5 Web design trends 2023

Neo Brutalism

This direction of brutalism looks like it came from old washed-out, printed advertisements in one color on colored paper. It is created by combining interesting and weird graphics, high-contrast colors, and sharp shadows combined with raw materials (as brutalism usually is). This popular style in web design tends to use a bit of retro elements too and gives you a feeling like it’s trying to look bad on purpose. 

Typography plays a big role here as well, they are funky looking and bold with in your face approach, not trying to hide anything. All in all, there are apparently no rules in this design trend, you need to be as bold and brutal as you can to be a good counter-balance to the current design styles.

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Mockups

Using mockups in design was a very trendy couple of years ago, but it’s all getting back now. Apparently, there is an increasing need for high-quality mockups and many designers are using them not just for project showcases but inside their websites as well.

One more reason why mockups are becoming popular again is 3D and Metaverse. People tend to like things like this even more nowadays, so using realistic mockups adds a bit of volume to your projects and makes them look more “real”.

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Web 3D

This trend was slowly coming to rise in 2022 and now in 2023 should become even more popular. Now we can also see 3D illustrations becoming popular because designers are adding dimensionality to them in a more immersive way by adding animations and full-page effects. All this is helping the metaverse become even more popular and slowly taking a part in our lives.

Nowadays, instead of using small animations and standalone illustrations, it’s becoming popular to create a full 3D visual experience throughout the site. Thanks to WebGL and three.js we can build many incredible experiences right into our browsers that seemed impossible a couple of years ago. We’re moving our boundaries every day little by little and this super popular trend will be a part of almost every website in near future.

Metaverse itself is still not that popular, but it will become an increasingly important part of the visual language of web design in 2023. Since Metaverse is a form of virtual reality, we’ve seen sites taking their inspiration from the metaverse to build an all-encompassing 3D experience.

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Interactions & Animations

This year, we’re also expecting to see more animations and interactions whose sole purpose is “just for fun”, without any particular purpose. They are usually set on some not-that-important space on a site, often showcasing one's ability to be creative and skilled in coding, but they can also add a bit of character and make your website more memorable. 

Loading animations are also starting to become more popular and they’ll continue to do so in 2023. This is another opportunity to engage with viewers and communicate your identity on a website. With more complex animations, 3D, interactions, AI, etc websites are getting slower, thus adding interesting loading animations will make users happy and not frustrated that they have to wait for a website to load.

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AI & Web3

There have been a lot of talks lately about AI replacing designers, but let's talk about AI in general first. Artificial intelligence tools have made their way into many industries over the last decade. Many design agencies have even started using AI-powered platforms to generate brand work and marketing campaigns. And let’s get this straight, the only thing machines can never do is replicate emotions, end of the story. So how can you use this cutting-edge technology to fuel your creativity?

There are a lot of popular tools to use that can help you boost your productivity, and creativity and make your life easier. Some of them are pretty well known, like DALL-E, Midjourney, and ChatGP. A few keywords can produce an image you can download, share, or manipulate further. They are not all perfect yet, but the more you’re using them, the better are results and you can finally spend less time working and more time enjoying. 

AI and machine learning are also a part of a new internet called Web3, which should also be decentralized that should serve you as an individual and not marketing corporations that currently see you as a potential buyer. 

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