As we approach 2024, the web design trends crop­ping up across the web reflect many pre-exist­ing mod­ern user expec­ta­tions as well as tech­no­log­i­cal advancements.

From the flu­id adapt­abil­i­ty of respon­sive UI to the imag­i­na­tive use of min­i­mal 3D and glass­mor­phism, web­sites are evi­dent­ly becom­ing can­vas­es for both func­tion­al­i­ty and art.

Mean­while, per­son­al­i­sa­tion and AI inte­gra­tion con­tin­ue to improve, with cre­ators using new tech­nol­o­gy to build incred­i­ble designs that allow for relat­able dig­i­tal experiences.

There’s also a cul­tur­al shift towards brand sto­ry­telling and bespoke aes­thet­ics, seen in the charm­ing use of hand­craft­ed illus­tra­tion and cre­ative split-screen layouts.

The col­lec­tion of web design trends expect­ed in 2024 indi­cates a future where online expe­ri­ences are not just for see­ing – but experiencing.

Let’s dive in.

8 web design trends to expect in 2024

1. Responsive UI

The trend of respon­sive UI (user inter­face) demon­strates a need among web­site users for seam­less dig­i­tal expe­ri­ences. Peo­ple want their expe­ri­ence to be easy and con­sis­tent across mul­ti­ple devices whether they are on a desk­top, tablet, or smartphone.

This means that web­sites must accom­mo­date dif­fer­ent device types and screen sizes if they are to meet user expec­ta­tions with­out any loss of func­tion­al­i­ty or aes­thet­ic appeal.

Web­sites that cre­ate respon­sive user inter­faces will see increased user sat­is­fac­tion and engage­ment. This is because respon­sive UI elim­i­nates the frus­tra­tion of dif­fi­cult nav­i­ga­tion and poor visu­al pre­sen­ta­tion on small­er screens, lead­ing to a more pos­i­tive over­all user expe­ri­ence and poten­tial­ly increased reten­tion and con­ver­sion rates.

One can see this trend demon­strat­ed on https://www.dropbox.com/ which has enjoy­able nav­i­ga­tion on both mobile and desktop:

2. Minimal 3D

The use of min­i­mal 3D web design can be seen at https://tinytracks.app/, a fun web­site for exper­i­ment­ing with elec­tron­ic music creation.

One can spot min­i­mal 3D when a site has inte­grat­ed the depth of 3D but main­tained a clean and unclut­tered aes­thet­ic. This trend gives sites a sense of sophis­ti­ca­tion when pulled off effec­tive­ly and does­n’t over­whelm the user with exces­sive detail or clutter.

Users will enjoy an immer­sive and inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal space that cap­tures their atten­tion through sub­tle yet impact­ful three-dimen­sion­al fea­tures. This trend enhances user engage­ment by cre­at­ing a visu­al­ly appeal­ing and mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence while main­tain­ing the ease and clar­i­ty of nav­i­ga­tion asso­ci­at­ed with min­i­mal­ist design.

3. AI integration

The trend of AI inte­gra­tion indi­cates mod­ern desires for smarter, more effi­cient online inter­ac­tions. AI-dri­ven solu­tions offer per­son­alised assis­tance and rel­e­vant con­tent, meet­ing the user’s need for con­ve­nience and relevance.

Web­site own­ers may imple­ment AI inte­gra­tion with a tool such as Book­mark’s AIDA.

The explo­sion of AI tech­nol­o­gy has, in the last year, sur­passed most expec­ta­tions of the field. As a result, web­sites are now able to have AI inte­gra­tions that enhance var­i­ous aspects of user expe­ri­ence and web­site func­tion­al­i­ty. Web­site cre­ators might use AI to inform design deci­sions or cre­ate per­son­alised expe­ri­ences. Some can use it for pre­dic­tive search func­tion­al­i­ties, chat­bots, or data analysis.

Users expe­ri­enc­ing AI-inte­grat­ed sites may feel under­stood and val­ued due to tai­lored and effi­cient brows­ing expe­ri­ences. How­ev­er, the tech­nol­o­gy is still new and there­fore results are mixed.

4. Personalisation

Per­son­al­i­sa­tion in web design is when web­site own­ers cre­ate unique expe­ri­ences for vis­i­tors based on their pref­er­ences and behav­iour. Per­son­al­i­sa­tion can be seen in action on web­sites like Airbnb, Ama­zon, and Etsy, which make prod­uct rec­om­men­da­tions for site visitors.

Though per­son­al­i­sa­tion isn’t unique to 2024, this fun­da­men­tal aspect of mod­ern dig­i­tal expe­ri­ences is not expect­ed to slow down.

The rise of per­son­alised expe­ri­ences demon­strates users’ expec­ta­tions for con­tent that aligns with their inter­ests, behav­iours, and pref­er­ences. Web­site own­ers can utilise user data to cre­ate cus­tomised inter­faces and rec­om­mend rel­e­vant con­tent which can enhance engagement.

