Web Design Trends 2022

Website Design Trends 2022

We are living in the age of generational change. The millennials
are taking over. This means a totally different way of thinking. That is always
the case from one generation to the next. But this time in history
will be looked back on as a major shift
for website design trends.

Performance Is Always Trending

The biggest trend for web design companies for 2022 is still to focus on targeting mobile customers. Mobile internet use is well over 50% now. This leads designers to create less content and more single-line LARGE-type presentations. For your average online shopping site, it is for sure a good direction. More people are doing their shopping online and they do not want to read a book before they find the products they are looking for.

Audience Targeting Is Important

BUT not in all cases is focusing on phones and pads going to get you more business unless you are supporting your online website 100% with advertising channels. If you want to get found in the search engines organically you must have the content on the page.

Here at Glenn Website Design, we are trying a different approach to presenting on our main page both options. Our page is laid out to initially focus on handphones. But we have incorporated accordion-type content fields, infinite scrolling, and other techniques so if the user wants more they only have to click to view. This allows the average phone or pad visitor to breeze through what we have but it does not limit us on the page content.

Moving Forward

The development of the Internet as an information device is reflected in the design innovations that have changed the appearance of the World Wide Web over the years. Above all, with Web Design Trends 2022 the mobile revolution has forced website designers to radically rethink their design. Today, they are supposed to present an Internet that adapts to the smallest screens without forgetting valuable information. But also at a more specific level of Web design, new trends can be observed again and again, which already determine the Internet of tomorrow today. I will show you 9 of these trends so that you are well prepared for modern web design in 2022.

Web Design Trends 2020

First of all, we can observe evolution based on the mobile adaptation of these last years. Websites must become even more efficient and user-friendly in order to stay in step with the competition in the online market, whether on PC, tablets, or smartphones. The bulky and slightly overloaded designs of the 2000s have a long history; the human eye has had enough. The new maxim is concentration on the essential.

Responsive Web Design

The new need is called user comfort, that is, the “ease of use” of web offerings. The key to this trend is the one that is so important for the mobile market: Responsive Web Design which favors technical flexibility by taking into account the user terminal. Modern website design, therefore, means that the website “reacts” effectively to the user’s device and presents itself accordingly. Responsive website design is consciously designed with foresight in mind so that websites can respond with confidence to new systems or to systems that were not familiar to them before. In addition, website designers no longer just develop for browsers, many of the best-known website providers allow easier mobile use via their own apps.

Some buzz words in Web design will remain in 2022. On the one hand, there is the Internet of Things which recognizes the increasing digitization of everyday life and wants to offer users even more possibilities for interaction. On the other hand, significant advances in AI research mean that automated web services are getting better and better; Web designers are likely to try to take full advantage of this area as well. Last but not least, the growing importance is given to snack-able content also means that web offers are as eye-catching as possible and that user-friendliness is a top priority. If these two Web design trends, focused on usability and “snack” content, really work together and other innovative and courageous ideas prevail.

Web design trends almost never exist in a vacuum. They have adjacent trends as well as competitors that lead a particular design element in a different or even opposite direction. Sometimes counter tendencies develop from a reaction to certain tendencies when they become more and more apparent. Web designers often rely on a counter-trend to stand out today in the Internet landscape of tomorrow. Here are some examples of Web design trends and corresponding counter-trends that we will also encounter in 2022.

Trends / Against-trends

Image bank: Professional images from stock photo agencies that can be integrated into many websites are a secure option to enhance the design of your website.

Individual or authentic images: they play the proximity card and show how people and businesses really are, in order to speak as directly as possible to visitors.

Symmetrical shapes: box shapes, “flat grids”, for example, web pages designed strictly horizontally and vertically facilitate navigation and are efficient to use. These pages follow the proven and familiar “rectangular” nature of HTML and CSS.

Asymmetrical forms: experimental designs, Web surfaces with innovative designs that break with common conventions and want to stand out through individualism and play.

Design of a page, so that all-important information is presented and grouped on a single page thus saving as many clicks as possible for the user. It is better to let the user (more and more mobile) scroll the information rather than click. Some standard layouts are increasingly accepted, especially for companies that operate in digital form.

