Web design has mostly been strictly about making designs that purely rely on what people find attractive at a certain point in time. This means that designers have mostly been studying what trends that their target audiences are interested in to create a website whilst simply checking off a list.
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2020 design trends, including the trends in UI/UX, however, seem to be demanding more from designers as they focus more on practicality, simplicity, and clarity. This year, designers are far more likely to be expected to create futuristic and/or immersive online experiences for consumers.
Another factor that 2020 web designers will have to consider is how their designs affect target viewers psychologically and emotionally. Let’s see some of the latest website design trends in 2020.
Dark Mode: A hyper-futuristic and practical design
More websites are expected to offer their visitors an option to enjoy their website on a dark background. Due to the high contrast ratio between a dark background and other colors, a website’s color palette will be more pronounced. This contrast ratio between colors is what makes websites look like a typical futuristic gadget or city skyline.
The dark mode isn’t just a pretty design model; it also reduces eye strain in dimly lit environments and can make it easier for people to browse a site for longer periods. At night, people usually find it hard to read when a bright light is blinding them.
To combat this, they usually reduce their screen’s brightness, and this doesn’t help make the text more readable because a person would then have to squint to be able to read and that’ll cause more eye strain.
Dark mode is also perfect for OLED screens because it can make them last longer and save power without compromising on image quality.
Socially responsible designing
In recent years, misinformation campaigns, fake news, and blatant lies have become very easy to find online. Their being easily accessible is what has made a lot of these undertakings go viral. According to NBC, in 2019 alone, the top 50 articles that contained misleading health information were collectively shared more than 12 million times.
The rate at which false information gets spread is alarming, what makes it more alarming is that such information can influence people to make decisions. This is why web designers have to make 2020 their year to make real and fake information visibly distinguishable.
Currently, articles with false information mostly reach people via being advertised. The fact that these articles are ads is usually hidden behind a barely visible “sponsored content” banner.
Responsible designers should make sure that adverts are more conspicuously labelled as adverts. Designers must also strive to make author names on content pieces more visible. False information containing content usually has organization names as author names.
Adding a human touch with hand-drawn images
People have, for a very long time, been exposed to perfect looking computer-generated photos. While there’s nothing wrong with these images, it’s quite important to note that they lack personality when compared to their hand-drawn counterparts.
It’s also important to note that people are gravitating more towards “real” experiences. People want these “real” experiences so that they can forge emotional connections to products.
Nothing can make people form an emotional connection with a website better than knowing that its designers are just like them and can’t draw perfectly. The best part about hand-drawn images is that they bring out much needed positive emotions in people.
Whenever people go online, they are bombarded with news articles about violence, natural disasters, and bad politicians. A site that has a feel-good vibe to it is bound to have a warm reception in our current online environment.
More websites will be bettering their accessibility
Making websites accessible to people with different levels of ability isn’t a new design concept. However, accessibility has only been stressed mostly by the Americans with Disabilities Act in government or government-funded institutions.
Despite this, lawsuits involving people with disabilities are gaining popularity. Soon, this could mean that your website, regardless if you’re a baker, an essay writer, or a photographer, will be required by the law to be accessible to all.
There are many ways to make your website more accessible. An excellent tool that can help you with this is the Vox accessibility checklist. Creating an accessible website can also be achieved by just considering other people’s needs. For example, if you’re thinking about posting a video to your site, you could consider attaching a transcript or adding captions for the deaf.
Making a website accessible can be achieved by relatively small changes. These changes, though, can benefit even people who have temporary disabilities and fully able people too. For example, voice command can help someone who’s lost an arm/s, someone who has a temporary arm injury and someone who just doesn’t feel like typing.
The introduction of machine learning on websites
2019 has been a great year for the development of machine learning and its adaptation for use in regular life processes. One of these adaptations includes Brain.js and TensorFlow.js that make it possible for you to run machine learning code on browsers.
This means that you can now train and retrain a machine learning program or even run an existing program on your browser. For example, if you’re coding a website for a service business, you could use these libraries to create a rating system that automatically detects progress based on certain criteria.
Another benefit that will make machine learning a favourite is that you don’t have to collect and process large amounts of data. A price comparison site that curates services for people who need help with a best essay writing service or uk assignment help won’t need to manually search for service providers with a machine learning program at hand.
Conclusion
These trends will be of great help to both web-designers and the general public as they’ll be able to work together to reduce misinformation. Seeing more people enjoying the internet despite their level of ability will be a great thing to witness this year. Witnessing developers apply new coding techniques will also be interesting.
However, achieving this won’t be easy; there may be unexpected problems that could hinder progress. Some people won’t want to follow some of these trends so they can continue making unethical profits online.
Author Bio
Sharon is a Manchester, UK
