Like it or hate it, Dribbble plays its game with more and more designers and teams sharing their ideas and practice. Some of the shots present real and live projects while others share conceptual approaches that may influence the design of the future. Anyway, as any design community, Dribbble reflects what’s popular in the sphere. So, let’s check and discuss some hot UI design trends of this summer. With lots of examples, of course.
In the domain of web design, custom digital illustrations used as hero or theme images present one of the biggest trends of this year. Whatever is the day you open the feed of popular shots, you’ll see examples of a website or landing page with a big and catchy illustration. In most cases, it is placed in the left half of the screen while the right part presents the copy content. In other cases, the image may split the page diagonally. One more popular way is using digital artworks as title images for blog articles; in this case, you will probably find them in the top part of the page.
Original graphics are a good way to add a flair of uniqueness to the web layout. What’s more, pictures are perceived faster than text, so illustrations raise the chances to attract users’ attention to the theme of the resource or benefits of the offered products and services.
The trend of using custom graphics is steadily growing in mobile interfaces as well. Featured in a variety of styles, illustrations are supportive of storytelling as a part of navigation and onboarding.
Split screens are often found in Dribbble shots of this year. The screens or pages may be divided by a split for different reasons, such as:
Well-designed and attractive typography doesn’t lose its positions on the list of trends. It opens the diversity of ways to make the text content not only meaningful but also beautiful. Carefully chosen fonts transfer the needed mood and build up the strong visual hierarchy. And Dribbble shots show that designers aren’t tired to play with fonts.
As for trends in color choices, it seems that purple palettes take the big share. In color psychology, it is referred to as the one associated with luxury (royalty and wealth), passion and mystery; it’s described as the color combining the stability of blue and energy of red. I wouldn’t bet to say that this is the reason why so many designers turn to this color now – or just because it’s stylish. Anyway, this year it’s on top in all the variety of shades, tones, and gradients. However, it’s also worth mentioning that the trend rocketing at the beginning of the year is not that fast to grow now in the summer, giving more space to other color choices.
This year the creative experiments on the crossroads of animation and illustration are becoming more and more daring. To make the pages or screens stand out, designers add sophisticated motion to visuals from icons to logos and complex illustrations. Although the necessity and practicability of UI animation is still the theme of hot debates, Dribbble presents the demonstration trail daily updated with new pieces of catchy motion designs.
One more UI trend of this year is text filled with the background image. To make it work, it’s usually applied to the most prominent word or phrase – a name of the product or company, heading, tagline, slogan and the like. This trick supports the integrity of all the composition and adds sophistication to the text.
Another frequently found trend is applying a full-screen image, setting the theme and atmosphere, as a background. In most cases, they are high-quality photos, but also they can be 2D or 3D compositions rendered specially for the project. Again, this technique is the step towards poster-like web pages.
It’s early to say that skeuomorphism is back, but as judged by Dribbble it seems to be rising from the ashes. More and more shots feature 3D graphics added to interfaces, mostly the ones for the web. Sure, this approach demands specific skills, artistic eye and taste to be accomplished properly. What’s more, it must be more time consuming – but it’s definitely attractive.
Dribbble has always been the fruitful soil for creative experiments, and now we can often observe them in the domain of transitions between screens or pages.
Obviously, not all the trends are going to become widely used. But all the creative experiments have their value: they push the limits, they allow designers to try and discuss new tricks, techniques, and approaches. To grow, we have to dare, probe, and analyze. Who knows which of the trends will bring the best looks for the favorite products of the future.
Do you have any fav in this set of design trends? Or, perhaps, you feel there’s a trend unfairly missed in the list? Let’s discuss in the comments.
About the author: Marina Yalanska, tech/design writer and researcher, editor of Icons8 Blog
Title illustration by Nick Slater
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