Top 5 web design trends for 2022. We’re nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, and new technologies have made their way into almost every aspect of our lives. Web creators have begun to rethink their approach to web design, incorporating a wide range of resources both new and old.
Top 5 Web Design Trends for 2022
We’ve identified some of the biggest Top 5 web design trends for 2022 and currently making waves through the web development community. Consider how you might be able to implement some of these trends in your own web design workflow.
1. Non-Traditional Scrolling
Today’s website users are very different from website users from twenty years ago. The vast majority of today’s users access website content using a mobile touchscreen device, which enables a far more fluid and intuitive user experience than the keyboard and mouse-based websites of yesteryear.
This is most apparent when it comes to the way today’s best websites handle scrolling. In the past, most people expected websites to only scroll vertically. The computer mouse wheel was the perfect tool for quickly enabling users to skim through content and find what they’re looking for.
Fast forward to today, and things are a bit different. Gesture-enabled mobile devices allow users to swipe vertically and horizontally when engaging with website content. Some of today’s best web designers are capitalizing on this functionality to create websites that respond dynamically to user interactions in an almost game-like way. And the good thing is that you can do it for your own website without paying a lot of cash for the feature. You can just use a slider plugin that does all the heavy lifting for you.
2. Art Deco-Inspired Motifs
Most people will associate art deco with the 1920s, and rightly so. It was an art movement that reflected the zeitgeist of the beginnings of modernity, between World War I and II.
Art deco emphasizes geometric shapes and strong angles and linear movement. It came out of a strong desire to separate the new from the old, and embrace a future defined by technology and progress.
It’s easy to see why today’s web professionals would be attracted to the century-old artistic aesthetic. Art deco came into being at a critical moment of cultural transition, and is remembered as a flourishing period of growth and enterprise – a point made even clearer when compared to the brutal realities of the two world wars it sits between.
Today, web designers are drawing from art deco to inspire the creation of websites that are elegant, bold, and intuitive. They combine elements of the natural world with the symmetry and power of technological progress, recreating the quintessential modernist approach to design.
3. Neo-Brutalism
Neo-brutalism is a reimagining of the mid-twentieth century architectural trend that emphasized exposing raw materials and architectural elements in construction. Brutalist architects wanted people to appreciate the bare concrete superstructure of modern buildings without superfluous decoration. Neo-brutalist web designers want website visitors to do the same thing.
The defining characteristics of digital neo-brutalism include unstyled HTML, plain backgrounds, and asymmetrical layouts. Unadorned computer fonts and untreated photos are also part of the neo-brutalist design framework.
The overall effect of this approach is a stark, arresting atmosphere that demands user attention. It is restrained in character, but also bold and striking. That restraint is exactly what makes the content so bold, especially in comparison with the overwhelming, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style of web development that is now experiencing rapid decline.
4. Inclusive Content and Language
Inclusivity is always a challenge when broadcasting a message to a wide audience. The wider the audience is, the harder it is to make disparate people feel welcome in a meaningful way.
This is exactly the challenge that today’s best content creators are confronting. Language can inadvertently amplify divisions between people and even cause harm. Writers and web designers need to take a critical eye towards inclusivity in their messaging, and avoid sending the wrong message to people.
Often, the most effective way brands accomplish inclusivity is by being personal and specific. Inclusive language seeks to establish common ground for people despite differences of ability, sex, and race. It avoids unnecessary exaggeration and humor at the expense of others. For example:
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Calls-to-action that tell users to “see”, “watch”, or “listen” to content that is available in multiple formats excludes people with sensory disabilities. Neutral verbs like “browse”, “check out”, or “go to” are just effective.
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Plural and collective nouns that refer to people often have exclusionary meanings. Expressions like “ladies and gentlemen” don’t derive any real value from the explicit gender division. You can get the exact same meaning using words like “friends”, “people”, or “team”.
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Racism is embedded in a variety of terms with harmful historical origins. Reconsider using “slavery” to describe anything but actual, literal enslavement. Color-coded terms like “black market” are problematic for the same reason, and there are generally far less harmful synonyms available (like “illicit market”, or “criminal market”).
5. Minimal Design, Maximum Speed
If there is a single thread connecting the web design trends currently gaining popularity, it’s the minimalist approach. Web users are used to being bombarded with ads, promotions, and other messaging non-stop, and forward-thinking brands are starting to be mindful of clutter when broadcasting content online.
This minimalist approach favors letting a few strong statements do the work of explaining your product and converting leads. Where previous generations of marketers might use long, detailed pillar posts to explain things, today’s web designers want to distill the essence of their messaging and eliminate unnecessary complexity.
On purely technical terms, this approach offers considerable benefits for website performance, SEO, and the user experience in general. Focusing your design on a few strong elements allows your website to run faster, improving its Core Web Vital score and reducing the amount of time it takes for your pages to load.
Minimalist Web Design Helps the User Experience
The minimal approach shared by many of the most popular web design trends of 2022 reduces disruption and friction in the user experience. Visitors do not want to be overwhelmed with multiple content columns, dozens of widgets, and disruptive popups. They want one thing from your website, and the faster you show it to them, the better.
This doesn’t mean that complex widgets and popups are a thing of the past. It just means that website owners need to be selective about the functionalities they include on their site. You can still use popup forms to capture leads and boost conversions, but you’ll need to trigger them using a highly configurable popup builder to avoid disrupting the user experience.
When done right, this approach streamlines every aspect of your website and reduces plugin bloat. The result is a faster, smoother web experience that is optimized to rank well in today’s hyper-saturated web environment. More than anything else, 2022 is about getting rid of unnecessary clutter and focusing on what truly works.