Top 5 UI Design Trends for 2020

Two weeks from now, it will be another year for all of us – yes, 2020 is coming that fast! It’s a time for us to change our lives, improve on where we went wrong, and build the habits and lifestyle that served us well this year. After all, a new year means a new beginning and another chance for life!

The same is true for websites. Your website should change and improve year by year not only to follow the trend but more importantly, to keep it vibrant, alive and well – just imagine how Facebook would be today if it did not change its site since 2004! Simply put, if your website doesn’t change and improve, it will join the Internet cemetery in a few more years (or even less!)

One aspect of the website that must be improved is its design. If your design dates back to the 1990s, chances are, nobody would even bother to visit it – unless perhaps you have super great content or product/service to offer!

For this article, we are going to cover the top 5 UI design trends which we will see in the upcoming year. In this list, we didn’t just pick based on popularity and virality, but rather, we focused our picks based on its fundamentals – at the end of the day, the success of the design depends if it follows the fundamental principles of design, not merely because it is popular or viral.

Without further ado, here are the top 5 UI design trends!

1) Minimalism

One trend that seems to never die is minimalism, and perhaps this is the reason why: we’ve always want what is simple and easy to use. This is especially true in an age where our life becomes more and more complicated.

Minimalism works great in many cases because it offers users more user-friendly website navigation and the design itself can have a relaxing effect on its users.

But, although minimalism seems to be a great design philosophy, keep in mind that it may not suit your specific website. For instance, if your website is all about cartoons, then perhaps having cartoon images as the background is better than a plain white color. Also, minimalism suits well for modern and elegant websites – such as websites that sell luxury products.

Lastly, be sure to use minimalism well. Some designers remove plenty of design elements just to make their website look “minimal”, but instead, their website ends up as dull and boring.

2) Eye-Catching Typography

Now, let’s talk about typography. There is no single typography style that will suit a wide array of website niches, but the key here is on how you place your words (or phrases or sentences) and what size and color do you choose for each of them.

In other words, by “eye-catching typography”, we don’t necessarily mean big fonts and very attractive colors (such as red or yellow). You must choose which words are big, which words are small, how many words you will use for this particular image, and so on.

If you place your words well, it can create a great vibe for your users, which may make them enjoy your website – hence longer retention periods.

But typography alone will not work, which is why we should know what words to put – and that’s next!

3) Tell a Story (and copywriting in general)

If you don’t know what is copywriting, it is simply a writing style that aims to persuade your viewers to take a certain action (often, to buy). Hence, you can see copywriters in the marketing departments or advertising agency, but good copywriting can never be divorced from design.

When it comes to a website, many of its content is possibly written by copywriters (expect for blog/website articles). The About Us, the heading, the tagline, that catchy phrase in your contact form – these things are under the work of copywriting, and if you write these, you are actually doing a work of a copywriter. Hence, it is important that you learn to copywrite (or hire a copywriter to work on your side – in ad agencies, copywriters work with visual artists),

One tactic used by copywriters/web designers is the use of “storytelling”. Take this as an example: let’s say you are selling an eBook about healthy cooking recipes, which do you think would be better content for your landing page? Landing Page A or Landing Page B?

Landing Page A:

“My cookbook features 30 best recipes for a healthier and cheaper way of cooking. Each recipe is taken from my personal experience…”

Landing Page B:

“Imagine, you can cook a healthy (and delicious!) meal for your family without breaking your wallet! If you don’t know how, my cookbook will show you how…”

I’m sure you will choose Landing Page B over Landing Page A. But copywriting does not end there. You can tweak a simple sign-up page by using a well-crafted copywriting.

For instance, if you are running a dating website, instead of merely saying “sign up”, you can say, “Sign up now and meet the partner of your life!” Okay, that is probably not the best line out there, but the point is, you can tweak even the most mundane parts of your website and turn them into a copywriting advantage!

4) Use Color Psychology to Your Advantage

Understanding how colors are perceived by your viewers is a big advantage when you are designing your website. Each color has its own “meaning”, so you must choose the colors the fit the “meaning” of your website’s niche or theme.

For instance, if you’re designing a financial company’s website, blue would be perhaps your best bet because blue is often associated with “calmness and reliability”, something that people look for when it comes to whom should they entrust their money.

For more, check out our article on color psychology.

5) Consider Voice in Your Design

From Amazon’s Alexa to Google Home, voice search is an ever-growing medium when it comes to search engines, and for a good reason – it makes search easier and more accessible.

But don’t just place a tiny microphone icon on your website’s side, be sure to strategically place it and make it easily noticeable, so that anyone who wants to use it will know where to find it.

Conclusion

With a little experimentation and testing, and a little creativity, you can create a web design that will attract your viewers and make them stay longer – hence longer retention time.

If you will observe, most in this list is based on the fundamentals – color psychology, typography, etc. This is because fundamentals never change, they will remain applicable in the years to come as they are applicable today.

Use these design trends well, and let’s all look forward to the upcoming 2020!