Designing the Future: Top Web Design Trends 2023.
In 2023, web designers are taking the reigns and unshackling themselves from the strains of deep-rooted stereotypical design beliefs. Playful websites have exploded across the internet and designers are pushing the boundaries of immersive experiences. Differentiating themselves from competitors by crafting mind-bending interactives that engage and excite. From retro-futuristic blends, a year of scrolling chaos and the rise of a white space rebellion.
Without further ado, here’s our look into the future – Top Web Design Trends to watch in 2023.
Forget scrolling up and down a website, that’s old hat. Over the last five years, designers have been moving away from the standard vertical scroll and instead adopting for more ‘unorthodox’ methods. Now, this non-traditional styling is coming together for a year of chaotic scrolling.
Horizontal scrolling has become a popular choice to its vertical counterpart. Often used in catalogues, maps and creative portfolios. The attractive yet practical direction can be an effective way to make your website more engaging and memorable. Just like this website built solely to showcase a playlist. SIRUP is jam-packed with exciting visual elements, brutalism, smooth gradient colour changes and…a big fish. All of which are showcased through a smooth sideways scroll.
The parallax scrolling technique involves moving the background content of a website layout at a slower rate than the foreground. Creating a 3D-like effect as the user scrolls. This Better Up website report is an excellent example of parallax, horizontal and vertical scroll creativity. The three-dimensional experience creates a sense of progression as users uncover content, step by step. Driving them to continue.
Forget Avatar-2 and the cinematic 3D world of Pandora, we’re seeing brands create their own visually stunning digital landscapes that are eye-catching, interactive and innovative. It’s no longer just a 3D spinning ball that you can manipulate with your mouse. Online experiences are now being crafted with an element of mystery in mind. Almost like a treasure hunt of aesthetic web animation.
These immersive worlds appear to be following a journey-style path that encourages the user to keep clicking, swiping, dragging, and scrolling. With a nod to our first scroll-frenzy trend, the mix of different mouse actions adds to making an intriguing online experience that engages users for longer.
Streaming giant Spotify released a new report bursting with informative insight into different music audiences. Rather than creating a basic web page to disseminate the data, Spotify chose to innovate.
Crafting an immersive brand experience rich with cool animation, 3D/2D blends, and audio elements. As users engage with the report, they are able to witness the designer’s creativity and vision come to life, capturing and holding their attention.
White space has long been known as the holy grail of web design, a strategy that allows your content to breathe; creating a spacious, simplified user journey. White space coexists with the concept of minimalism, the belief that ‘less is more’. But times are changing, and a rebellion is emerging (This is not a new star wars movie btw).
In 2023, expect to see maximalist designers delve deep into the realms of multimedia. Single web pages bursting with expressive backgrounds, foregrounds, imagery, animation, novelty click effects and exciting colour all at once. The white space rebellion is honing in on an entertaining digital experience, rather than fluid navigation.
A soldier of the white space rebellion. Oversized and overlapping typography is charging into 2023 like a rocky montage video, it’s getting bigger, and bolder. Rather than just becoming copy that’s part of the website, oversized typography is becoming the focal point of an entire design. They command attention as a fresh visual element. Giving designers and copywriters the chance to be playful with unusual fonts and captivating short-form headlines.
Mainstream websites are adopting this attention-grabbing style to the headline of their websites. Keeping the rest website well-structured and polished, but taking advantage of its not-so-subtle brutalist aesthetic. We created our own fictitious AR/VR company called ‘Sigma,’ which embraced this emerging trend for a new landing page.
Last but certainly not least is the rise of retro-futuristic design blends. A clever conflict of styles from the past, and styles from the future. Web designers have been reminiscing on visuals of the past with a fresh perspective. It blends our obsession with futurism and all things tech with the warm, familiar, nostalgic feeling evoked by retro design. Think grungy faded aesthetics, technology and futuristic themes, vibrant neon colours and geometric shapes.
Take a look at how the Microwaver 59 website incorporates a grainy futuristic neon flooring and 3D objects with retro typography and classic image filters.
2023 is set to be an impulsive year of immersive creativity and experimentation in web design. As we look into the future, these trends are expected to shape the way users interact with websites and create more engaging and memorable experiences.
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