As we head into 2024, web design trends in the UK are speeding up because of new tech and what people want. Knowing what’s happening online will help anyone creating a blog or business website.
It’s super important to keep up with these trends so our websites stay helpful and stay caught up in the fast-paced online world.
The exceptional designs five years ago seem old-fashioned now, and what’s popular today may become normal tomorrow. Adapting to these changes can help a website stay strong or set a business back compared to its rivals.
Plus, we’ve got to consider how web design affects how people use a website. Making sites easy to understand and with a modern look, like using simple layouts and keeping up with trends like minimalism or being mobile-friendly, makes users happier and more interested.
Ultimately, this means more people are sticking around on the site and doing what the site wants them to do, like buying stuff and reaching its goals. For companies, keeping up with what’s trendy in web design is important for their success.
10 Best Web Design Trends Set to Rule the UK in 2024
Staying on top of the latest web design trends is important for generating a great user experience, maintaining a competitive edge, and ensuring the design is suitable for new technologies. Modern design trends aim to improve website interactivity, which is critical today.
Here, we will discuss the ten best web design trends you should know:
1. Parallax Scrolling
Parallax scrolling is a web design technique that creates a three-dimensional effect as users scroll down the page. This effect is achieved by causing the web page’s background to move slower than the foreground. Here’s how parallax scrolling enhances the user experience and engagement:
- Parallax scrolling adds depth to the browsing experience by simulating a 3D environment. It can make the website feel more immersive, almost as if the viewer navigates a physical space.
- Parallax scrolling adds dynamic visual elements that catch the eye by breaking up the traditional flat and static web page layout.
- Parallax effects can be used to guide visitors through a narrative or a logical flow of information. Different elements can appear or transform as users scroll, leading them on a journey that unfolds step-by-step.
- Because parallax scrolling increases interest and engagement, users will likely spend more time on the site.
- Parallax scrolling can be tailored to reflect the aesthetics and values of a brand.
Parallax scrolling enriches user experience by creating a visually engaging, interactive, and memorable journey through the content. It enhances storytelling and communication, making websites not just sources of information but also engaging experiences.
2. Neomorphism
Neomorphism is a design trend in the user interface (UI) that stands for “new skeuomorphism.” It’s characterised by soft, extruded plastic-like designs and semi-flat colours, often resembling digital embossing or debossing. Neomorphism combines background colours, shapes, gradients, and shadows to ensure graphic elements mimic their real-world counterparts through subtle highlights and shadows. This style creates a sense of realism in a digital environment while maintaining a minimal and clean aesthetic.
Web designers appreciate neomorphic for its soft, unobtrusive aesthetics that bring elements to life with a 3D-like appearance while maintaining simplicity and user-friendliness.
Showcase of Websites Using Neomorphism:
- Music Player Interfaces.
- Smart Home Apps.
- Fitness and Health Apps.
- Banking and Finance Apps.
These examples highlight how neomorphism is used to give websites and apps a modern, sleek, visually appealing, and functionally immersive look.
3. Glass Morphism
‘Glass Morphism’ is a modern web design style in which the background blur and the transparency of the elements recreate glass-like aesthetics. This abstract style highlights the light or dark stuff floating above the background of a blurry surface, giving a unique depth and a multiple-layer effect. The effect is achieved by applying a backdrop filter with a blur effect on the background elements, combined with semi-transparent borders and vibrant colours to enhance contrast and readability.
How Glass Morphism Adds Depth and Visual Interest in Web Design:
Glass Morphism can assist designers in developing a multi-layer User Interface in which elements move over one another as if the elements are floating over each other. Layering creates a visual hierarchy and ensures that the most vital information takes the upper hand while the user decides what to focus on.
The semi-transparent elements of glass morphism interact beautifully with different lights and colours. As users scroll or move through the website, the light passing through these glass-like elements can shift, creating dynamic and interactive visual effects.
Glass Morphism helps draw attention to important content using blurred backgrounds and clear, focused foreground elements. This exclusive point of view helps stress some points of appeal, crucial info, or an interaction but only against the soft background.
This new mode’s appeal lies in its modern and fresh appearance, appealing to target users who crave simplicity and sleekness in their design. It can provide a more significant cohesive effect, thus improving the look of the website to be appealing and high-end.
The glass morphism effects can make an experiential impression in interface design, bringing a depth and feel to interaction similar to that observed in the real world. These can be made as easy and natural as possible to ensure a more intuitive and profound user experience.
Glass-morphism is often seen in dashboard interfaces, where information needs to be accessible yet not overwhelming. It’s also popular in mobile app interfaces, such as financial apps and media players, where clarity and depth can help make the interface feel less cluttered while still visually rich.
4. Minimalist Navigation
Making Web and App design navigation quick but simplified is essential to keeping a neat and comfortable user interface. It eliminates this clutter and distracts from the main elements that have simplified the user experience, allowing the user to get what they need quickly. The latter results in a more ergonomic and beautiful output interface.
Importance of Minimalist Navigation:
- Enhanced Usability.
