Web design is a fickle industry. Just like every other form of artistic expression, Web design has undergone a continuous and surprisingly fast evolution. Once a playground for enthusiasts, it has now become a mature rich medium with strong aesthetic and functional appeal. In fact, we are experiencing what could be the golden era of Web design — or at least the best period thus far.

We’re seeing better interaction design and more aesthetically pleasing designs. And we’re seeing more personal, engaging and memorable sites, too. But what exactly is making the difference? What new directions is Web design heading in today? What new techniques, concepts and ideas are becoming important? Here we describe existing and upcoming trends and explain how Web design might evolve in the coming months and years. We’ll also touch on what we as Web designers should be doing to keep abreast of new challenges and opportunities.

1. Design For Delight

As designers, our job is to communicate ideas effectively. For every particular message, we create a context in which the message would work best, guiding users to achieving their tasks, gaining their trust or convincing them of whatever we’re communicating. Of course, there are endless ways to create this context. One of them is to design for visual aesthetics, surprise, joy, happiness — design for delight; design to be memorable and remarkable. Attractive things work better and help focus and keep the user’s attention. Memorable design increases excitement for products and brands, leading to increased engagement.

2. Print Design Influence

While designing for delight is primarily about impressing visitors with unexpected and pleasing touches to a design, modern Web designers often go one step further and experiment with the underlying details of their work, producing more creative and unique layouts. In fact, one doesn't’t have to be an expert to see the growing influence of traditional print design techniques on the Web. They are often manifested in so-called “art-directed” blog posts (or “blogazines”), whereby every blog post has a unique and carefully crafted design. The layouts of these websites often resemble those of print magazines or posters, with striking headlines, multi-column text, highlighted quotations, indented text, supporting imagery, side notes and footnotes. The designs usually adhere to grids and have strong, vivid typography. Good design is about effective communication, not decoration at the expense of legibility. The choices are: great content, great art direction and regular schedule. If you try to hit all three, one of those will begin to fall short.” Bottom line: Web designs that are heavily influenced by print design are beautiful, but only when the techniques support your article.

3. Huge Images

A close relative to the oversized logo/ header, the huge image does much the same thing. It creates an visual impact that the visitor won’t soon forget. Unlike the oversized header from above, huge images are not part of the site’s branding. Instead, these images draw the visitor into your site, if not for their content then for their humongous size. In 2010, web designers will find themselves more comfortable using these big statements in their design to convey the site’s tone.

4. Rich, Strong Typography

Typography has played a major role in Web design for years now. Bold, strong, heavy headlines can effectively convey the purpose of an e-commerce website or portfolio, while subtler headings help structure content and improve legibility. Obviously, the big change we’re seeing today is richer, more versatile typography. The future is big, bold and typographic. Rich font families will be used not only for headlines but for body copy, bringing typographic practices from print over to the Web. Also, designers will experiment more with rich, sophisticated serif fonts⁷⁵ and bold, imposing slab fonts, supported by subtle imagery. Web designers are also adding more depth to typography, naturally, such subtleties are closely tied to the choice of layout. These typographic designs are often grid-based and borrow techniques from print design, such as side notes and footnotes.

5. Minimalism

Forget the old school minimal websites. Websites of 2010 will continue to feature lots of white space but with bold typology and surprising color schemes. Not all minimal websites will agree with the notion of black and white simplicity. Although minimalism is by nature muted, it will also showcase fresh colors. Minimalism isn’t cold, it’s warm and too the point.

Conclusion

Modern Web design is better, richer and more user-friendly. We’re seeing better use of visual design for the sake of aesthetics and a pleasing user experience. Traditional techniques from print design are increasingly being applied to the Web, be they layout techniques or rich versatile typography. Horizontal and even diagonal orientations bring a fresh perspective to the flat 2-D designs we’ve seen for years (with their text-heavy, Flash-based pages). These developments are a sign of the upcoming era of Web design, in which designers can use new tools and techniques to their fullest potential.