Websites are an essential part of any business. The struggle for the user’s attention reaches a higher and higher level. Unfortunately, there is no one magic trick that will make your website always up-to-date, fresh and compelling.

However, there are some trends that reflect the preferences of the majority of recipients regarding webpages, taking into account both their visual and useful side. From year to year, trends in web design change, so it is good to monitor and use them when creating websites. Check what web design will bring us this time.

1. Asymmetry and broken grid layouts

This is one of the trends that is gaining more and more importance. From the beginning of web design development it was assumed that all elements on pages should be aligned to the grid and everything must be evenly arranged, but today this approach is becoming rather boring and it goes towards asymmetry and irregularity in order to diversify the page and interest the recipients. In addition, non-standard elements on the page are associated with a high-quality brand and give the feeling of “premium”.

2. Dark theme

Last year mobile operating systems and many mobile applications introduced the so-called night mode that intelligently inverts any bright colours and whites to their natural dark equivalent. Initially, it resulted from the desire to save as much battery as possible in mobile devices, but it was so well received that desktop websites also began to introduce such a function. Users praise this feature very much because they can browse the website in the evening without blinking their eyes.

3. Material design

Material design was created by Google which wanted to give its users a simple, legible and easily adaptable to various planes graphic style. Today material design is used not only in Google applications, but it is also a global style which gains more and more followers thanks to its simplicity, usability and ease of application and is successfully used on websites.

4. Custom galleries

This element is strongly related to asymmetry because gallery is a section that has the greatest potential to play with form. It is worth paying attention to this trend because on pages with asymmetry we will usually use non-standard galleries.

5. Carousel overview

Many trends in designing desktop websites derive from mobile design. An example of this is a carousel gallery which is used in many mobile applications. This element combines an aesthetic design with the possibility of placing many different elements of the same type. This solution works well as a gallery, section with customer reviews or products to buy.

6. Minimalism

Minimalism is a trend that has been going on for several years and will most likely maintain its strong position in 2021. Interestingly, this is because minimalism is also associated with the “premium” brand. Nowadays, more and more people are becoming convinced of the “less is more” ideology.

7. Full-width dropdown menu

This is another trend that derives from the design of mobile applications. When browsing websites on the phone, we can very often come across a menu in the form of a “hamburger”, the pressing of which will expand the menu. Today more and more desktop versions of websites go in this direction.

8. Interactivity

As technology advances, people expect more and more from websites. The view of a neat, but completely immobile website is no longer sufficient to be remembered by the recipient. Currently, users want elements that would trigger some action so that the page would give the user a response to the activities he performs.

9. Animations

Animations are an element that most websites lack if they want to be prepared for 2021. Remember that you cannot overdo them! After all, we don’t want the site to be too heavy. We are talking here about subtle elements of animation that will diversify the entire page layout.

10. Vector graphics

Adding unique graphics to the website is always a good idea. The availability of thousands of vector graphics files strengthens our belief that the trends in web design in 2021 will show an increasing presence of these incredibly fun illustrations.

11. Abstract shapes and patterns

Abstract shapes and patterns will be strongly visible on websites this year. Some people think that shapes cannot be considered a design element, but well-designed ones can be visually attractive. Simple shapes can be used as a background to add a splash of colour, give a page a harmonious look or emphasize important text.

Summarizing, I perceive the trends in creating and maintaining websites for 2021 as a natural evolution of this medium towards adaptation to mobile devices and usability in terms of the touch screen. Scattered galleries or shifted columns in the grid look interesting, but will it be a continuing trend for a long time?

If I were to point out trends that will continue for many years, I would definitely focus on “mobile” menus and carousels. These are solutions that perfectly fit the idea of ​​mobile-first and allow you to keep good UX on touch screens and at the same time in traditional desktop views at a relatively low cost.

I hope this trend overview has given you some inspiration for how to keep your web design modern over the coming year. While web design trends are ever-changing, it’s significant to keep the key web design principles in mind.