- Improved User Satisfaction.
- Increased Engagement.
- Focus on Content.
Tips on Implementing Minimalist Navigation Effectively:
1. Identify the most critical information or features that need to be accessible and design your navigation around these elements.
2. Try to minimise the number of levels in your menu. A flat architecture makes it easier for users to reach their destination quickly and with fewer clicks.
3. Implementing hidden menus (like hamburger menus on mobile sites) can keep the interface clean while offering extensive navigational options.
4. Use consistent icons and terminology across your navigation. Familiar symbols and concise labels help users understand their options faster, creating a smoother navigation experience.
5. Ensure your minimalist navigation translates well across different devices and screen sizes. Responsive design techniques help maintain navigation usability and aesthetics on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
By following these tips, designers can implement minimalist navigation that looks clean and modern and enhances user experience by making navigating websites and applications easier and more intuitive.
5. Full-Screen Video Backgrounds
Videos, which can occupy the entire screen, might be the best way to grab users’ attention, cultivate their interest, and create a lasting impression of your platform. This specialisation taps into the power of dynamic visual content that envelopes the user and makes the experience more significant.
Benefits of Using Full-Screen Video Backgrounds:
- Enhanced Engagement.
- Emotional Impact.
- Brand Storytelling.
- Visual Appeal.
- Contextual Background.
Best Practices for Incorporating Full-Screen Video Backgrounds in Web Design
1. Ensure that the video is optimised for web use to prevent slow loading times. Compress the video as much as possible without losing significant quality, and consider using modern formats like WebM or HEVC.
2. Videos should autoplay and loop by default to ensure a continuous effect; however, make sure the video starts muted so as not to disrupt the user’s environment. Provide controls for users to play, pause, or mute the video.
3. Choose a video relevant to your website’s content. The video should be high-quality, with clear visuals and professional editing to ensure it adds value to the user experience.
4. Use contrast-enhancing backdrops or text shadows to keep the text readable against the video’s varying backgrounds.
5. To avoid performance issues, disable video backgrounds on smaller screens and use alternative static images instead.
6. Always provide a fallback image for scenarios if the video cannot be loaded due to slow connections or if the user’s browser does not support video backgrounds.
By following these practices, designers can effectively incorporate full-screen video backgrounds to create visually striking and emotionally engaging websites that captivate users upon arrival and enhance their overall experience.
6. Dark Mode Design
The darker colour palette of the dark mode is why this type of design has gained incredible popularity in recent years; it offers both aesthetic and practical advantages. Dim mode is a colour scheme in which text, icons, and layout elements are lighter against a dark background.
Here’s why it’s becoming a staple in digital environments:
- Reduces Eye Strain.
- Saves Energy.
- Enhances Visual Appeal.
- Improves Focus.
- Nighttime Browsing Comfort.
Showcase of Websites with Aesthetically Pleasing Dark Mode Designs
1. Spotify’s web player adopts a dark mode design, which improves users’ experience by decreasing the visual impression. The dark background in the Spotify app allows all the colourful album covers and artist pictures to stand out. This results in a visually attractive interface, which is also lovely for the eyes.
2. Adobe offers an option for dark-themed portfolio websites for designers. These websites help set the creative work apart by using dark backgrounds and making the colours in the photographs, illustrations and designs more vibrant and eye-catching.
3. Twitter introduces the dark mode option, a look and feel representing a dark blue and grey hue for the user interface. Thanks to this modification, the platform becomes suitable for low-light conditions and has a new, trendy outlook.
4. YouTube’s dark mode provides a cinema-like experience by focusing viewers’ attention on the video content. This reduces distractions around the video frame and enhances the overall viewing experience.
5. Apple supports system-wide dark mode, which transforms the aesthetic of the entire operating system. This mode integrates all native apps, providing a seamless and comfortable user experience, especially in dim environments.
These examples highlight how effectively dark mode can be integrated into web design to create functional and beautiful user interfaces that cater to current user preferences and viewing conditions.
7. Voice User Interfaces
VUs (Voice User Interfaces) make talking to your device, app, or service easier than typing and using a keyboard. VUIs are moving from the traditional GUI to the spoken language interaction medium, which does not use a display device for typing or tapping.
Here are key aspects of how VUIs impact user interaction:
- Accessibility.
- Convenience and Efficiency.
- Natural Interaction.
- Personalisation and Adaptability.
Examples of Websites Integrating Voice Commands
While VUIs are commonly found in smart speakers and mobile devices, their integration into websites is still emerging. However, some innovative examples demonstrate how voice commands can enhance user experience:
1. Google’s website can search using voice commands on both desktop and mobile units; a microphone icon in the search bar serves as the button for this feature. This makes searching convenient, fast, and more sought after for long-winded or complex queries.
2. The e-commerce pioneer has employed a voice shopping platform on its sites and applications. Users only need to say “Add to the cart” to put items into their basket, where they can easily modify their shopping list. Hence, users can enjoy more interactive and efficient shopping.
