When it comes to website design, there are a lot of ways you can go about it. That might surprise you. Most websites look very standard, as though they have been taken from a template, which a lot of them have, but it doesn’t have to be so obvious that that is the case. In our year of 2022, web design trends have started to break out from the hard and fast rules of websites past. Things are getting experimental and we, for one, are here for it. Take a look at our favourite website trends for 2022.
Contents
Experimental navigation
Navigation is very solid in a lot of websites. You have a pull down menu bar on the left hand side, and common links along the top. Everything’s small, standard and tiered with slight changes to font size to demonstrate the tiers. But that’s changing in 2022. Websites looking to make waves are now playing around with the standard navigation. Menu options come in large fun fonts that take up half the site if not the entire thing. They come in from the right or have to be scrolled through to see every one and other dynamic experiments with what happens when you click them. For example, we’ve seen websites that present themselves like a book and when you click a menu “page” you’re swiped with sound effects to the page you’re looking for.
Scrolling effects
And while we’re talking about scrolling through menus, have you noticed a lot of fun websites that do something innovative when you scroll? Sometimes the backdrop scrolls with you, showing you a fun animation, like the simple transfer of day to night as you go down, or any other concept that can be animated into the website. With funky retro fonts being all the rage, there’s been lava lamp-type bubbles that mold and blurb while you scroll, and lots of other fun ideas.
But the scrolling isn’t just used for the sake of aesthetics. You can also present more elements of the site and your products and services as you scroll.
Retro fonts
As mentioned, there are a lot of retro font styles that are coming back into circulation. Big swirling bold styles in fun colors are all in. It’s emblematic of a wider trend of the 60’s and 70’s fonts and colors coming back. They’re in homes, they’re in fashion, and they’re definitely in web design. If you’ve got a fun brand or product, you will likely have come across recommendations from “Neue Nouveau” trends, which is just a twist on the art nouveau movement that was prevalent in the 60’s and 70’s.
Minimalism
In the complete opposite direction, there is minimalism. There is something very polished about minimalism, but it also gives a great idea of what your brand and product is like, so you have to make sure your product suits it. The keywords to think about using are slick, simple, polished, functional, with no frills or spills, much like the style. It offers up only what it needs to and lets the product or the brand speak for itself. There is, however, room for experimentation. Adding one splash of color hints at some depth and fun to your product or brand, and you can always play about with transitions and scrolling to show some creativity in your site.
Drag interaction
Drag interaction offers users on the site an element of control over their experience on your website. If you can make your drag mechanism look and feel like a real physical action, your users will be allowed to pick up and move objects on the screen as they see fit. You can do it to allow users to browse different projects or products in a fun and innovative way.
Cinemagraphs
Like the name would suggest, cinemagraphs are somewhere between a photo and a video. Usually a collection of cinematic, high quality, shots spliced together to give something akin to a gif or a fast-paced presentation. And that’s the beauty of it. If you have an image-based business blog or social profile, for instance if you’re a photographer, or indeed photography is a big part of your marketing campaign, you can put together a lot of shots that show off the best images you have.
Layering
Layering is exactly what you think it is but is criminally underused in web design. Every other aspect of design, fashion, interior design, paintings, etc. use layering as a tool to add depth and intrigue to the eye. Web design in 2022 is now showing images and text layered on top of each other to create a more dynamic backdrop to your website.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of places you can take your website within and without the limits of a template, so have fun with it. Innovation is made by breaking the rules, and even if something doesn’t land the way you want it to, you’ve got somebody’s attention, which is of course the point of a business website.