The best web design focuses on the needs of the person viewing your site and makes it easy to use for them. This approach considers both how the site looks and how it functions. Coding is important; the smoother the development, the better the user experience (UX). Yet like all things, web design is subject to trends, as developers find new ways of doing things that work like magic while looking cool.The design trends making an impact in 2022 combine a focus on the future with a sense of nostalgia. Art movements from decades past continue to inspire, the text stands alone to make a bold statement, user interaction is evolving, and arts and crafts are changing the face of digital. Trends in 2022 mix technological innovation with a sense of human warmth and feeling across various styles.
Responsive web design is web design that takes the user’s experience into account and makes it a positive one across screens of all sizes and devices. For any worthwhile company offering web design services, ensuring your site is responsive is a priority. Yet one of the fulfilling things about web design is the sheer amount of styles and features you have to work with: text, images, icons, colours, shapes, and videos. The opportunities for creativity are endless. Anchor Digital is a full-funnel marketing agency offering web design services for many businesses. We can help whether you’re looking to make a big, bold, colourful statement or favour a sleeker, more simplistic approach. If you need some inspiration to get started, here are the hottest trends in web design in 2022.
1. Memphis Design
Love bright, bold colours? Want to stand out and make a striking impression? Memphis design is an iconic 80s style that’s come back into vogue. Originally a furniture style pioneered by Italian architect Ettore Sottsass, Memphis emerged as the antidote to the drab functionality of modernism. Design collective The Memphis Group made their mark in the 80s but split up after just six years. Yet their style lives on, a vibrant explosion of colour and emotion perfect for brands that want to appear unique, energetic and a little bit retro. Memphis design elements include geometric shapes, bright and sometimes clashing colours, squiggles, and patterns of black and white stripes.
2. Typographic Hero Image
Your hero image is the large banner at the top of your website that gives web users their first impression of your site and your company. Many brands choose to convey that first impression with text, using a few choice words and the right typography to make the impact an image or logo would.A typographical hero image grabs people’s attention much like a news headline and can communicate your message in a very sharp and direct way. It’s also powerful in its boldness and simplicity and gives you space to be creative in your choice of lettering, font size etc., to best suit the mood.
3. Retro Revolution
For today’s adults who grew up in the early days of the internet, seeing a retro-style webpage can evoke the same fuzzy feelings of nostalgia as a video store or classic gaming console. People love all things vintage, and older styles continually come back into vogue. Whether it’s because it reminds us of simpler times or because it looks cool, the web design style of the 90s internet is making a comeback, but with the superior look and functionality that decades of experience can provide.
Adopting an early internet-era style gives you the freedom to be bold with colour, fonts, images and animation. You can balance the outlandishness with a simple, minimalist layout that keeps your site easy to navigate.
4. Visible Borders
While having a visible border on your webpage is one method for creating a retro vibe, it’s also an elegant way to split your site into clear, easy-to-distinguish sections. Borders offer both aesthetic and functional purposes. Done right, they’re pleasing to the eye and make it easier for users to scan the page. They also give you space to add more content without the page looking jam-packed.
Borders are also useful for figuring out a page's layout and ensuring its information is correctly displayed across all devices.
5. Engaging Interactives
Hover your cursor over an icon, and text appears to tell you a vital piece of information. As you wait for a page to load, an animated icon greets you and hints at what’s to come. Animation and micro-interactions are nothing new in web design, but animated micro-interactions are popular, and you have plenty of opportunities to use them creatively. You can set up animated interactions when users click, scroll, swipe and drag, sometimes concealing info in subtle places and letting users uncover it themselves.
Animated interactions can be a lot of fun. They can also help you to direct the user’s attention to specific spots of your site in a certain order and also make the whole site feel more human and alive.
6. Moving Type
While animation on websites has traditionally been the domain of images, the new trend of moving text is all about bringing letters to life. Animated text can make your website look more interesting, dynamic and alive, as long as you don’t overdo it. Common examples include floating text, scrolling text, text that fades in or out, and text that’s triggered by hovering your cursor.As well as breathing life into a usually stationary element of your website design, moving type also lends a cinematic flair that evokes the suspense of film credits.
7. Creative Scrolling Experiences
Scrolling animations aren’t new in web design, but in 2022 they’re getting bigger and more spectacular. Scroll-triggered animations grab users’ attention and give them the chance to feel more involved in the story you’re telling. They engage users and help them to follow the story you’re telling in the order you’re telling it.
These days, many scroll-triggered designs are leaning towards the strongly imaginative and elaborate, with psychedelic imagery and parallax effects. A seamless design optimised for efficiency helps ensure that the creative flair illuminates the information instead of distracting away from it.
8. Handmade Graphics
As the world becomes increasingly digital, connected and online, there’s a simple charm in imagery with a hand-crafted or “rustic” look. You can mix a market-style arts-and-crafts aesthetic with digital efficiency for a site that meets people’s needs while being relatable in its slightly rough appearance.
Elements that help create a sense of that homespun charm on your site include hand-drawn pictures, cut-outs, crayons and paints. If the webpage graphics look like they were made in your living room with scissors, crayons or construction paper, it helps the digital to feel a little more real-world even as you maintain the efficiency your customers expect from your site.
Create Your New Website with Anchor Digital
Looking for responsive web design that stays true to your brand and story?Anchor Digital will create a website that captures the essence of your company and your mission, helps meet your business goals, and exceeds your and your customers’ expectations. We’ll work closely alongside you through a process that involves developing a detailed prototype, optimising and monitoring the site and mobile speed, and split testing.
Responsive web design is important to us. That’s why we ensure your site performs at its best across various devices. We optimise for the speed humans and search engines recognise as fast and efficient.For web design services that are hip and relevant yet based on tried and tested principles, drop us a line.
