create a beautiful website, regardless of its purpose.
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Illustrations and design ideas
Older website designs are usually designed to look professional. They will typically have an image of whatever service or product they are offering, and it will look simple and bland. However, it gets the job done. These websites serve their purpose, but they are websites that people will not remember or enjoy visiting again and again.
It does not matter if you are running a business that sells car parts or writing blogs about your travels across the globe. Just imagine your website as a blank canvas begging for life. Make use of beautiful color schemes, and add interesting images that match your written content. This helps gather more visitors, and it is something that adds a distinct personality to your website.
However, it is important not to go too overboard with imagery. Keep it clean and simple. Imagine an art gallery. They typically use white spaces that surround a single art piece. This is to emphasize the piece without being overwhelming. Your custom web design should also employ the same mindset when using illustrations.
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Scrollytelling
A visually appealing website always does its job when it comes to engaging web visitors. That is why interactive scroll-based storytelling or “scrollytelling” is becoming increasingly popular. It leverages the digital interface and conveys a story that captivates the audience. The visual effects serve beautiful designs and stunning visualizations on a silver platter. As you scroll through the website, the captivating story comes to life and feels like an experience that you’ll want to read until the very end.
A good example of scrollytelling is the Infrared Mind Body website. Its narrative visualization conveys a message to web visitors. The large close-ups, dim-lit images, large-scale typography, and the soft and smooth transitions give a sauna vibe in a clean and sophisticated way. Moreover, the simplicity of scrollytelling means that the audience doesn’t need to second-guess what to click to see the full story.
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Clean and Simple
If modern website design can be put into one phrase, that phrase would be “less is more.” We live in an era where minimalism is king. Great design is combining a few elements that make a great impact. Employing this mindset in custom web design can create some unique and amazing results because there are two ways you can use less is more.
The first is obvious, which is having plenty of white and empty space around your content with some accents that help add some personality to your website. The second is maximalism. This is by using simple design aspects, such as stripes but going to the maximum. These websites look like modern-day magazines and have striking imagery that is simple yet extreme. It is a risky design choice, but as more and more people develop a taste for modern design, they will become quite trendy.
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Oversized Typographic Hero Image
First impressions always matter. When potential customers visit your website, you’ll want to make a good lasting impression about your brand. The top part of your web page plays a crucial role in this, specifically your hero image. It’s one of the fastest ways to grab a visitor’s attention. When visitors find it not good enough, chances are they’ll just end up uninterested or passive about your site.
What’s the best way to grab audience attention? Make use of oversized and eye-catching typographic hero images. The unusual typography size is a fresh trend used by modern designers. Opting for bigger text sizes not only strikes a good first impression but it’s also a unique design that can be used in both minimalist and maximalist designs.
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Use Videos
It is commonly said that a picture says a thousand words. However, a video can convey much more information. Using videos throughout your website is a good way to communicate with your users. Using aesthetic and well-produced videos can help you convey complex or complicated info to the people visiting your website with complete ease. This can add an extra layer to your website that people will appreciate.
These videos can be used for a number of purposes. You can use them to communicate and explain what your website is about. Or, you can turn them into tutorials to help your users. It will also be great to use them in explaining your services and products. And with clever design, you can have these videos embedded into your website so they do not look like a video that was just plopped there but rather a video that is woven into the fabric of the site itself.
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One-Page Websites
As they say, less is more. Sometimes, the most effective web design is the least complex one. Nowadays, there’s increasing popularity of one-page websites. These sites forgo menus and internal link navigations to prioritize simple scroll navigation. One-page websites work best on brands with narrower subject matters, such as a portfolio or a presentation of a single idea. These kinds of sites give web visitors the feeling of holding a flyer or reading a poster where all the information they need is found in one place.
One-page sites also allow web designers to be more creative with their designs. Ultimately, it’s a great strategy to help web visitors focus on what matters most, reducing distracting elements like big images and backgrounds.
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90s Grunge
Just like how retro is becoming trendy again, the 90s nostalgia appears to be rapidly gaining popularity. There’s so much to love about this grunge aesthetic, from VHS and glitch effects to the punk and rave culture. 90s grunge UI features designs such as dirty stains, torn images, “broken” icons, and creased pieces of paper.
A great example of this reemerging design trend is the Nylon website. The brand’s use of grunge focuses on textured backgrounds, which are reminiscent of band posters, as well as polaroid-inspired image layouts, collages, and hand-drawn details. Such designs give the website a more genuine and realistic look.
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Be Interactive
A website shouldn’t be a static page but rather it should always be moving, adapting, and changing. The webpage itself can also become a part of your content. A good example of this is when you are scrolling down a webpage. You can have content slide into view discreetly. This will not distract you but it also ensures that everything is always moving and can help direct your eye to important parts of the website.
However, it is important to keep this simple. Having too many animations can be overwhelming and it will be a detriment to your website. Keep it simple, discreet, and clean. You can also include this interactivity in your page transitions. Instead of simply loading up the next page, you could include a simple yet gorgeous animation that lets the user know they have transitioned.
The internet has advanced so much; it is strange that many websites still feel outdated. When you click on a page, it simply unloads the old one and loads in the new one. It is so mundane and simple. However, adding something such as a discreet animation can take your website to the next level as it lets your users know they are truly navigating through it like a book.
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3D Motion Elements
The hype around maximalist design ideas last 2021 brought about the use of motion elements and transparent videos. This 2022, motion elements are being applied with more precision and gave way to the popularity of 3D visuals. You can steer away from flat designs and opt for an immersive user experience by incorporating 3D motion elements.
3D elements in web design can bring your most important graphics to life. They provide your web visitors with a more elaborate and 360-degree view of your products. These motion elements also provide a sense of tactility that flat designs cannot. This brings the web visitor closer to the brand and creates a positive lasting impression when done right.
You do not need to use any of these ideas and you may come across more ideas but they are an excellent source of inspiration that can help you design your website in a way that incorporates modern design with superb user experience. These simple ideas can help your website stand out from the crowd of cookie-cutter-designed sites that look lazy. Simple animations, creative imagery, and remembering that less is more are the ingredients to an exceptional modern website. To get started on your own website today, it is as simple as visiting our website.
Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.