Users expe­ri­enc­ing a per­son­alised web­site will feel a sense of indi­vid­ual atten­tion, which can lead to increased engage­ment and sat­is­fac­tion. This trend enhances user expe­ri­ence by mak­ing inter­ac­tions more rel­e­vant and mean­ing­ful, often lead­ing to improved con­ver­sion rates and cus­tomer loyalty.

The key impact of per­son­al­i­sa­tion is mak­ing users feel seen and under­stood, encour­ag­ing them to fos­ter deep­er con­nec­tions with brands and their websites.

5. Handcrafted illustrations

Cus­tom hand­craft­ed illus­tra­tions can add a unique and per­son­al touch to web designs, an exam­ple of which can be viewed here.

Incor­po­rat­ing hand­craft­ed illus­tra­tions in web design offers an artis­tic touch for brands who want their per­son­al­i­ty and val­ues con­veyed in unique ways. Unlike gener­ic stock images, hand­craft­ed designs are dis­tinct and often offer an exclu­sive visu­al experience.

This trend­ing fea­ture sug­gests a crav­ing among web users for unique­ness and cre­ativ­i­ty. In addi­tion, site vis­i­tors seem to real­ly appre­ci­ate it when brands use per­son­al touch­es to stand out.

These bespoke designs can cre­ate a more engag­ing and mem­o­rable web­site expe­ri­ence. They add a per­son­al, almost sto­ry­telling aspect to the user’s jour­ney, mak­ing the web­site stand out in a dig­i­tal land­scape often dom­i­nat­ed by stan­dard visu­als. This trend not only enhances the aes­thet­ic appeal but also strength­ens brand iden­ti­ty and con­nec­tion with the audience.

6. Split screen layouts

Split screen lay­outs are when the page of a web­site is divid­ed into dis­tinct sec­tions, with each show­cas­ing dif­fer­ent con­tent. The exam­ple below can be inter­act­ed with at https://biospring.com/.

This divid­ed lay­out allows sev­er­al ele­ments to be pre­sent­ed cre­ative­ly at the same time – includ­ing con­trast­ing images, blocks of colour, text, or inter­ac­tive features.

Split screens are bril­liant for sto­ry­telling as they’re often used in con­junc­tion with par­al­lax scrolling. This web design trend can engage users by offer­ing a unique visu­al expe­ri­ence, intu­itive scrolling, and immer­sive sto­ries. Brands may also use split screens to high­light dif­fer­ent aspects of their prod­ucts or services.

Also fea­tured on our 2022 list, the per­se­ver­ance of the split-screen trend demon­strates the user’s need for organ­ised and acces­si­ble content.

7. Glassmorphism

Glass­mor­phism is a design style that gives the appear­ance of frost­ed glass. Semi-trans­par­ent and sleek, this style can give web­sites a mod­ern or futur­is­tic look. This trend demon­strates the pop­u­lar­i­ty of visu­al­ly appeal­ing and light­weight designs.

Users encoun­ter­ing glass­mor­phism on web­sites will expe­ri­ence a visu­al­ly intrigu­ing inter­face. This trend can enhance user focus on spe­cif­ic ele­ments due to the con­trast between the clar­i­ty of the fore­ground and the blur of the background.

An exam­ple of this trend can be seen at https://designcode.io/.

8. Visual contrast

Visu­al con­trasts in web design may be cre­at­ed with colour or oth­er visu­al ele­ments. An exam­ple can be seen at https://onthegrid.city/ which offers users guides to trav­el­ling around the world.

Stark visu­al dif­fer­ences can guide users’ atten­tion to cer­tain areas of a web page and cre­ate an imme­di­ate impact. Bold colour com­bi­na­tions or pat­terns can make inter­faces high­ly com­pelling and empha­sise key nav­i­ga­tion­al elements.

As a result, high-con­trast designs can enhance read­abil­i­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty for users who have become accus­tomed to good UX and UI across the inter­net. Users will also be visu­al­ly stim­u­lat­ed and colour com­bi­na­tions can con­vey whim­sy, charm, and delight.

Final thoughts

Inter­net users have want­ed the same things for years – ease of use, intu­itive nav­i­ga­tion, per­son­alised expe­ri­ences, and artis­tic appeal.

So, in some ways, the web design trends expect­ed in 2024 don’t come as a surprise.

How­ev­er, the ways in which web design­ers will meet the needs of site vis­i­tors in 2024 will be bet­ter than before. New tech­nol­o­gy and cre­ative chan­nels mean web design trends will reach new heights.

Per­haps the only unprece­dent­ed thing this year is AI – which has grown unex­pect­ed­ly over the last few months.

To get some help bring­ing your site up to date, reach out to the pur­ple­plan­et team.

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