Web Design Trends

Web Design Trends since 2000

Web Design Trends Between 2000 and 2023

There have been many changes in websites and web design over the decades. Over the years, there have been some significant technological advances. Some of these include smartphones, laptops, and virtual reality. When we look at the technologies we started with, we can learn from what we find. Looking back through the years, beginning with the early 2000s, we can see how they didn’t focus on the actual design aspect of the website.

Web designers today care a lot more about how a site looks and how easy it is to use than they did in the past years. Websites were used initially for personal use, and now they are more often used by the public. Businesses use them to sell their products or spread awareness. Web designers are much more focused on designing a website for their users. They aim to make it as appealing and easy to use as possible. As we move through the years of web design and development, you will see some of the advances we have made and learn where some of our techniques started.

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What is Web Design?

Before we look at the web design trends over the years, we need to understand what web design is. Web design is simply the process of creating a website. This may sound simple enough, but it takes several steps, systems, and time to design and build these. Some of the formats we use are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to make the websites you see today. HTML usually is where you would start the process of creating your webpage. This usually consists of adding the page title, the pictures, the “perfect” page content, and the links.

Once we have used HTML to structure the website, we use CSS to style it. This includes the font, the text, the image sizing, and the different colors you plan on using on your page. Finally, we use JavaScript to add to the interactive aspect of the webpage. As you can probably see, this is a long process with many steps. There is a lot of coding involved, most of it is very simple, but there are some more complex parts.

Web Design Trends Timeline

In the early 2000’s most websites consisted of only text. If you were to check them now, you’d probably say they were the worst websites to view. Hey, but they were functional! They did not have any design aspects because there was no way to implement them. However, there were visual breakthroughs, and directories and navigation elements were developed a few years later. Some of the introduced features we use today include minimum images, links, and the appearance of search boxes. Most of these we still use, but they have been significantly modified for improvements for the user as we move further through the years. You will see a lot of design elements that are still used today. However, they had changed from when they first started.

2003 – 2005

More advances took place very quickly. Between 2003 through 2005, Flash, Splash, and millions of colors were added to web design. Flash was a specialized Multimedia software platform. It was used to create desktop applications, mobile applications, games, and more. In the early stages of web design, Flash was used for building the website instead of HTML. It was so popular because it could do things that HTML, CSS, and JavaScript couldn’t.

2006 – 2008

With the introduction of mobile devices to the public came new web design trends. This created a massive change in how websites needed to work and what they had to work on. Instead of only working on laptops and computers, websites also needed to work on mobile devices. They had to be adaptable for smaller, thinner screen sizes. Due to the small screen size, websites need a long scrolling page. This allowed all of the original information to carry over onto mobile device applications. If this extended scrolling were not included, websites on mobile devices would have to be extremely small. The website might also cut off and not allow mobile users to view the whole site.

In 2007 we saw the fall of Flash software used for web design. This was when the first iPhone was released, and unfortunately, it didn’t support Flash.

2009 – 2011

In 2010, oversized headers and huge image backgrounds became the new trend. It was popular to have on the home screen a vast background image and then put the text over top of it. Typography, style, and font of letters also became very popular these years. People started using sIFR and Cufon. These both use JavaScript and Flash to enable typography. Another trend that has come back several times over the years is minimalism. Minimalism uses lots of white space to make the website look cleaner and more simplistic. Oversized footers we’re also very popular at this time.

2012 – 2014

Mobile devices with tiny strings became increasingly popular, and web design trends. Web designers moved their focus on responsiveness to these devices. HTML 5, CSS3, and jQuery also became very popular and used. CSS3 Incorporated rounded corners and implemented new text features in web design. These new text features were a vast improvement due to the popularity of custom web fonts.

JQuery was an open-source JavaScript library. HTML5 added a new structure format for sections, headers, footers, navigation, and more. It also added the use of canvas audio and videos. Many web designers preferred this because it was compact, robust, reusable, had a lightweight footprint, and supported animations. Infographics also became very popular at this time. Most companies use them to spread their ideas and data to the public.

