Acing modern website design a digital design agency guide acing modern website design a digital design agency guide

Every minute, 175 new websites join the estimated 193.5 million active websites on the World Wide Web. That amounts to 10,500 websites created every hour and 252,000 created every day.

Half of all consumers consider design crucial for the business’s brand. Most users – 83% – appreciate an appealing, modern-looking look when they browse a website. Furthermore, almost half of users (40%) will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Don’t know where to start with modern website design? Fivecube, a digital design agency, weighs in on the key web design principles, trends, ideas, and examples.

10 Modern Website Design Principles That Remain Crucial

Effective modern websites design is defined by these time-tested, tried-and-true design principles:

  1. Ensure all actionable targets (e.g., buttons) are easy to locate and reach, with enough space to separate elements
  2. Make user flows obvious and keep users’ choices to a minimum to avoid overwhelming them
  3. Be predictable in designing user flows and follow conventions: don’t reinvent the wheel, lest you want to confuse your users
  4. Visually divide content into smaller chunks to facilitate its consumption
  5. Accentuate crucial information with visual cues
  6. When in doubt, opt for a simpler design and avoid complex shapes and flows
  7. Treat responsive design as the default: 54.67% of all website traffic originates from mobile devices
  8. Regularly test and improve your web design with the help of A/B testing
  9. Keep all design components – layouts, typography, colors, etc. – consistent throughout the website
  10. Optimize your web design for faster load times

4 Modern Website Design Trends to Define 2024 & Beyond

Web design experts at the Fivecube digital design agency selected four trends that will shape the way modern websites look and behave in the near future.

Parallax Scrolling Is Making a Comeback

Parallax scrolling was all the rage about a decade ago, but it’s making a comeback today. Even if you don’t know what it means, you’ve probably encountered parallax scrolling yourself.

This technique means making the background move slower than the foreground elements during scrolling. This simple yet powerful technique instantly adds depth and style to the page.

Microinteractions Are Breathing Life into Websites

Microinteractions are exactly what the name suggests: small interactive elements that react to the user’s actions, like hovering or clicking. Unlike regular interactions, however, this trend in the modern website button design is meant to power subtle state changes.

Today, microinteractions are often placed to add personality to the website, make it more dynamic and interactive, or simply make the user experience more fun.

Dark Mode Continues the Conquest

In certain industries, the dark mode continues to dominate modern design website conventions. Think tech, for example. However, the dark mode palette is finding its way to websites across industries and purposes, from personal portfolios to sportswear retailers.

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GenAI Enters the Game

Yes, generative AI seems to be everywhere, and web design is no exception. While it can’t create full-fledged modern website design templates yet, GenAI is already coming in handy in creating custom graphics based on the established brand book in a matter of seconds.

4 Modern Website Design Ideas to Inspire You

Want your website to stand out? Consider these fresh design ideas, complete with modern website design examples to show them in action.

Mimic Real-World Environments

Known as skeuomorphism, this web design technique means creating a design that imitates real-world objects and environments. Think retro dials, buttons, and switches from the time before the internet and computers became widespread.

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In modern design websites, these elements create a feeling of nostalgia and can be added as static images or interactive objects. If you opt for the latter, make sure to imitate the object’s real-world behavior with appropriate animations (e.g., clicking on a lever would prompt an animation of pulling it).

Go All in on Retro Vibes

Yes, as paradoxical as it may seem, the retro style is a hallmark of modern website design. Whether you want to transport your users back to the 1970s, 1990s, or 2000s, experiments with retro vibes can add that nostalgic feel to your website.

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When it comes to designing this kind of throwback, draw on the staples of the decade, like VHS tapes or even Clippy from the early days of Microsoft Word. Remember to align your color palette, visuals, and type with the selected decade – and consider throwing pixelation and grunge motifs into the mix.

Add Motion to Text with Kinetic Typography

Kinetic typography involves animating text to draw the user’s attention to it and make the message appear more dynamic. It’s typically triggered by page scrolling, but it can also be made as a response to other user actions, like hovering or clicking a button.

As for what animations can be applied to the text, the sky is the limit. You can find the top 10 kinetic typography effects on this Webflow website, for example.

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Get Bold While Remaining Minimalist

Minimalist modern website design isn’t going anywhere: ‘less is more’ remains the golden standard for many designers. However, today’s minimalism doesn’t have to equal a pastel color palette and a simplistic approach to typography.

Take hello muller as an example here. While the layout is as minimalistic as it can be, with no photos or illustrations in sight, designers opted for a bold main color and typography that commands attention.

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Ready to Amaze Users with Modern Web Design?

While website builders have come a long way in the past decade, giving you considerable freedom in the design department, they still have their limitations. The same goes for templates you can find online.

So, if your website’s design is meant to be an investment into your business, consider turning to professionals at a web design agency. They’ll help you avoid common mistakes while crafting a fresh look for your website that boosts engagement.

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