3. Voicebot.ai uses voice for match queries and site navigation, and how it further takes voice-first experiences.
These cases demonstrate the possible use of voice technology in web domains as an effective, efficient, and accessible framework for user experience, given the advancement and widespread use of voice recognition technology.
8. Advanced Micro-interactions
Micro-interactions are small, purpose-driven interactions in a user interface that carry out one task and trigger the user experience by making the digital spaces more responsive, engaging, and empathetic. These short interactions can quickly implement direct feedback to the user based on their actions, which helps navigation and gives life to otherwise dull digital product channels.
Typical examples are a grey button that becomes green when clicked, animations showing that a file is downloading, or subtle sounds indicating that an action has been completed.
Role of Micro-interactions in Enhancing User Engagement
- Feedback and Confirmation.
- Encouraging User Behavior.
- Enhancing the Sense of Direct Manipulation.
- Reducing Perceived Wait Times.
- Adding Personality.
Case Studies of Websites with Creative and Interactive Micro-interactions
1. Airbnb uses micro-interactions throughout its booking process. For example, when users adjust dates or the number of guests, subtle animations and changes confirm the adjustments.
2. Slack’s use of micro-interactions, such as playful animations for loading and custom emojis, adds a fun and personal touch to the workspace communication tool.
3. In its Material Design language, Google employs micro-interactions, such as ripple effects on buttons and interactive feedback for user inputs. These small details help make the user interface feel alive and responsive.
4. On the Dribbble website, a platform for designers, micro-interactions enhance the presentation of design work. Hover effects, smooth transitions for opening and closing images, and feedback on likes and comments make browsing designs more interactive and enjoyable.
5. Mailchimp integrates micro-interactions to simplify the often tedious tasks of email marketing. For example, when users complete sections of their email campaign setups, they are rewarded with cheerful graphics and encouraging messages, which makes the process more rewarding and less daunting.
These examples showcase how micro-interactions, when thoughtfully designed, can significantly enhance user engagement by making digital interactions more enjoyable, intuitive, and efficient.
9. AI-Powered Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots have enhanced customer service and user experience across various digital platforms. These chatbots leverage artificial intelligence to provide responsive, interactive communication with users.
Here are some of the primary benefits they offer:
- 24/7 Availability.
- Instant Response.
- Cost Efficiency.
- Consistency in Service.
- Personalisation.
- Scalability.
Examples of Websites Using Chatbots Effectively to Streamline Communication
1. Sephora’s chatbot on its website assists customers by offering personalised beauty advice and product recommendations. It helps customers make informed decisions and enhances their shopping experience by making it interactive and tailored to their needs.
2. H&M’s chatbot acts as a personal stylist, providing fashion advice and recommendations based on user preferences and trends. It helps users explore different styles and outfits, seamlessly guiding them through their shopping journey.
3. Domino’s chatbot allows customers to order pizza directly through the chat interface. This bot simplifies the ordering process, making it interactive and engaging, and is an excellent example of a chatbot directly driving sales.
These examples highlight how AI-powered chatbots can effectively streamline communication, enhance customer service, and improve the overall user experience, making them valuable assets.
10. Immersive Storytelling Elements
Immersive storytelling elements are crucial for crafting memorable user experiences on websites. They engage users emotionally and intellectually, making the interaction with the website not just informational but enjoyable and memorable.
Here’s why immersive storytelling is essential:
- Emotional Connection.
- Differentiation.
- User Engagement.
- Brand Identity and Values.
- Information Retention.
Tips on Incorporating Storytelling Techniques into Web Design
To effectively incorporate storytelling elements into web design, consider the following tips:
1. Use high-quality images, videos, and animations to tell your story. Visual storytelling can be more effective than text alone, as it is quicker to engage users and can convey complex messages succinctly.
2. Incorporate interactive elements such as clickable animations, scroll-triggered effects, and other features that involve the user in the story. It will make the experience more engaging and memorable.
3. Design your website’s user flow to mimic a narrative structure—beginning, middle, and end. It can guide users through your content logically and engagingly, making the overall interaction feel like a journey.
4. Ensure your storytelling elements are consistent with your brand’s theme. The tone, style, and type of story should align with your brand’s identity and message to ensure a cohesive user experience in UI/UX design.
5. While visuals are engaging, text is still important. Use compelling copy to enhance your visuals and clarify your story. The text should be easy to read and placed thoughtfully to keep the visual manageable.
By embedding these storytelling techniques into web development, businesses can create immersive, engaging websites that captivate audiences, convey brand values, and build a memorable online presence.
Final Thoughts
For web designers in the UK and worldwide, these trends are like a big playground for creativity and new ideas. Trying out these trends helps designers stay ahead and makes them think hard about how design affects how people use websites.
As you examine these trends, consider how to incorporate them into your projects to improve work and appearance and engage people more. The key is to keep up with what’s popular and create designs that make sense for the people who will use them.
Use these trends to try new things, go beyond the normal, and come up with fresh ideas in the digital world.