Best Website Design Trends for 2024

Web design trends come and go, but good design principles never go out of style. As this new year gets rolling, you might decide it’s high time you updated your website. But what’s driving that decision? And how can you tap into the best design ideas to ensure that your shiny, new website works well for you and your clients? We’re glad you asked–at Alt Media Studios we’re here to design and build aesthetic, easy-to-use websites with built-in functionality that attracts potential customers to your online storefront. We’re also happy to answer all of your burning web design questions. Let’s get into it.

What is Web Design?

First off, let’s answer this (deceivingly?) basic question. Web design is a term that’s thrown around both within and outside of the industry so often that we could assume we know the definition.

To put it as simply as we can, web design is the process that takes an idea of what a website should be and makes it a reality. This can encompass everything from planning and conceptualizing, to building, implementing, and troubleshooting a website design plan. The end goal can be multifaceted, with web developers, graphic designers, content writers, and others all working together to create a visually appealing, practical, accessible, dynamic, and yet simultaneously easy-to-use website. 

With so many fish in the sea, and business potentially not limited by location, an internet user searching for your products and services has plenty of options–good web design can be the thing that draws them in and seals the deal. 

Web Design Trends: What To Know, What To Consider

Implied with the word “trend” is a sense of impermanence, transience. Here today, gone tomorrow. We all know that what’s popular and on-trend is ever-changing, and it can be risky to go all in with the current latest and greatest. That said, it’s good to know which 2024 web design trends are worth jumping on when it comes time to overhaul your website. 

It’s also important to remember that putting all your effort and time into trend following can be expensive. It can also mean that you end up with a snazzy-looking website that’s not user-friendly. Lots of animations, dynamic design elements, embedded videos and eye-catching graphics can end up being too busy, and in the end, they can actually turn some users away, especially if it leads to slow load times. That’s especially true if your website is simultaneously hard to navigate and difficult to use on various (read: mobile) devices. 

But all else being equal, these are the trends we’d recommend checking out if you want to go big:

• Custom graphics: These can help to tie your site together with the same vibe, color scheme, imagery, and other elements that will compliment your overall branding efforts. Custom graphics can allow variations on the theme of your logo to bring coherence across your website and can work to bring your company’s imagery to life.

• Animated and/or interactive logo: Whether a logo is rendered in 3D imagery, rotated, shifted, components are assembled in real time, or any other form of animation is used, it can help to keep eyes on your page, intrigue your audience, and make a lasting impression. Make it interactive by using a mouseover as a prompt for action.

• Dark mode: Like the optional setting on your cellphone or other devices, making a dark mode available on your website increases the options available to site users. The dark mode setting can make it more comfortable for those accessing your site at night or in poor lighting conditions and may even help to relieve eye strain while naturally offering an ultra-modern look.

• View transitions: Like the act of slowly turning a digital page, transitions can provide a sense of fluidity and continuity across your website. They can eliminate hard stops and starts, close gaps in load speeds, and even serve to amuse or entertain your audience. Transitions can engage users and provide a smoother navigation experience overall.

• Micro interactions: We’ve all experienced a link changing colors when we mouse over it–that’s probably the simplest form of micro-interaction. Colors could subtly shift as a user scrolls, a click could result in a pop of color, or other small changes could be used to offer feedback to users, prompting interaction throughout your site.

• Animated call-to-action buttons: CTAs in button form can be important features to grab and direct user attention and intention. Making these buttons even a little bit jazzier–e.g. animated lighting or brightening on a cursor hover–can further influence user experience and help them to choose to click.

• Scroll-linked animations: This effect can be any number of things, from elements that move, fade, change color, shift in shape or size, etc. as a user scrolls up or down a webpage. These additions can lead to more interaction with your site and spark a little joy in users’ minds as they engage with your website.

These features will need to be implemented tastefully, and on select pages across your website. The aim is to complement your branding and selectively highlight key pages or sections of content. Trust us: too much is overkill. Basically anything that improves the user’s experience in a meaningful, problem-solving way is where to focus the majority of your efforts and budget.

Besides these fun ways to spruce up an already great website, there are some basics that need to be in order first. From content to navigation, load time, mobile-friendly formatting, and more, some trends of the past have proven to be really valuable and have stuck around for the long haul. They’re now staples of any good website. And wrapped into any discussion of website design we also need to talk about psychology and how it should guide key decisions. Yep, that factors in here too. We’ll get into the details about all of this soon, but suffice it to say, a quality website is informed by a wide network of diverse influences. There’s a lot to know.

Alt Media Studios Is Your Web Design Agency

A well-designed website attracts visitors and performs well with search engines, while a poorly designed site can have the opposite effect. Every year brings more innovation and trendsetting, but will these so-called improvements stand the test of time (and traffic)? All too often trends quickly become worn out with overuse and instead of helping your website stand out, they can cause it to blend in with the ever-growing crowd. A website should impress, impact, and lead to conversions.

At Alt Media Studios, our web development team is equipped to deliver. Do we stay up on the trends? Sure. Are we well-versed in solid graphic design principles? Of course! But we’ll only suggest the things that make the most sense for you and your business. Get with us today and learn how we can help you build and grow with an updated, dynamic website redesign.