2015 – 2017

Web design trends aimed at storytelling were key during 2015-2017. Businesses began using their sites to tell their stories and interact with the public. This also explains how businesses started to use custom photography over stock photo backgrounds. Professional photography became a much better way to show the public about the company. The abundance of large header background images has grown exponentially in recent years. This promoted a decrease in this design trend. Most companies wanted to stand out, and since so many people were using this design element, the company steered away from it.

There was a more need for simplicity in this era. This led to the slide-out menus and hidden menus that appeared on websites.

As the years went by, Flash became less popular. In 2015 Google moved all its YouTube videos to HTML5. This was a big blow to Adobe Flash. In 2017 Adobe officially announced it would stop working on Flash by 2020. It will become less popular and obsolete without new features and advancements.

2018 onwards

Recent web design trends include a rise in the interactive capabilities of websites. In 2018, chatbots, animation, and micro-interaction were introduced. Businesses started using chatbots on their websites to allow users to chat with representatives and get their questions answered right away. The animation was also used as background and in images. A more advanced type of animation is micro-interaction. This is where the animation changes based on the user’s interactions.

This year, there are many more changes with color pallets and layouts. Designers are using more vibrant colors to catch the user’s attention. For the layout, a more simplistic design is rising. The minimalistic asymmetrical layout is growing in popularity. This layout is more complicated to execute, though. It takes time to add in a lot of these new design features.

Web Design Trends

Generally, websites should be legible, informative, and maybe even sleek, but If you were to go on mikiyakobayashi.com, you would realize there is much more to the web than just coding a couple of lines one day. This site pushes the boundary of what Is possible on the web. When launching this site, you will immediately realize what is unique: its elegant blend of photos, information, and interface.

It started in 1991

Web pages were lackluster because these web developers didn’t have the tools we have today; because of this, the past web trends were very different from today’s web trends. The first web page was published in 1991 and was merely just a couple of lines of text with links leading to a similar web page. The white background and single font are impressive by today’s standards, yet it was “the” standard back then. An evolutionary trend of the past, like adding color to a page, would be something more of a necessity now.

An old snapshot of Bloomberg.com can be found on the way back machine and shows just how primitive things looked in 1996 despite being five years late.

Not all sites had to be like this. However, there were sites with authentic colors and even logos! For example, McDonald’s had a website full of its trademark mark look. The red on the page would have left you thinking that this was a massive jump in technology and that having color was “impressive” at the time. But, this website was somewhat of a disaster. It’s good that it was pretty empty because reading more than a couple of lines off the tomato red background with yellow cheese writing would have given even Ronald McDonald a migraine.

If you look at the McDonald’s website, it seems like they’ve come a long way. Their use of red is very sparse, and they instead use lots of blacks, whites, and dark grays. This is a huge step because it makes everything legible and toned down.

Apple & Microsoft

Things weren’t always hideous when it came to ’90s web pages. In 1998 Apple made great use of pictures and minimalism to make a website that would still stand well today. Microsoft.com from 1999 stood out. This website wasn’t the flashiest or aesthetically pleasing as the Apple website, but it did a great job separating the paragraphs on the page to make them all readable. Also, the blue color shows what was clickable and what wasn’t. This Microsoft website’s key goal was to make it usable for “anyone.”

Hamburger Menu

You might have seen the “hamburger menu” in the top corner of many of today’s mobile and websites. First of all, the “Hamburger menu” is one of them. It is three lines stacked together to roughly form the shape of a hamburger. The primary purpose of the hamburger menu is to incorporate a site menu without taking up too much room. The hidden menus of the hamburger menu usually have less importance.

Moreover, the hamburger menu allows for direct access, enabling users to directly access more select items instead of looking through every single item by order. It enhances usability and speed, especially for mobile users who expect more speed and quick access even more than on the web. The most common example of a hamburger menu is Facebook. Users can press the hamburger menu as a tab to access all other features.

Micro Interactions

Micro-interactions are still popular. We can experience micro-interactions on many websites today. They are contained product moments that revolve around a single use case-they have one main task. For example, simple moments of engagement happen when we press an elevator bottom to like a photo on Instagram. We are performing micro-interactions. You engage in a micro-interaction every time you set the alarm, login, or “like” something. It means those micro-interactions are everywhere in the environment we work and live in, regardless of phones and desktops.

