Back in 2020, not only professional web designers will have noticed how massively COVID-19 has pushed our everyday life more towards a digital world. Most online companies had significant growth and completely new business models emerged in addition to the already established ones. The growth in the digital sector also brought new web design trends in terms of communication, shopping, and how we take care of our mental and physical health. Whether on smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers, people spend way more time online.

Based on today’s web design trends, we want to share with you five examples of how websites or mobile apps can be designed to ensure a faster, easier, and more visually appealing use. Below you can find the top five web design trends that will dominate our digital world in 2021.

1. Parallax Scroll Transformation

A website with parallax scroll transformations made by agency Cuberto for Sleepiest.

When users scroll down a page or mobile app, they browse through content. Through scroll transformations, this interaction can be visually guided to make them aware of certain content. The idea behind it is quite simple: when users are involved in things that are happening on their screens, it increases their interest. In 2021, designers should be amplifying the visual feedback users get when scrolling through a website or mobile app. It can range from changing the color scheme to complex transformations or animations that change graphics, images, or even the complete layout. This way, each scroll can feel like coming to a new page or even a new website.

2. Vintage Typography

Vintage Typography
The Glamour Absolut vintage font by Nicky Laatz is available for download here.

If you look at the variety of current font designs, you will find a lot of vintage-inspired typefaces among them. In contrast to the retro fonts of past years, we are now seeing much more sophisticated designs. The best typeface designers masterfully combine the aesthetics of good old vintage lettering with current trends and functionality adapted to today’s media. Web designers love to incorporate these fonts into their designs to make them more charming while adding a touch of nostalgia to their work.

3. Dark Mode

Dark Mode UI Elements
These dark mode UI web elements by Sergey Bitos are available here.

White or particularly bright backgrounds convey a simple and very minimalist aesthetic but they also can be exhausting and uncomfortable for the eyes in the long run. Dark mode has recently become more and more popular in mobile apps and websites. In addition to being easy on the eyes, the dark mode offers a great contrast for texts and thus ensures that content on mobile devices can be read better in bright sunshine.

4. Augmented Reality (AR)

Based on augmented reality (AR), Karol Kos has designed an adventure app for widelab.

Especially for online shops, augmented reality (AR) enables completely new user experiences. Instead of having just a few images of a product from different angles, with AR technology, users can see products in a natural setting, turn them in any direction, or maybe even try them on. Augmented reality makes a website or mobile app way more entertaining by creating an interactive link between the digital and the real world.

5. Pleasant Color Schemes

Pleasant Color Schemes in Web Design
This WordPress website theme is available here.

While most people spending more and more time in front of a screen, it is not uncommon for users to have eye pain after staring at a screen for a long time. Web designers take this into account with more eye-friendly colors. We have already written about the trend of the dark mode but also color palettes of soft green tones or pastels have a pleasant effect on our eyes and psyche.


This was just a selection of the top five web design trends we will see in 2021. Of course, there are many other trends that we haven’t mentioned in detail here, such as neumorphism in user interfaces, animations, abstract graphics, illustrations, etc. As always we are curious to hear what you think of the current web design trends? For those who need some more inspiration, feel free to browse through our Web Design category or check out the Templates section to find plenty of website elements and other professional design assets.

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