The year 2021 is the year of the digital revolution. Website designs are no exception. The general website trend has completely changed in the past few years, businesses are focusing more on digital mediums and the user experience of their website. It is a well-known fact that web design is almost 90% to 95% responsible for the first impression. The human brain works in a bit more peculiar way when it comes to websites. It requires only a few milliseconds to build the very first impression of a website. The first impression of the website immediately rates and ranks that website in the user’s mind. If the impression is positive the user will go on and explore further, if the first impression is negative, the user might not explore a lot and quickly earlier. The same goes for the company or brand itself. Whatever impression a user got at first glance about the website will definitely influence their ideas and thoughts about the brand itself. This is why website designs are extremely important for your online brand identity and brand reputation.
This blog is a website design guide for 2021. Here are some of the trends that are gaining traction in 2021:
Full Page Size Headers
The full-page header or the header that covers the entire visible screen is not a new website design trend but it is gaining a huge amount of attention from the website developers and web designers in Dubai and all around the UAE. There are different variations of the designs which are equally popular and effective for their respective cases. Certain businesses prefer to use only a single static full-page size header. Some prefer to have animated sliders for the header and some are using multimedia content or animated effects to focus on their products/services and features. Whatever is the case the full page header is gaining popularity and not only in 2021 but it seems like it will still remain in fashion in the year 2022 as well.
Visual Effects and Cursor Response
As the user experience is the most important aspect of modern website design. The visual effects and micro animations are also gaining popularity. The overall general public is liking such effects. The visual effects, micro animations, and cursor responses make the web design more interactive and engaging. It keeps the interest of the user as the user expects to see anything new coming out of the button or box or just the cursor changing into a different cursor or animation. It keeps the user busy with the design. Although such designs contain less textual content than traditional web designs still these websites are better at getting attention from the visitors. The visitors and users tend to spend more time on such a website, which provides more chances of converting a prospect into a lead.
Minimalist Web Design Approach and White Spaces
The minimalist web design approach was very popular around 5, 6 years ago, then the textual content and very congested designs dominated it, and now again we are witnessing a tremendous 180-degree shift to minimalist web designs. The minimalist web designs are proven to be able to get more attention from the users. Different elements of the designs can be placed strategically to form a hierarchy. The white space not only lets the users’ eyes get rest but also lets their brains be more focused on the statement or image or sales pitch.
The placement of two elements can tell the users if they are the same or different. For example, if two elements are placed too close to each other the human eye will take them as one element and the brain will process the information in the same way. If the two elements are placed further apart then the brain will treat them as separate elements and hence the information will be perceived as different. This way businesses can improve the user experience as well as their online conversion rates.
Non-Traditional Scrolling
There are so many different types of non-traditional scrolling however the dynamic scrolling, horizontal scrolling, scroll-triggered animation, and parallax animation are the most popular among the web designers in Dubai and UAE. The dynamic scrolling sets different speeds for background and for the elements of the web design, this is usually used to portray 3D effects and animations. The dynamic scrolling also allows to include videos and animations in the background which can also be linked to the scrolling. The parallax animated scrolling is not a new thing it is in fashion for more than three years now and still it is very popular. Horizontal scrolling is also not a new concept, but it is gaining popularity recently and especially the service-based industries are adapting to this new trend.
The scroll-triggered animations are very popular among the small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses in Dubai, UAE. This design changes the elements but simple, fading effects, or movements to refresh the design upon scrolling. In 2021 we are witnessing some of the most spectacular parallax animations and effects, the technology has been improved and is more responsive towards the cursor. These non-traditional scrolling can be very attractive for the visitors but keep in mind that too much animation and visual effects could also distract your visitors from the content.
Gradient Colors and Colorful Patterns
The gradient colors and colorful patterns have started gaining traction after the iconic Instagram revamp of their logo. As we all are so much into social media and such networks, we all are familiar with them. This laid the base of the new trend of including colorful pallets and gradient color schemes. These days in Dubai and all around the UAE big brands and multinational corporate business entities are shifting towards gradient color schemes. Thanks to modern website designing and development technologies working on web designs with gradient color schemes and themes are very easy. The colorful patterns are utilized heavily to differentiate different sections of the websites and to focus on the primary content and CTA (call to action).
Grid Design
The grid designs were present for a long but in past few years when more mobile-centric designs started popping up, the web designers started considering the grid designs to bridge the gap between a completely mobile-centric web design and a traditional web design. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE the businesses are adopting grid designs to improve their web experience on both the desktops/laptops and smartphones. Apart from the general web design trend in 2021, the programming languages and coding tools have also been updated and now the web designers can easily handle sophisticated user journeys and user experience easily on all supported smartphones and traditional desktops or laptops without increasing the loading time of the web pages.