Micro-interactions are an essential part of almost every digital design project. Even though we live with micro-interactions every day, they are not easy to recognize because of their small sizes and invisibility. However, they can make our lives easier and more fun. Micro-interactions are loved because they are suitable for accomplishing a single task, connecting devices, adjusting a setting, etc. Well-organized and created micro-interactions will bring convenience to users and make websites more creative and trendy.

Typography

There is no doubt about how visual things in websites impact users. This is why typography is getting popular and a key web trend. Well-designed typography significantly affects many aspects of our website, including readability, mood, vision, and much more. What is typography exactly? In his book, Rober Bringhurst, a Canadian typographer, describes it as “the craft of human language with a durable visual form. The primary purpose is not to make the site beautiful—more than that, it ensures that the type is readable.

Most websites contain content that occupies more than 80% of the website. Typography guides the readers through your content. Good typography will emphasize essential parts of your content that attract customers and readers to your content. Moreover, typography also can maintain the constancy of websites. Inconsistency and chaos make users’ experience frustrating, and they will not return to your site anymore. Good typography helps you to solve those problems and tidies things. It makes it easy to read and find information.

Typography impacts your website’s design and tremendously impacts conveying your content to readers. Well-designed typography will make your website more beautiful and helpful to visitors.

Color Schemes & Website Colors

Color schemes are another vital part of the design that changes. Colors are becoming brighter and bolder, with an almost retro feel. These palettes are clean and simple, with as few as two vivid colors on a page. Color overlays and full-page, duotone gradients also seem popular on contemporary websites. It seemed for a while like the whole tech world was hurdling into the blue—with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Skype, PayPal, and countless other significant sites all featuring similar shades of blue in their logos and designs—but now pastels, neon, and earth tones are all popping up, with some color schemes looking like they’re straight out of the 60s or 80s.

Many websites dedicated solely to color palettes for web designers are available. In the past, designers were limited to selecting only 216 “web-safe” colors. However, with the progress of technology, millions of colors are available at web developers’ disposal.

Now we get to fast forward to today and see what today’s web trends look like and how they add to the user experience. According to Wpmudev, some of the hottest web trends include website color and Google’s “material design” idea.

The Importance of Color

Color is essential for aesthetic reasons and usability, but the focus should be on the psychology behind color. How do specific colors make us feel? Designers of the past didn’t think about what their color “meant” or how the audience would perceive it; they didn’t even think about if it looked good. They boldly declare that green will be the trending color. Green is “a symbol of new beginnings, a refreshing and revitalizing shade.” This idea of the psychology behind color shows how much harder web designers work today than before.

Material Design

This is the idea that Google came up with. Their goal is to “create a visual language for our users that synthesizes the classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science.” they encourage other sites to follow this and are trying to set the standard for what design means to create an extremely intuitive website. This is a bible for creating a beautiful website, and more and more web designers will follow the guidelines.

Material design touches everything from usability, patterns, and style to movement, scrolling techniques, and platform adaptation. These things might become trends in themselves, but one thing is sure, websites will be taking inspiration from Google’s material design.

Rich Animations

More websites incorporate lively, rich animations. From tiny, detailed touches to huge animations that take up the whole page, the animation is used more than ever in web design. Animated transitions between pages, animated notifications, micro-interactions, or just animations for fun help guide users and liven up a web page. As more tools become available, the age of Flash animations is coming to an end, and animations no longer slow down servers or interfere with loading time the way they used to.

Overall, the world of design is becoming more and more minimalist. We’ve seen this gradually happening in logos and other designs for the last decade, and the web is no exception. With minimalism, information is presented straightforwardly, or in other words, “less is more”. Simpler designs focus more on content, with a single focal point per screen. With solid typography and color schemes, minimalism gives pages a bold, sophisticated feel.

