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Web Design Trends 2019

Web Design Trends
2019

by Frida Nyvall

Predictions of what we expect to see in web design during 2019. What are the top web design trends, which trends are still going strong, and which trends are declining?


Upcoming: Creative Typography

We believe this trend will evolve during the coming years, even though they have not yet fully taken hold.

We predict a more creative usage of fonts in the coming year, as new technology allows for more creative styling. Our predictions are based on the development of new ways of styling text and elements that opens up new possibilities for getting creative with typographical web elements.

Variable Web Fonts

IMPORTANT: To try the demo below you need to use a modern and updated web browser!

See the Pen Variable font demo by Frida Nyvall (@fridanyvall) on CodePen.

One of these newer techniques is variable web fonts, which is getting increased browser support. The number of variable web fonts to choose from will also increase, and thus make implementations more common. Read more about what variable fonts are, and how they can be used on websites on our blog.

Unlimited Web Fonts with Adobe Fonts

Adobe acquired Typekit and relaunched the service as Adobe Fonts. Adobe Fonts now include unlimited use of all of their fonts for all Creative Cloud subscribers. That means more people will get access to these fonts to use on their websites.


Previous Trends That are Here to Stay

Notifications and Popups

The number of popups and notifications websites can show to a user has increased.

As seen in the somewhat satirical tweet above, this might easily go overboard and end up being quite annoying.

The increase of these types of messages can generally be linked either to changes in legislation, or new technology making new types of notifications available to a broader set of web browsers. For info about the new GDPR law, we recommend reading our article about getting your website GDPR ready.

Creative and/or Overlapping Layouts

Currently, it seems like there is an ongoing trend of overlapping elements.

Screenshot of Bang & Olufsen Website

Bang & Olufsen Breaking out of the Box

Both text and images are breaking out of their grid or parent containers. Our interpretation of this trend is that just as predicted in our article “Top Web Design Trends 2017”, new technologies like CSS Grid is starting to make it to production websites.

Screenshot of Wendy's Lookbook

Fashion Blogger Wendy's Lookbook mixes horizontal and vertical layouts, as well as overlapping elements.

Illustrations and Almost 3D

Hand drawn illustrations are on the rise to add personality to and accentuate companies’ brands. Even though a lot of these illustrations are flat design, subtle shadows, lightning, gradients, and textures are added to make them stand out a little.

We’re not going all the way back to skeuomorphism (depicting object as accurately as possible), but adding a little more flair to otherwise flat designs.

TripAdvisor's new icons

TripAdvisor's new icon design is Flat with a Flair

Tripadvisor had a major redesign of their entire app earlier in 2018. Their new icon design is a good example of a flat design that has been updated for 2019.

Gradients

We predicted in 2017 that colorful gradients were on the rise.

One of the leading publication websites in web design and front-end development, CSS-tricks, just launched a major redesign of their platform.

Screenshot of CSS-Tricks new web design

Colorful gradients galore, plus a mobile-inspired menu on CSS-Tricks' redesigned website.

Eye-catching colorful gradients are consistently used all through the website to accentuate or highlight certain elements. For navigation it is following our predictions from 2017, sporting a mobile-inspired menu complete with icons at the top.

Screenshot of Spotify's website

Gradients on Spotify's website, as well as another popular design element - the Blob.

Spotify is another brand that does not shy away from using bright colored gradients in their design. This design also makes use of another popular design element – the Blob.

The Blob

Before the era of the blob, there was the era of the slanted line. The slanted line was a trend we spotted in 2017, but by 2019 is has been replaced by the blob.

Screenshot of netflify.com

Blobs as section dividor, as well as embellishment on Netlify's website.

Blobs are replacing the slanted lines as separators between sections. Blobs can also be faster, cheaper and more easily fitted into a responsive design compare to custom illustrations (like the Spotify blob, or the subtle lightblue blobs on the Netlify website).

If you need a blob in your life (or on your website) right now, there is even a handy online blob creator.

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