It’s that time of year again when we review our favourite design trends of the year.
And, 2019 has definitely brought us some strong trends, including vibrant colours, beautiful gradients, quirky animations and the increasingly popular dark mode.
Today, we’re taking a look back at what defined web and app design over the past twelve months.
Bold colour.
This year has been a bold one when it comes to colour in web design and branding, with more brands choosing vivid hues to create impact and stand out from their competitors.
Take a look at this one-pager we designed for a finance company. Traditionally, you may not expect a business in this sector to opt for a bright, punchy colour palette. But we think the clean-yet-vibrant feel injects personality and modernity into the brand.
Gradients.
The popularity of gradients has continued to prevail, allowing designers to create depth on an otherwise 2D web page.
We particularly like this effect when overlayed over images and video, as demonstrated on our own website.
Material design.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in the use of curves and soft shadows – with most platforms like Google and Twitter moving away from sharp edges and right angles and towards smooth, organic rounded shapes.
Not only does this give apps and websites more of a modern feel, but it also ties in with the growing trend and need to make apps reflect real-world objects as we interact more with digital products on a daily basis.
Dark themes.
A lot of social media platforms and applications have rolled out “dark themes” this year, with the most notable being Instagram, Twitter and Apple.
As most interfaces are traditionally created with white backgrounds in mind, this trend flips this idea on its head to create a product that appears easier on the eyes, enhances readability and therefore user experience.
If you haven’t experienced Dark Mode yet, why not have a play around with it? With the iPhone, you can customise it so that Dark Mode kicks in after a specific time at night.
Animation.
As predicted, motion graphics are having a big moment right now.
Whether it’s for an explainer video, or microinteractions to enhance UX, animations are popping up on a lot of websites and mobile apps.
We’ve even added a cheeky one to our email signature.
Illustration.
Brands are also adopting illustrations to create a hand-drawn, more personalised feel. We’ve previously rounded up all of the reasons brands are using illustrations in their branding.
Opting for hand-drawn images over generic stock photos enables ‘faceless’ companies to take a more human approach with customers.
Check out the examples from Dropbox and Headspace below.
What was your favourite design trend this year?
If you have a new project in mind or would like to freshen up your website and branding, give us a call today.