Often, customers get lost in the variety of website design solutions or are not at all aware of what styles exist; they cannot find examples or explain what kind of website they ultimately need from a software development company. The task of a UI designer is to tell, show with examples, or independently decide which style to work with for a specific project. This is not easy for beginners, and novice designers need to be more versed in a bunch of styles.
It is not enough to understand what styles and trends in website design exist; you need to be able to determine which style is suitable for a particular business: what would be appropriate on the website of a barber shop will not suit a company producing hydraulic equipment at all. Therefore, it is essential to learn to distinguish between the main directions and also to understand in which niches specific solutions will be appropriate.
What are the basic website styles in web design in 2024?
In UI design, 20-30 trends appear a year, of which 15-20 quickly disappear, which is why any style is gradually modified until it transforms into a separate movement.
Let’s look at the main styles in website design:
- Classic
- Minimalism
- Drawn
- Metro (card)
- Polygonal
- Flat (flat)
- Brutalism
- Festival (promo)
No. 1: Classic style
Simple, strict, concise, neat. It has a logically constructed structure and straightforward navigation. All elements are located in the expected places. A classic menu on the top or side left, a regular column grid, minimal or no graphics.
However, this style is being replaced by modern minimalism. The trend is that young progressive companies and, more importantly, the best custom software development companies in these areas are moving away from boring classics to a more modern, relevant direction.
No. 2: Minimalism in web design
Minimalism is often called the Swiss style in web design, and typography is called Swiss typography or Swiss text layout. The main ideas were laid down in Switzerland based on the philosophy of the Bauhaus school – “Form follows function.” Clear, readable fonts and simple, understandable illustrations help you quickly convey information and create websites in a premium business style.
No. 3: Hand-drawn style
Often, beginners, when viewing a hand-drawn or sketch-like style in web design, have the same reaction – wow, I want to see how to do it. The whole trick lies in the use of illustrations drawn by an artist or illustrator. That is, to create a hand-drawn website, you need not only a UI designer but also an artist. Accordingly, the cost of such projects is much higher, and the time frame is longer.
No. 4: Metro style in web design
This style is used for user convenience when perceiving a large amount of content. Conventionally, like a neatly designed newspaper, when viewing each, the reader finds the card he needs among a bunch of other cards. The easiest way to imagine the metro style is to remember the Windows 8 menu with square tiles of folders, applications and news in one bottle.
The metro style is characterized by such features as minimalism and functionality. Everything is aimed at ease of perception of information. A cool feature is that such a site is very easily adapted to mobile devices. This saves time as well as development costs.
No. 5: Polygonal style
The polygonal style is based on the simplification and virtualization of realistic objects using polygons – complex shapes, triangles, and other geometry (3D geometry, stereometry, broken lines). Illustrations and artistic techniques are also presented using polygons. On the one hand, it may seem strange, but even in the absence of detail in the picture, the author’s idea is easily captured.
No. 6: Flat style
Clear, simple, and neat. Flat style, or flat design, can be described as a simplified design with accessible custom solutions. The basic principle is nothing superfluous, similar to the style of minimalism. This style is characterized by simple two-dimensional illustrations, lack of volume, textures, gradients, 3D effects, complex shadows, and other effects.
It is unlikely that you will find a detailed website in flat style because it will be something else. Often only one accent colour is used, dim, muted and several complementary backgrounds.
No. 7: Brutalism
One of the predominant features of the brutal style in web design is chaos. There is no logic in constructing the grid; the elements are arranged vertically in a chaotic order. On brutalist websites, design itself is at the forefront, and usability and content are relegated to the background.
Acid colours are a priority when constructing a design; often, these are combinations of red and green shades.
Fonts can be unreadable, have one healthy size and do not follow logic or hierarchy. By the way, for those who care about SEO, you shouldn’t use brutalism at all since, from the point of view of robots, the code on the site will be trash, and from the point of view of behavioural factors and analytics services, there will be a lot of failures.
No. 8: Festival style
Festival style or promotional style in web design is typical for advertising an event, product, brand, festival, marketing creative and event agencies. An important criterion is entertainment. It is necessary to stand out, be remembered, impress, and create a wow effect. Mainly, festival websites are created in the form of landing pages / one-page sites, as this is difficult, time-consuming, and very expensive, both at the design and development stages. For such projects, senior designers and front-enders are needed. Therefore, in 90% of cases, these are purely presentational advertising pages. To put it bluntly, a promotional style in web design is needed to show off.
Conclusion:
Minimum text, maximum animations and visualizations are the key ingredients. The form of presentation is essential; the description is relegated to the background. Graphics, complex 3D effects, motion, and video are often used in the design. There are no clear design rules in style; the more spectacular and creative, the better.
Also Read EMV Software Development Services.