Nostalgia for Web design trends that want to return to the principles of the Internet surfaces of the 2000s (“Web brutal-ism”, minimalism, text) or to the technically innovative menu bars and buttons that are still necessary to navigate on the site, but which are not bulky for mobile use (hamburger menus, micro-interactions)

Colorful design: strong complementary colors and color gradations that give a website a certain cachet. In addition, there is a symbolism of color or an association of colors deliberately used (blue for digital products, green for charities, pink for cosmetics, etc.)

The minimalism of colors and lots of white space in order to leave as much space as possible for the information communicated. Strictly bi-color (“Duotone”) websites focus on user comfort and forgo the use of complex colors. In contrast, marks and symbols are often used to attract attention.

Overall, Web design continues to develop in the same direction as that established in recent years: increased attention to mobile devices (responsive Web design), easily accessible content, goal-oriented interfaces, and responsive or interactive user interfaces. At the same time, developments in the field of artificial intelligence are always having more impact on Web designers, as new technologies become more accessible. What is certain is that the year 2022 will continue the various Web design trends of previous years and will not fundamentally change the Internet landscape. However, certain trends are converging towards a further improvement of the user experience on platforms that want to contribute today to shaping the Internet of tomorrow.

This is actually less of a trend than a basic premise of well-designed websites: speed becomes even more important. This is partly related to the mobile revolution: website operators want their pages to be easily accessible on mobile and do not take up too much volume. The faster the web pages load, the better the user experience. It was already the case 10 years ago. However, there is a trend to watch: the web designer often forgoes intensive backup over time in order to guarantee the fastest possible use of his website.

Many other 2022 web trends start here. For example, the increasing minimalism in website design means that storage-intensive media are largely removed and formats that keep storage costs low are preferred. “Long scrolling” websites, which put all the necessary information on a single drop-down page, score points with the fact that the user only has to load it and not multiple sub-pages per page. after. The increasingly popular white space also means the absence of elements that could slow down the loading speed of a website.

The Internet has become faster and faster despite its relatively short development time. However, there are voices rising to say that it is far from being fast enough. First of all with regard to mobile data networks which are not yet powerful enough in many regions. However, web designers can already overcome these shortcomings today by designing their websites as easily as possible.

Other current trends in modern web design such as interactive animations, parallax effects, or a dynamic background cause a sensation and improve (effectively used) the reception of information. However, designing a complex website often has a negative effect on performance. Web designers must therefore carefully consider which multimedia and interactive content add value to the user and which unnecessarily slow down the website. As a general rule: the best is the enemy of the good, which does not necessarily mean a return to a “flat” conception.

Keep in mind: that the performance of a website directly affects the user experience. It is necessary to make the difference between the felt and factual loading time. Downturns are only problematic when users perceive them to be so. Web designers, therefore, rely, among other things, on the following measures to compensate for longer loading times:

Progress indicators

If the visitor has to wait, he should at least know how long. The progress bar does not shorten the loading time but it can at least make it more tolerable if it is designed in an interesting way. At the very least, the user should not be tempted to leave the site again if he is forced to wait. After all, the tolerance of the modern Internet user has become narrower as the connections have become faster.

A loading progress indicator can be displayed with a bouncing ball as shown on our website. Websites must be programmed so that “Above the fold” content must first be searched and displayed in the browser. These are the parts of the page that are visible without having to scroll. If this content is available, it does not matter to the user whether additional content (“below the fold”) will be loaded later.

Progressive JPEG

Images embedded in progressive JPEG do not accumulate from top to bottom in the final resolution when loaded. Instead, it is the interlacing method, also known as progressive display, which is used: a low-quality preview image is displayed first, and then it is gradually refined until the data for the desired image quality has been fully loaded.

In summary, the same goes for videos, photos, and gadgets of all kinds and content: they must be of high quality, unique, and relevant to the user. It also makes sense that such content is only loaded when the visitor searches for it. Users of mobile devices or weaker Internet connections in particular benefit from well-structured websites that do not contain unnecessary data overload.