Dark Mode Enabled UIs
The dark mode enabled UI is a fairly new trend in Dubai, UAE. There are two types of dark mode, one is the website provides a selector option between the dark mode and the normal UI modes. Another common occurrence is the default dark mode. No matter whatever method you chose, if you are designing a dark mode for your website, it is extremely important to consider its impact on the primary content of the website. The dark mode should be able to focus more on the important web design elements and the content of the website. So, whatever types of content, media, graphics, and visual effects you use, make sure they look equally important (if not more) on the dark mode as well. The dark mode is happened to be more effective and productive for the minimalist, flat, retro, and long scroll or vertical scroll designs.
Glassmorphism UI
Another great example of an ever-changing trend is the Glassmorphism. The Glassmorphism means that the UI is designed on multiple layers, usually only two. One is the background, which could be a color pallet or an illustration, and the actual content on the foreground and more prominent. This UI type was first introduced in Windows Vista, later adopted by Apple iOS and nowadays you can see it in tons of web apps all around the UAE. The transparency, vivid color schemes or gradient backgrounds, visible borders, and floating objects make it more attractive, futuristic, and modern. The important thing is to keep the glassy look under control, do not overdo it, and make sure all the primary content and elements are highly visible.
The Glassmorphism is usually used to increase the visibility of the important elements but there are so many examples where the entire UI is designed this way and was highly appreciated by the audience. The selection of background color, transparency, and the number of layers plays a critical role, if not done properly it could fail miserably. As soon as you lose a certain level of visibility the vivid colors and the glassy effects will start irritating your users. The accessibility and responsiveness could also be a bit tricky too so be careful while designing such UIs.
UI/UX Focused Designs
These days the user interface or UI and user experience of UX is the most important part of any website, especially if you are expecting online leads or offering online portals and services, then the user interface and user experience are critically important. As the year 2021 comes with another huge trend of digitalization and online services so the website has become very crucial in any business’s success. The website designers and developers started working on UI/UX-focused designs. In order to improve user experience, the user interface must be very user-friendly and engaging. All the information should be easily available and should be presented in a very engaging manner.
Mobile First Designs
The world is witnessing a tectonic shift in the trend of how we are accessing information. Smartphones and mobile devices are the most preferred means to access information online. The search engine stats and market studies have shown that smartphone-based internet searches have already surpassed the traditional desktop/laptop-based searches. Another very important trend is in the marketing and communication field. Digital marketing is way too popular than traditional marketing. This fueled the trend of mobile-first web designs in Dubai and all around the UAE. The mobile-first design is built to enhance the user interface and user experience for the users using the smartphone and mobile devices. I don’t disagree that the mobile-first designs are not great but for certain industries and sectors, I don’t think the mobile-first approach is very suitable. However, businesses are using it, customers are asking us to do such designs and we are also witnessing great outcomes too.
SEO Friendly Web Design
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is very important these days. Digital mediums are a very powerful factor in influencing purchase decisions. Another important aspect of a search engine is that it also contributes to the brand reputation. Studies have shown that when a customer is searching about a product or service and the very first results show up on the search engine result page are considered to be the most trusted and reliable. The statistical and analytical data shows that the top results in the search engines are the getting the most clicks. This is also very helpful in getting organic traffic. The problem with most modern website designs is that there are so many animations and scripts are used to build the user interface which sometimes prevents the search engines from reading the actual data and subject of the web page. That is why the web design must have to be search engine friendly.
Conclusion
If you are a business operating in Dubai or any part of UAE or in fact anywhere in the world, the websites and the contribution of digital mediums in a business generation is huge. The web designs and website programming tools are continuously evolving, it amazing how much development and progress is done in the website industry in the past few years. This is because the websites and the digital brand identity of any business could have the potential to make or break it. For almost all of the digital branding and marketing activities, the website is the cent point of everything. Web design is responsible for building brand impression. It is considered that the business impression is built within a few milliseconds of when the user has landed on it. The only information that the human brain can process in this time is the design and the visuals. No matter how well you did with the functionalities and the data if your design is not good you will be going to lose.
As Dubai and all around the UAE the markets are very competitive and the customers are very demanding, it is extremely important for a business to remain up-to-date. That is why we wrote this article to let our audience understand the modern web design trends in Dubai. However if you are planning to build a new website or if you want to revamp your existing website, we are here to help you. At RSI Concepts we have built websites for huge multinational corporations, enterprises, local businesses, government departments, SMEs, and all sorts of different industries. We offer competitive rates for web design and development service, along with that we also provide website hosting, emails, SEO, digital marketing, PPC, CPC, Adwords, Lead Generation, and a lot many other digital services. We are offering a one-stop solution for all your digital needs. Feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will revert back to you.
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