2020 wasn’t easy. With its gallons of hand sanitizer, awkward Zoom meetings, and the looming anxiety of uncertainty, we’re all feeling a bit frazzled. Despite the circumstances, we all did our best to move forward through it all. Many of us took the time to learn new design skills. And some of us just made sourdough bread. We all have our coping skills.

When it came to design, we kept an eye on the never ending trends on the web. After talking to the Brand Studio team at Webflow, and a handful of other designers, we put together a comprehensive list of some of the web design trends we expect to see well into 2021. We hope this list not only inspires you, but makes you approach the web in a more inclusive and accessible way.

21 modern web design trends for 2021

Here are 21 web design trends that will also help make 2021 a bit brighter.

1. Retro fonts

We’ve seen many old things become cool again, and then in turn become even more uncool. Think handlebar mustaches and mom jeans. Irony has a short shelf life.

Retro fonts have experienced this same ebb and flow in their popularity, and many designs featuring vintage typography haven’t aged well.

However, throwback typography has gone through a bit of a resurgence. We’re not seeing the same tired fonts. Rather, stylization and a bit of artistry are reimagining what retro fonts can be.

We see this merging of old and new on the page for Spotify’s Carnival promotion. Instead of feeling stale and cliche, they breathe new life into traditional bold fonts with a bit of experimentation. This is a good example of taking traditional fonts and giving them a bit of a cool and modern spin, while maintaining legibility.

There’s a sense of retro-futurism here on this website for the event planning company Goliath Entertainment. The bold typography gives a nod to the past while still feeling very of the moment.

As 2021 unfolds, we’re looking forward to seeing more creative typographic reimagining.

2. Parallax scroll animations

Parallax scroll effects have been a trend in website design for years, and in 2021 we hope to see more subtle and creative explorations of what can be accomplished with parallax.

Remember that too much movement in parallax effects can be harmful to people with vestibular disorders because the illusion of depth and movement can cause disorientation and dizziness. Here are some guidelines we see more designers taking into account to ensure they incorporate parallax minimally and without causing harm:

• Don’t let parallax effects distract from important information
• Don’t make it harder for the user to complete an important task
• Keep the number of parallax effects to a minimum
• Minimize the amount of parallax movement within each instance
• Constraining parallax effects within a small area of the screen
• Include an option for users to turn off parallax effects

Alice Lee’s portfolio site uses parallax effects that respond to mouse position to bring her illustration to life. The amount of movement is small and contained within the bounds of the hero. This is a great example of using parallax with constraint and intention.

Not every parallax animation has to make grand gestures across the screen. We’ve also seen more subtle applications. In this web design for Green Meadow, one could almost miss this effect entirely. But this gentle unveiling of text creates enough of a juxtaposition to bring attention to each block of text as it appears.

Source : https://webflow.com/blog/web-design-trends-2021