A glance on the Internet shows that there are image banks as far as the eye can see. In recent years, website operators have simplified their tasks. Instead of creating special images, the relatively inexpensive acquisition of photos from existing databases is now standard procedure. However, this lacks originality. And the added value for the user is limited when more or less arbitrary patterns serve the theme of the text.

However, the biggest drawback of image banks is their mass suitability. Users are likely to find the same photos on a variety of pages on the web. Websites with unique, high-quality video and image content stand out from the crowd. A major trend for website design in 2022 is the use of dynamic background images, graphics, and videos.

Dynamic background elements allow website operators to communicate information faster and more directly than with text elements. In addition, visitors can be emotionally affected by photos, graphics, or videos. This is why we often use a dynamic background in order to create feelings and put the visitor in the desired mood.

Micro-interactions are a trend in UX Design, in which selected user interactions are accompanied by small animation effects. This can, for example, result in a “like” button that rewards the user by an effect of movement or the vibration of the smartphone.

The motto “Mobile first” does not only apply to viewing windows and lossless viewing of web content on different devices. The trend toward mobile devices will have an increasing influence on web content in the future. One of the most important developments in this context: is the transition from click to scroll. In principle, the scrolling site is an ancient tradition. However, design concepts such as infinite scrolling or the parallax effect continue to enjoy great popularity and therefore remain in vogue in 2022.

Infinite scrolling allows website visitors to access new content by scrolling instead of clicking. Once the end of an information section is reached, the next one immediately follows. Social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Quora have long used this method to present content to users in a continuous flow of information. Users are faced with “infinite scrolling” in blogs too and this will continue to play a role in the future.

Infinite scrolling is ideal for websites with a wide range of information. While a blog with 100 to 200 entries can still be easily paginated, the benefit of page splitting for large web projects diminishes with the increase in the volume of information. It is unlikely that a user will specifically call page 812 out of a total of 5782 sub-pages. Infinite scrolling, on the other hand, is usually used with sophisticated algorithms that pre-filter the information offered and first present the most relevant entries to users.

However, website operators who want to jump on the infinite scrolling trend in 2022 should pay attention to a search engine-friendly implementation. While Google initially struggled to browse scrolling websites, infinite scrolling can now be implemented safely thanks to the detailed design specifications of the market leader in search engines. In any case, note the following:

  • Individual URLs for each secondary page
  • No content overlap
  • Visitors should be able to easily find the items they are looking for
  • Reasonable charging time
The parallax effect

The scrolling parallax does not belong to the new Web trends in 2022 but continues to grow in importance. The parallax movement effect has already been used for a few years as a basic component of modern websites. Through this, the individual levels of the website move at different speeds, creating a depth perception effect. Normally, the website should also display elements that invite the visitor to act in addition to the movement effect. Parallax scrolling can therefore be perfectly combined with interactive storytelling.

One of the basic principles of modern web design is the presentation of web content according to the target group. In the area of ​​electronic commerce, in particular, the selection of content and its presentation must be adapted to the needs of potential customers. Whereas before, the focus was on groups of abstract people, in 2022, the user experience of the individual will be at the heart of the objective.

While features such as “You might also like this” is already a must in any online store today, providers like the Spotify music streaming service or the Netflix video-on-demand portal take it one step further and directly adapt the range of information, products, and presentation styles to each person. Thus, two users almost never see the same selection of individualized products on the home page of the respective portal.

A trend in Web design 2022 will be the personalized website where visitors can see the content according to their usage habits. The database for a custom user interface is provided by web analytics such as Google Analytics which provides content providers with a more complete picture of how people interact with web content.

Small animated images that are played in a loop have experienced a spectacular renaissance since 2018. They benefit from new, much more powerful formats such as WebM and are available on many communication platforms. They have several advantages: on the one hand, GIFs are relatively small files, on the other hand, they are played automatically so as not to hinder the user experience. Unlike WebM Videos and many other animated formats, GIFs can do without sound and are therefore less intrusive.

