The Top 9 Website Design Trends of 2023
In digital marketing, watching trends is the name of the game. For designers and developers, 2023 offers a rich selection of trends to watch and employ, many shaped by cultural movements – from bright menu colors straight out of Y2K to immersive, metaverse-like environments.
Let’s dig into the top 9 design trends sure to shape the new year.
1. Y2K Aesthetic/ Retro Design
The nostalgia of Y2K is resurging in all areas of popular culture – infiltrating fashion, art, music, and more. The style of the early 2000s is influencing web design as well.
Designers tend to take one of three routes within the Y2K/ retro trend.
Some incorporate early 2000s’ elements, like pixelation or bright menu color blocks, in certain areas of the website. Attentive’s Holiday Site is an excellent example of Y2K to the max, featuring detailed nostalgic touches. Keep in mind, users like to see modern elements in Y2K-inspired websites. Attentive’s site is enjoyable because it skillfully reimagines the past. For example, users are (even unknowingly) called back to the present day with essential modern elements like fast loading times.
Other designers employ a retro, “techy,” Tron-type feel. Our development team at RivalMind explored this avenue with what quickly became one of our favorite website projects.
Still other designers pursue a “vintage” website feel without full-blown Y2K or retro visuals. Here is a great example of this:
Do you need some inspiration while designing toward this trend? Use Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to explore websites from the early 2000s. Web Design Museum also has an incredible collection of over 2,000 curated websites from 1991-2006.
2. Immersive Experiences & Interactive Elements
Consumers love immersive environments and adding interactive elements to your website can engage users. Google’s Material Design language, developed in 2014, encourages developers to produce excellent user experiences – from progress bars to rollover effects.
In other words, websites with awesome UX are favored in search results. Paired with consumer preference, it is no surprise that interactive elements and immersive environments are trending.
Immersive metaverse-like experiences could include unrealistic 3D worlds and gamification (putting game-like mechanics into a website). Smaller interactive elements often include animated cursors, micro-animations, and creative scrolling experiences (parallax zoom scrolling).
Unrealistic 3D worlds
Gamification
Micro-animations
Micro-animations are purposeful, focusing on enhancing the user experience. For example, they may hint at how to navigate through a website, provide visual feedback, and generally streamline website exploration.
Just-for-fun interactions
Just for fun interactions should be meaningful and entertaining without interrupting the intuitive flow of your website. We collected a few of our favorites below.
The Ball Pit
The Love Button
The Batumba
Creative scrolling
Creative scrolling is a trend that subverts a former best practice: placing all valuable information “above the fold.” Now, users are enticed to continue scrolling and engaging with the website to discover all the information available to them. Keep in mind, creative scrolling should be tasteful and provide value to the user.
3. Custom Lettering
Designs centered on type, as well as text-based websites, have grown in popularity for the past few years. Now, custom lettering is a unique way to stand out with eye-catching originality.
There are no themes or styles that dominate this trend, at least thus far. The beauty of custom lettering is just that - it’s custom by nature. Designers can incorporate elements from any area of inspiration – from real-world textures to film.
Need some inspiration? Consider using font generator tools like Calligraphr or BitFontMaker. Alternatively, explore digital illustration tools to create custom graphics, or transform your physical artwork into functional lettering by vectorizing them.
Here’s one of our favorite hand-lettering examples!
Linnea is one of our own designers. We have dubbed her “Font Queen” in the office – and for good reason.
4. Claymorphism & 3D Trends
Claymorphism and 3D elements are one of the newest developments in the web design sphere and may inspire a bit of nostalgia for users who grew up watching “Wallace & Gromit.” Incorporating friendly humans, animals, or items into your website can create a fresh, inviting space.
Claymorphism sits under the umbrella of 3D design. One of our designers described the design style as a mixture of two visual elements: soft colors and smooth edges, creating a clay-like effect.
Matter exemplifies a tasteful incorporation of claymorphism to exhibit products.
Tolia Ice Cream employs claymorphism in a bold, humorous manner.
3D illustrations
3D illustrations will set modern websites apart from the flat illustration style that has dominated the internet in recent years. Redis Agency, shown below, utilized 3D illustrations throughout the entirety of the site.
5. Handmade Graphics & Illustrations
This trend speaks for itself. Explore a few of our favorite handmade graphic examples.
Abstract illustrations
6. Creative Social Proof
Social proof has been a necessity for many years, from social icons linked at the footer of a website to customer testimonials. After all, building trust is an essential element of driving conversions. Customers trust brands that their peers trust, and 2023 will bring a surge of social proof that intrigues and delights.
In 2023, we expect to see social proof expand beyond icons into creative, interactive website elements.
7. Visible Borders
Borders give the impression of order and cleanliness. In Matrix fashion, borders “reveal” to users what is beneath the surface – the strict grid that all websites are built on. We found some excellent examples of visible borders at play in website design.
8. Loading Animations
Similar to the Y2K aesthetic, loading animations have fallen in and out of popularity. Recently, however, loading animations are being employed by more designers to create engaging, interactive user experiences. To put it plainly, web users are impatient. In fact, most will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Loading animations, such as this one by Rachel Bavaresco, assuage the users’ tendency to jump ship while a site loads.
9. Opposing Color Trends
2023 is predicted to favor two coloring trends: dopamine colors and smooth pastels.
“Dopamine” colors are “happy” colors – bold, vivid color palettes that induce positive reactions and emotions in viewers. These often include bright greens, yellows, and neon. Some designers draw inspiration from 70s-era psychedelia and the associated dazzling colors.
Pastel gradients are quite the opposite of the dopamine-inducing neon colors. Some designers prefer the cool, dreamy aesthetic of modern pastels. Pastels are unique in their ability to blend with other 2023 design trends, such as claymorphism, animated background, interactive 3D elements, and/or product displays.
RivalMind: Results-Driven Designers
An excellent website begins with strategic design - but it doesn't end there. High-quality, lightweight development must come next. At RivalMind, our comprehensive design and development process produces beautiful websites built for success. To learn more about our services, drop us a message at 331.228.9636 or via our online contact form. We’d love to start a conversation.
Interested in learning how your site is currently performing? We’d love to complete a free SEO analysis for you.
Meet the Author
Jessica Goodrum
Director of Creative Services
Jessica Goodrum is a digital marketer with over a decade of experience in digital project management. As Director of Creative Services at RivalMind, she is responsible for the success of website design and development projects, as well as social media client growth. Her approach to management – both projects and staff – is “transparency.” She consistently outlines project objectives and the steps to get there, assessing how RivalMind can improve upon every client’s experience.
Specialties: Duda Web Development, Keeping It All On Task
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