World Design Day on the 27th April honors the art of design in all its forms. As businesses and industries evolve, so do design trends. The world of design has undoubtedly played a significant role in shaping and enhancing the user experience across digital channels, including web, branding, social media, email marketing, and video. In this blog, we explore the 5 latest design trends in these digital channels, providing examples and how they affect user behaviour and experience and how they can elevate your brand and help you stand out from competition. So, whether you’re a designer, marketer, or business owner, read on to discover the latest design trends to incorporate into your digital strategy.
Web design
Jazzing up the 404
The 404 error page is the bane of any website user experience on a website who can’t find what they’re looking for. Previously, web designers used this page as an opportunity to add a funny graphic or light-hearted copy, but in 2023, 404 pages have taken a different approach. They now even feature engaging animations and mini-games, actively encouraging visitors to stay on the page. The purpose of these new and improved 404 error pages are to ensure that even necessary but undesirable pages are geared towards amusement. However, it accomplishes much more than that. It reflects a broader trend of promoting positivity during frustrating moments. With so many negative events happening worldwide, web designers want to contribute to spreading joy. Although a fun 404 page design may not solve global issues, it can bring digital happiness where human error fails which will hopefully leave a good taste in customers mouths and promote a positive brand image.
Below is a great example of a super engaging, humourous 404 page. Bloomberg‘s 404 page is a cartoon animation of a man hitting the computer that says 404 off the desk in frustration.
Branding
All about an era
To embrace a certain era means to establish a brand that evokes the sentiments of a different time, whether that be the recent 2000s or a more distant era like the 1920s. Encapsulating an era in your branding isn’t only great for aesthetic purposes but can also be therapeutic and hugely nostalgic for people. It enables them to reflect eras in their own lives and see things through a nostalgic lens. This trend provides an instant connection with consumers by using elements that are familiar to them, such as a bold and curvaceous font from the seventies or a vibrant color palette from the nineties.
Below is Vista Hotel & Bar matches by HAUS HAUS which personify hollywood glamour of the 50’s.
Social media
Retro maximalism
When creating social media graphics and creative content, it seems gone are the days of ‘less is more’. In social media design in 2023 for many brands, more is more. This is where the trend ‘retro maximalism’ comes into play. No era does over the top maximalism better than the 60’s & 70’s, so we’re seeing social media content creators today borrow aspects and techniques from those eras. These include cartoonish animations, colour blocking, muted bright colours, high saturation, large bold fonts, geometry and minimal white/blank space. Using retro maximalism will not only be super aesthetically pleasing but also show your keeping on trend with your social media designs.
Below is an example of feminist social activist, author and illustrator, Florence Given’s eye-catching retro maximalism graphics, check out @florencegivenshop on Instagram to see more.
Email marketing
Irregular frames
In 2023, there are multiple approaches to styling email images, a recent popular technique is to reimagine the image frame. While digital images commonly have straightforward frames like squares and rectangles, many emails are opting for more irregular shapes such as starbursts or pill shapes, creating a whimsical and playful aesthetic akin to arts and crafts cutouts. The use of bright colors, duotones, and off-kilter placements add to the scattered, sticker-book style, resulting in a casual, youthful composition that is fun, bright, engaging, happy and can even evoke nostalgic memories of childhood.
Below are ‘Moo‘ (left) & ‘ECC New zealand‘ (right), two great examples of using irregular shapes to make their email marketing pop.
Video
Video helps your SEO?
Video content has been pushed on almost all social media platforms in the last year or so, but did you know adding video content to your website not only adds quality content but also will help bring in new visitors and audiences to your website. If you are trying to rank higher in search then you should consider adding video to your content creation. According to Wave Video Google is now making video a key indicator for SEO going forward, pages with video content are 50x more likely to rank than posts with only static content and have a 41% higher click through rate.
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