Design trends in 2021 — It’s time to look inwards
A reminder that design is always a result of what happens outside
From Renaissance to Postmodernism, design has always been the result of what people were put through. All designs arise as a result of, or in order to address, a need, and needs are known to change from time to time. This is how design gets shaped in a certain way characteristic to each time period.
2020 was the year that saw great UX improvements
Remember opening up your favourite food delivery app after months in quarantine to see a whole new UI? Yeah, the big players took this time to pay off their design debt. Since the COVID meant a big halt on their business for many products, it made sense for them to fix their bugs and implement new features from the pipeline. While the implementation was great, the COVID era has impacted design in more ways than imaginable, in this article we’ll discuss some of the trends we’re likely to see in 2021.
Sustainability
Realizing that nature is a big-time top.
Keywords: Organic shapes, imperfect strokes, plants and natural textures.
Retro
When the future is grim, people look into the past.
Keywords: Sepia Tones, Extravagant typography and grainy images
Mysticism
In uncertain times, we cling to uncertain possibilities.
Keywords: stars, planets, moon, constellations and astrology
Abstract Futurism
Mostly “AI will take all our jobs”.
Keywords: Geometry, waves, holographics and loud gradients
Swiss Design
Gah. Swiss is not going anywhere.
Keywords: Sans-serifs, grids, blocks, photos
Approaching Trends
Trends have the shelf-life of flowers received on Valentine’s. Consider introducing trends at a later stage in your design process. A design that is trendy at the cost of usability today will be outdated and unusable next year. That’s a big blow. 👊
As a simple tip, use trends when designing for one-time events such as sales and conferences. Or even for small scale projects such as an internal company event landing page.
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