Published: February 15, 2023
Thanks for joining us for the final entry in this year’s series on upcoming trends in design. As in previous years, our final entry is all about what’s uploading to the world of web design! Put those graphic design and typography trends together in a fun way as you design or refresh your website for 2023.
Prominent Text
Thankfully, if you read our typography trend blog, you’ll be fully prepared for what you might want to put to use in your web design. Yes, text is back in a huge way. And with a 90s resurgence, look for ascii art and text that looks like old school word art. You know the one. Wavy and bright with a drop shadow that makes you think of your Trapper Keeper? Yeah, that.
Of course, text is also being used for emphasizing elements of your website. Catch the eye of visitors by giving them something to read that isn’t just a wall of text. Keep it visually interesting, short, and punchy. They’ll stick around to see what you have to say if you impress them with your texting skills.
3D Visuals
It’s back again! We’re sure it’s no surprise that 3D elements are making an appearance in the world of web design. It has shown up everywhere else. Why not here? You are definitely going to see websites using 3D styles and creating dimensional objects. Get deep, but not too deep.
People don’t necessarily want to be navigating inside 3D space. We’re not quite to the level of virtual reality websites yet. We just want to be a little fooled, dimensionally speaking. So use sparingly to really catch the eye of visitors. Maybe try out the clay style that’s huge right now!
Y2K Aesthetic
Ready to feel old? Well, don’t be shocked when you feel like a dusty old mummy when you see designs returning to elements from the Y2K era. Yes, we’re still living out last year’s trends that embrace the early days of the internet, but simultaneously we’re looking at the very late 90s here.
Remember the days when we were all worried that turning the date to ‘00 again might ruin the systems we all had in place and set us back to the pre-computer days? Seems so simple and strange, now. Embrace that simplicity in your web design to stay on trend this year.
Pixelization
Speaking of yesteryear, it seems that retro styling, the gamification of lots of things, and previous trends of glitch effects have all conspired to bring us a new way of seeing things: in pixels. Pixelization breaks visual elements into tiny squares of color that work together to create a whole. If you do this in 3D (think Minecraft visual styling), they’re called voxels.
Whatever you call it, this blocky look is going strong this year. Maybe a fresh look at your logo or prominent branding elements is in order. Could you break it all down into tiny squares and still have it look like the original in some way? Have some fun with it. Let images have a pixelated corner. Give borders a little roughness. Just don’t go too far and make people decode whatever it is they’re looking at.
Interactivity
Here’s one that seems to have come out of nowhere. Do you remember in the early days of web when tons of websites seemed to have some cute little hidden functionality to them? Maybe there was, like, a custom pointer you could use if you clicked something, or you could mouse over some element and it would jiggle or flip or something.
Well, that’s back in a big way. Whether there is a point to it or not, interactivity is getting bigger and bigger on websites. It might just be a cute effect you can play around with. It might be something that uncovers deeper information or lets you customize your experience. Either way, look for it during this year, because interactivity is on the rise.
Efficiency Is King
Here’s the thing. Nobody is going to wait around for a website to load in 2023. We’ve all got places to be, things to do, and a hundred and fifty other websites we’re going to visit today. If your page isn’t up and running immediately, your competitor’s probably is. So shrink your image file sizes. Optimize your content for quick loading. Three seconds is too long.
If your page kludges up every time someone clicks a link, there are people and services that can help fix that. We’re not going to get all pluggy on you and say, like, “We can do that for you as your local web experts” or anything. That would be lame. Just do whatever you can to make your website load and run smoothly. And if you don’t know where to start, let’s just say we know someone…
And that’s where we’ll leave you to check out some of these trends on your own. As with anything trendy, don’t try to do it all at once. Pick some things, try them out, and if nothing comes of it, at least you’ve given your web design, typography, and graphic design staff an interesting new challenge. It never hurts to sharpen those skills and try some fun variations on what you’re used to. Happy 2023! We’d love to see you trending in the new year.