An essential part of the development of GIFs is made up of various GIF libraries such as Giphy, with the help of which GIFs can be easily integrated everywhere. In addition, these libraries offer an incredibly wide choice, so that almost every user can find a suitable GIF from a variety of sources. It is therefore not surprising that the meme culture flourishes within these GIFs. In 2022, online communication will again be done not only by text and emojis but also by GIFs which can be used in different ways.

The programs for communication tasks are not new. The chatbot comes from the research field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is already used today on company websites or online stores. Typically, these are small dialog boxes that receive questions from users and play the automatically generated responses. These can be customized using machine learning algorithms. The user has the impression that it is a human employee who answers the questions. Chatbots are used as virtual shopping assistants or as an alternative to the classic FAQ.

Chatbots are rarely intrusive but are usually switched via small interactive elements. The user thus has the impression of being contacted in real-time by an employee of the Web service. In most cases, the user can respond to the request without leaving the site. The distrust of interlocutors controlled by AI may have eased somewhat since the successes of Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Co. In most cases, however, chatbots are (for now) no more than search bars that react more dynamically to search queries. It will be interesting to see how well chatbots will develop in 2019.

The fact that a good layout is reproduced quickly and frequently is also seen time and again in 2022 web trends. The user interfaces of many websites and web applications are increasingly relying on best practices in terms of content design and layout. Here, the layout always influences the usability of a website.

Web Design Trends 2020

Basically, you never do anything wrong with a tidy user interface (UI). Likewise, there is a conscientious reliance on the long-established portal design for large websites or the blog design for smaller websites. Two more recent layout trends in web design can also be found on many graphical user interfaces in 2022.

The hamburger menu

This phenomenon has become established so quickly that many users already take it for granted in the layout of their menu: the small side menu button also called the “hamburger button” or “navigation on the side”. Initially, it was mainly used for drop-down menus on mobile websites and applications. The icon also marks the menu button on many desktop versions. The symbol is reminiscent of a layered hamburger and is often represented by the mathematical symbol “≡”, which actually means “identical”.

Card layout

The second new trend in website design is the presentation of content. Card layout (also called “card-based design”) is used more and more. The content text and/or visual or buttons “Call to Action” is presented in several boxes spread over the user interface. This has several advantages. In addition to the many possibilities for designing a website in a clear and visually appealing way, the arrangement of cards in web design also has its advantages from a pragmatic point of view: as individual boxes or cards work as containers for web content, they can be easily moved inside the website design grid. Particularly with a responsive web layout, redistributing page content is extremely easy. The layout of the card has become popular mainly through image web services such as Pinterest or web design platforms such as Dribbble.

1 & 1 web page with hamburger button and card layout

Map layout on Pinterest with the hamburger menu button at the top right next to the search bar (Source: https://www.pinterest.com/1and1com/we-love-the-internet/)

As AI is used more and more in search engines you will find that voice search is the ultimate tool for any user. Computer operating systems are getting faster. Connection speeds are getting faster. We are already at a point where voice search is starting to be highly used. What this means is that a user can give the search engine more information to get the result they are looking for.

What this means as a developer is that you need to get better at writing content as if you were describing in person what you are developing the site or web page for. The old method of focusing on keywords SEO strategy is going out the door very fast.

Web trends 2022 are all about interactivity. In addition, websites should be designed to be even more user-friendly in the future and allow quick access. Web content is not separately adapted for different devices but is optimized for cross-device presentation as part of responsive design.

The parallax effect and infinite scrolling are popular stylistic devices to accompany visitors to the website. It is also the keyword of the trend of interactive storytelling: the client does not receive the desired information directly without feeling but receives a short story. Hand-drawn illustrations, high-quality background elements, and individual fonts give the site an extra personal touch. It is more important than ever to speak to website visitors personally and to grab their attention emotionally. The principle remains the same: a website that addresses the user and offers high-quality and attractive content is the first step in a successful journey on the World Wide Web.

If you are designing your own website or want to update your existing website, you should take inspiration from some of the trends for Webdesign 2022. This is how you will adapt your website today to the requirements and expectations of tomorrow.