Our Top 5 Web Design Trends of 2022
As the future beckons, trends come and go. This proverbial rule aptly applies to web design trends.
The practices from yesteryear begin to appear baroque. The emergence of new web design trends soon replaces older ones. Typography, live animation and visual styles are not immune to the winds of change.
New replaces old, and that new is soon replaced by something newer! Rinse and repeat, ad nauseam. Timelessness is a bit of a misnomer in the web design space! And 2022 is living proof of that statement.
Segueing into today’s topic, we’re here to discuss Vesanique’s favourite web design trends for 2022.
Hold up? What’s the big deal with Web Design?
Consider this figure. In 2022, there are over 1,167,715,133 documented websites circulating on the world wide web, with over 198,988,100 active ones. The latter figure is your competition. Every active website is vying for crumbs of attention from web visitors strapped for time.
According to a 2021 report, the average time spent on a website in any industry is 54 seconds. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if this figure nosedives in years to come. That is the window of time that you have for securing a sale or forming a lifelong fan/customer.
To wit, excellent website design should translate into a glowing user-friendly experience whilst conveying your business’s core “what, when, who, why’s and how’s” in a mesmerising marriage of graphics and copy. This is especially important when it comes to our eCommerce web development process.
Above all, the overall user journey should directly speak to the needs of your target audience. In layman’s terms, websites should bedazzle their audience and address their chief concerns. As the final stage for qualifying a prospect, your website is the last touchpoint that concludes the entire sales funnel.
Thus, web design is the thoughtful assemblage of design elements to achieve the goals above. Every inclusion is deliberate, each serving a function in the grand scheme of the final website.
While the rules of smart web design have not undergone many revisions, how one chooses to arrive at that destination evolves. And each subsequent permutation is a new trend, be it conservative or whimsical.
But for now, let’s circle back to our main topic!
Our Favourite Trends
For this list, we’ve interviewed two esteemed natives of our web-design team: Hayden Morran, our Front End Creative, and Ben Teschner, our Senior Creative, and Abhay Khanna, our Managing Director:
1. Interactive Forms 2.0
Hayden: They’re much more engaging for users to fill out. They also add a personable touch that puts a smile on their faces. I find standard forms tedious to fill out. People don’t have the attention span for such things anymore.
Interactive forms are virtual documents that respond or change according to text or numerical input. For example, an answer in an empty field can be organically integrated into other queries on the same form in realtime. When a user types their name into the “name field”, succeeding questions can integrate their names into their copy.
However, Vesanique doubles down on that existing philosophy. Why should the onboarding process be uninteresting? We want to subvert the corporate norms that facilitate brand-client interactions. One way we’ve achieved this is by embedding mini-animations after the submission of each form. Upon completing Vesanique’s onboarding form, clients would be greeted with a burst of confetti, replete with vibrant colours.
Who said coding had to be bland?
2. Micro-interactions/Web Animations (But better!)
Hayden: I spend very little time before leaving an uninteresting website. Generally, websites should be visually stimulating and retain the user’s interest. Everyone expects the same from every website. So I try to consider small ways to improve existing web animation practices.
As discussed, one way to sustain your audience’s interest is to entice them with imagery or animations that shift/move in response to the user’s movements. When they hover over an icon or image in the foreground, each graphic can respond in kind.
However, we’re not just pigeonholing “web animations” into a singular trend! How a user vertically scrolls down to navigate across a website offers a brilliant opportunity for additional animations. In this scenario, images could emerge from the sides as a user scrolls upwards or downwards. Alternatively, a flashy transition could materialise when a user clicks on a menu list icon.
The options are plentiful. But each choice shares one doctrine: keeping web visitors invested!
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3. Marquee Text
Ben: Marquee Texts are making a huge comeback. It’s a much-welcomed throwback!
No, we’ve not travelled back into the nineties. Marquee Banners are banners of text that scroll vertically, horizontally or diagonally, akin to the unfurling of a roll of tape.
Why is this dated practice making a sudden resurgence? We think it is self-explanatory: marquee Banners are obsolete enough to appear fresh to young audiences. The maximalist mores that characterised pre-2000 designs are a time capsule for a simpler age. Simply put, it’s pretty darn cool to look at!
With nineties kitsch coming back into foray (I’m looking you at you, Stranger Things), Vesanique is unafraid to engage with forgotten web-design practices for a neo-vintage ambience (80’s kids, rejoice!)
4. No Picture Hero Banner
Abhay: Something is awe-inspiring about websites that forego the run-of-the-mill header image. It’s almost as though they have proclamations to make.
Pictures often speak louder than words. In this particular circumstance, that can’t be further from the truth!
A website that opts out of your standard hero banner is confident in what it has to say, especially when it’s solely replaced by oversized typography.
Purely text-driven hero banners yield numerous advantages that normal hero banners would never achieve. For example, a typography-focused hero banner would catch the immediate attention of website visitors for disrupting the website status quo.
Above all, it offers your brand an opportune moment to highlight your copywriting chops. A compelling opener would enhance your credibility amongst your impressionable audience, enhancing your brand’s reputation. There’s a fantastic article by Designshack spotlighting the benefits of typography-based hero banners.
So what are you waiting for? Start speaking your truth!
5. Glassmorphism
Glassmorphism makes a website appear 100 years ahead of the rest. It is so modern and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Glassmorphism manipulates diffusion and blur for a translucent lustre reminiscent of frosted glass. Its organic contours and alluring optical distortion subtly convey a spirit of technological innovation whilst being soft on the eyes.
If you’re strapped for website real estate, Glassmorphism helps to heighten the illusion of empty space.
Figma has a smattering of complimentary sample kits that highlights the principles of Glassmorphism.
We’re Not Done Yet
This list is by no means exhaustive! 2022 hasn’t come to a close; it would be premature of us to claim otherwise!
These are just a handful of the web design trends that Vesanique practices and preaches. All it takes is a cursory glance at our website to see some of these applied trends in action.
We have assisted clients in building industry-leading websites per the web design trends we admire and adore. We’re no strangers to this dynamic sector, with our extensive front-end and back-end experience. If any of the above trends have piqued your entrepreneurial curiosity, look no further; we can enact those changes for you.
Did we also mention that we’re also a Brisbane Design Agency? Well, technically we’re a chameleon adapting to the changing demands of this competitive space.
We offer a comprehensive suite of digital and traditional marketing/branding services, with a deeper emphasis on the former. Should you require the services of a full-service digital agency, we’re here to give you our undivided attention.
But first things first. We’d like to get acquainted. Let’s schedule a conversation together over a few cups of coffee.
Let’s talk. Don’t be a stranger.