Nothing stands still for long in the fast-moving world of technology and design and 2024 will see some emerging trends explode in website design. Minimalist, modern glass effects and soft bento grids compete against retro 90 and Y2K styling, whilst vibrant gradients and bold typography make your website pop. Micro-interactions help to create that all-important human touch alongside AI-generated imagery that actively aids creativity. It’s a brand new world out there. Is your recruitment website ready for the web design trends of 2024?
“This year we have seen clients wanting to modernise their sites, with an emphasis on clean and clear UX. We’ve had some swapping from dark to light schemes and others the reverse! Rounded edges and wide containers are very on-trend at the moment, as are gradients and glass effects, and this will continue into 2024.”
Elizabeth Bennett
Wave Lead UI/UX Designer
Bento
Bento grid layouts have been around for a few years but are gaining in popularity thanks to their modern feel as well as Apple’s adoption of them in its summary pages. Set into a wider width container and divided into neat compartments with rounded edges (like a bento box, hence the name), they’re a simple and visually appealing way to present a number of different features. The design allows visitors to digest content easily by presenting it in manageable sections. Having the added advantage of working well with responsive design, they are set to explode in 2024.
“I’ve used bento grids as inspiration for some concepts this year and I think it’s going to really grow heading into 2024.”
Elizabeth Bennett,
Wave Lead UI/UX Designer
Glass effects
Clean and clear UX-focused design is everywhere and glassmorphism is a technique rapidly growing in popularity because of this. Designed to look like frosted glass via the application of transparency and a blur effect, Glassmorphism gives the user interface depth and a touch of texture, providing a sense of physicality. It also adds visual hierarchy so is a great way to focus attention in a certain area, whether that’s a button, a hero section, navigational options, or other UI elements. In terms of styling, it adds a sleek minimalism and gives the interface a slight futuristic look.
Retro 90s & Y2K styling
With its colourful, busy, late 90s style, this is a counter trend to the crisp, clear, minimalist glass effects trend. Fashion and web design often share trends and this is a very good example of that. As chokers, claw clips, bandeau tops, cycling shorts and cargo pants are seen all over the high street again, web designers have gone all nostalgic over the late 90s and Y2K period too. Think candy colours, chrome, iridescence, cyberpunk, the space age, techno-inspired fonts and liquid textures. It captures the feel of the turn of the century – hopeful, fun and brilliantly un-ironic. One of the hottest website design trends of 2024, 90s and Y2K styling will undoubtedly help your website to stand out.
Bold typography
Alongside the big, bold 90s and Y2K design trend, bold typography – particularly in the hero in place of an image – is here with a bang. It’s great at capturing attention and conveying brand personality, as well performing the important job of visual hierarchy. Combine that with interactions and animations and you’ve got an engaging website that stands out. Kinetic, or moving, typography is also part of this trend, creating movement and fluidity to boost engagement without slowing down or cluttering the website.
Vibrant gradients
Gradients can hugely add to the appeal of a website and vibrant tones will be big in 2024. You can highlight calls to action (CTAs) with vibrant hues, use gradients in the background of images, or add gradients to whole sections of the page, breaking it up with white space. They add visual intrigue, add depth and draw visitors in. Just be sure to use the colour palette of your brand in order to boost your brand identity.
AI-generated imagery
As AI image generation tools continue to develop and improve, AI-generated imagery is steadily growing in popularity and is set to be one of the biggest website design trends for 2024. 2023 was the year that AI revolutionised the design industry as stock and custom graphics were replaced by AI-generated images. This can actively enhance creativity by helping with concept creation and making it easier to make design variations and revisions. However, just as AI-generated copy is only as good as the human prompting and editing it, AI-generated images are only as good as the designer navigating the software. Under capable and creative human control, the possibilities are endless!
“We’re seeing a lot of AI-generated imagery in the Adobe stock library. It’s so much easier to edit images with the AI feature integrated to photoshop too, so we are able to customise according to client choice.”
Elizabeth Bennett
Wave Lead UI/UX Designer
Movement
Little elements of movement on the interface, or micro-interactions, can enhance the UX by providing instant but subtle feedback, alongside elevating the look, and we believe this will be used more and more. This involves elements animating on the screen as you scroll (entrance animations). Most people will notice a link that changes colour when you hover a mouse over it – that’s probably the most basic of micro-interactions. Imagine an explosion of colour emanating from whatever you’ve clicked or tapped or a change of colour as you scroll. Micro-interactions help make the design more intuitive, guide user behaviour, and give a human touch to the experience. They may be the tiniest of experiences but they help bring a website to life.
“We do this for most clients now, and it will continue to evolve as these subtle animations become more prevalent as a way to turn ordinary actions into something engaging.”
Elizabeth Bennett
Wave Lead UI/UX Designer
Increased visibility to job search and CV upload
With recruitment websites, there are an increasing number of clients wanting the ‘search jobs’ and ‘upload CV’ elements very visible, and we are actively encouraging clients to have this. The majority of candidates visiting your website will be there to either search for a job or upload their CV for future opportunities, so make it easy for them and increase the visibility to those areas. This can be done in a number of ways but intuitive navigation, clear signposting and ensuring there’s enough white space around any relevant buttons, is all crucial.
What’s here to stay
Anything that helps to improve UX will never go out of style. These elements transcend trends and should always be implemented on your website:
- Quick page speed load times
- Strong SEO
- Intuitive navigation
- Mobile-friendly design
- Data security
- Accessible, inclusive design
Although set to be big web design trends in 2024, all the trends listed here have longevity and will help to boost the UX of your recruitment website. What’s really important for any website at any time is that it conveys your brand personality, creates a great user journey and acts to drive traffic and convert. If it does all that, you’re in for a great 2024.
