UI/UX Trends of 2021- Update Your Design to Grow Business

Jan 11, 2021

Appealing web design will rule in 2021 that fills customers with curiosity and pushes them to react. With the changes in user expectations and digital development, it becomes necessary to design digital products and websites so that they stay relevant to the current times. From the community of web designers around the world, we have some great insights about the Digital product design trends of 2021.


Web designers will design to give a more authentic experience to the customers. Below are some of the design trends that will make your design attractive and user-centric. Customers visit thousands of websites; therefore, these design trends might allow your audience to choose you over any other platform.

Taking a look back at the digital products that have created an impact in the recent era, it isn’t hard to point toward the behaviour that these products have created among their audience and have been used successfully. This helps them provide an intuitive experience, with reduced cognitive load. As more services look to expand digitally, they would try to enhance the user’s experience by designing for the most intuitive behaviour. For the user, it could also mean that they not only get the task done quickly but with a pleasurable experience and no frustration. This could involve services trying to capitalize on the behaviour patterns set by social media or trying to create service-specific behaviour to increase product engagement and retention.

To gain customer attention and connect with the audience, these trends are here to stay. Behaviour design is based on cognitive sciences that allow designers to design for people. It gives you the key to invoking customers’ emotions and needs. New design strategies can be determined to capitalize on the customer’s behaviour towards digital products.

  • Motions that Users Engage With (Micro-interactions)

Who doesn’t love motion? Dynamic elements make a product lively and more human. These have been increasingly used to engage users and in turn, the user just loves them with the instant gratification they provide. This includes surprising and attractive animations that will enhance your user’s experience Micro-interactions are essential elements this year. They find applications in various functions from displaying a system status (loading screens) or making navigation easy (Tab-switch interaction) to amazing scroll interactions for a product website. It helps you increase user engagement.

  • Focus on Collaboration 

Collaboration has been one element that was looked at as a face-to-face activity to improve productivity. But 2020 changed the way collaboration is looked at, with all professional and academic work shifting to digital platforms. The cross-functional collaboration process in the designing approach would be the game-changer in 2021.

Designing is not about communication between designers and developers, UX design which is built under the perfect collaboration, provides a changed perspective to the user. From designers to project managers and developers, everyone brings something better to the table. Collaboration has always been beneficial.  From upper to lower-level management and managers to interns, everybody will strengthen the design for customers. To come up with a consistent and relevant design alignment, coordination is an important factor.

  • Advanced Personalization 

Do you know, 98% of marketers agree personalization helps advance customer relationships? Every customer likes to get personalized information, therefore, UX design trends 2021 include advanced personalization in the list. In the upcoming years, the customer will experience more personalized interfaces. Designers will be able to build interfaces that can change the appearance, position of elements, tone, and behaviour with the change in the customer.

  • Emphasis on Ethical & Inclusive Design

Discrimination is seen everywhere in the world. Whether it is colour, gender, age or race, customers don’t like discrimination. Therefore, the UX-inclusive design will be created to solve the user’s problems without any discrimination. Inclusive and ethical designs create a safe and reliable experience for customers. It allows every customer to access and take action conveniently without any being biased.

  • Personalized Design 

Every customer is unique and so are their needs. So, personalized designs give a better sense of buying to the customer. This design trend will be able to change the “I don’t need it” buyer persona by exclusively catering to customers’ needs. It makes you stand out from the competition.

  • 3D renders/Illustrations 

Do you want to make a website visit memorable for customers? Then, 3D rendering is the solution. To enhance the user experience 3D illustrations are playing a magical role. These create a user-friendly and inviting environment to engage the users. Motion graphics and moving elements will be more personalized to make customers curious. 3D illustrations will allow your brands to stand out with better user engagement.

  • Glassmorphism 

Favouring transparency and multi-layered approaches, Glassmorphism is a UI fresh UI design trend in 2021. With the help of this trend, light or dark objects are emphasized and placed on top of colourful backgrounds. A background is placed on the objects that allow the background to shine by giving it the impression of frosted glass. This trend will gain a user’s attention in no time because the blurring of objects creates an illusion as if they are floating in 3D space.

  • Dynamic Design 

Bad text structures and irrelevant design are the turn-offs of the customers. In 2021, customers will continue to be attracted to dynamic designs. Natural designs are always appreciated. So, animation and micro-interactions will make the interface more appealing. The rising trend of new dynamic efforts will bring ease to consumers.

  • Dark Mode

How to give a modern and elegant touch to the website? In 2021, the answer would be, using dark mode. Designers will change the face of a brand through dark mode. According to the studies, dark mode is better for both; our battery life and our vision by reducing blue light exposure. It allows designers to play with design elements and make the design sleek and chic. In 2021, designers will experiment with the Dark Mode toggle (switching between light and dark mode) to customize the user’s experience.
This year would be an amalgamation of simplicity and usability with innovation and technology, without losing focus on visual aesthetics or customer experience. So, bring these trends into your design to stay ahead in this competitive world.

Madhavan Ayyavu

Co-Founder and Director (User Experience) Fibonalabs

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