Skeuomorphism Style

Skeuomorphism, a style that involves realistic shading to make 2D elements appear 3D, has fallen out of favor. Drop shadows, textures, and natural gradients have nearly disappeared from the world of the web and technology, favoring flat design instead. When Apple dropped skeuomorphism in favor of a flat design with iOS7 in 2013, many reported the new look resembled a Fisher-Price toy. However, others have followed suit; and flat design has become the standard for on-screen aesthetics.

These changes in the user interface can be observed not only in brand-new websites but also in sites that have existed for years. Google, for instance, arguably set many of the trends in web design we see today. A pioneer of web minimalism, Google has evolved and modernized its look without endangering its brand over the years. By honing in focus on those four colors on a white background, they have created a minimal and recognizable brand all around the web. In their most recent change of flattening out their typography into the vast, sans-serif logo we know today, Google has set the standard for the new age of minimalism.

Infinite Scrolling

Infinite scrolling has become a popular choice for navigation. It works well with mobile devices and touches controls. It’s simple and more engaging for the user. When implementing long scrolling on a site, a good idea is some visual cue. Whether subtle or obvious, you want to let people know that the content will be displayed linearly. Each screen should be considered its page, with a new way of transitioning between them.

You want the screens to have an overall theme or connect them so everything looks organized. One thing to be mindful of is users get lost as they go along. One way of solving that problem is with a sticky navigation system. Other solutions include a Jump-to or Got-to-top link. Scroll-triggered animations go well with this method. They keep users interested and can even be entertaining and game-like.

Stock Photos

Illustrations are replacing stock photos and other imagery used on websites. They offer more imagination and personalization than a professional photo shoot at a lower price. Designers have more control over the images themselves and the technical aspects. There are many things an illustration can convey more simply and effectively than a photograph. Animations and layers are often used with illustrations to add depth and creativity. As always, you want all elements of the site to look united. Even if the site’s theme doesn’t include illustrations, they are helpful for tutorials or quick How-to guides. If users have fun while learning, it will feel less like a chore.

Flat design

Flat design is still widely used. The aesthetics of the flat design are simple and clear, and the site’s functionality is improved. It’s much easier to navigate, leading to a better user experience. Flat design helps sites load faster, suitable for phones and tablets. They’re also easier to use with a touchscreen. Designing these sites is more straightforward; the sites function well even with more layering and animations.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Still not in the mainstream when it comes to websites. But technology is pushing to become mainstream, and for this to happen, the web has to change to accommodate it. Major sites like YouTube have already used the technology by adding a 360-degree video accessible with a virtual reality headset. Many other websites will join in.

VR is still a relatively new technology, yet many websites are ready to support it. This will only continue as recent web trends emerge. Netflix now supports VR, and even Google maps street view supports VR. With YouTube, Google, and Netflix already being on the VR train, it’s hard to think that other websites won’t make the jump as well.

Benefits of Understanding the History of Web Design

Have you ever heard the saying, “you can learn from the past”? Well, this is quite true in this case. Web design trends seem to resurface several times over the years. Minimalism is an excellent example of this. There are also several techniques that you might not know about that have been used in the past. Learning where something came from or why we use it a certain way can improve our understanding.

Not only can you implement past trends into web designs today. You can also analyze past websites and learn from them. So many web design trends have died for a good reason. Most of them cluttered the website, and users seemed to prefer simplicity.

Takeaway On Web Design Trends

There have been many changes to web design over the years, from static business websites and popular social media platforms to data-driven SEO web services. This makes it an exciting topic for web designers and people interested in building their websites. Understanding the history of web design and some of the trends used today can be very beneficial. Also, knowing what top websites use standard practices can ensure that your site meets its visitor’s needs.

What is possible in web design

The great thing about web design is that there are no “right” ways to make a website. Hundreds of websites make daily decisions based on many factors, so the innovation is endless. We know what is essential for websites: usability and appearance, and we know what this year’s landscape might look like. For example, it could emphasize green and the emotions that colors give, the precedent set by Google’s “material design” and support for virtual reality, but this is merely part of the web designing industry.

The once “boring” black-and-white web is now a land of endless possibilities, and there’s no telling what trends will be and how they will change how we use the internet in the coming years.

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