Half the year has gone by and we can say this was a pretty interesting year in terms of web designing, especially UI designs. A lot of new design trends surfaced, while a few faded away. Here’s a list of the hottest UI design trends which were highly popular by far in 2018.

Storytelling with Character Design

The trend of custom graphics has opened doors for personalization and developing personalized special characters. Character design for storytelling in the interfaces is swiftly gaining popularity. More and more websites and mobile apps turn to specially designed characters for storytelling, setting the tone, conveying messages or showcasing the benefits in a way that matches the mood and voice of the platform. The interactions are more human-like when original characters are involved and thus creates a strong visual association with the real world. Moreover, the characters make the page or screen compelling and vibrant.

Full-Screen Background Images

More and more websites have now started using full-screen background images, be it photos or specially rendered visualizations. Use of these images not only visually enhance the websites, it makes them emotionally appealing. It is the most effective way of captivating visitor’s attention and sets the tone for an ideal user experience even when the site is loading, in addition to boosting the UI. Only high-quality images must be used as background images; the recommended background image size is 1250×800 or anything higher than that but with the same proportions.

Custom Digital Illustrations

Some trends continue to be popular for years. Custom digital illustrations are one of them; its presence on the web and mobile user interfaces is increasing every day. Custom graphics effectively support the quick perception of information provided on the page or screen; they set a solid ground for originality. Custom mascots, icons, illustrations are some of the most common forms of custom graphics which designers use to enhance the look of a page or screen, as well as boost usability and intuitive navigation. Another growing trend is creating digital illustrations as title images for blog articles.

Hero Images

A hero image is the first, main photograph or graphic that you see at the top of a web page. Its primary objective is to grab immediate attention and show visitors what your site, content is all about. They are flashy, pretty and keep visitors engaged. Moreover, as well as any other striking graphics on web pages, this is a kind of content which is both informative and emotionally appealing. This might be the reason why designers often turn to this technique to add diversity to landing pages.

Split Screens

One of the hot trends of this year is the active usage of split screens in both web and mobile interfaces. However, this trend is not really a new one. We have noticed that it fades away, only to make a comeback in various spheres of design, and looking at the year so far, it’s safe to say that it’s definitely back and alive. Split screen approach is believed to be more effective in responsive designs as you can work around with different content variations without missing the consistency. Additionally, it offers liberty to designers to try different color combinations and experiments. Some websites even use split screens to show two options of equal importance.

Multiple Interactive Layers

UI designers never shy away from experimenting and infusing creativity in their designs to find new, interesting ways of making the web page interactive and highly engaging. One of the growing trends is applying several interactive layers that make scrolling experience and interactions look original. By playing around with the positioning of various items on the scroll, they create an amazing parallax effect that provides a deeply layered experience.

Bold Typography

This UI trend has become very popular over the last few years and continues to do so in 2018. Bold and catchy typography can be seen all across the web and mobile layouts. In most cases, it becomes one of the key design elements and designers pay plenty of attention towards keeping it readable and scannable. Typographic hierarchy along with thoughtfully chosen fonts are among the core tasks of every UI design project.

Apart from these, there are many other UI design trends which have been the talk of the designer’s town. Share the ones you like in the comments section. Even better, talk to our design experts and know in-depth about the latest design trends.

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