Awwwards Amsterdam 2020 in 3 takeaways
A little while back, the entire Lunar-team travelled to Amsterdam. We obviously didn't just visit the city along the Amstel for a citytrip, but headed to the annual conference of Awwwards. There we got lots of interesting insights, which we love to share with you.
First things first: what is Awwwwards?
Awwwards is first and foremost a platform on which the best international talents within the digital industry reward the best websites on a daily basis. Or in other words: Awwwards are the Oscars of the Internet, and their jury picks the winners every day again.
Awwwards Amsterdam 2020 in 3 key takeaways
It is needless to say that we got a lot of interesting insights during this big event. Unfortunately, it's practically impossible to share all of them with you, but we love to share the 3 most important tips for web trends in 2020.
1. F*ck Digital Sameness
If there was just one topic mentioned repeatedly during the Awwwards Conference in Amsterdam, it was 'digital sameness'. The internet is gradually getting saturated with websites that are almost identical to each other. You know what I’m talking about; a large header photo with a slogan and a call-to-action, the logo at the top left, the navigation in a row at the top, ... and so on and so on.
It may be an advantage in terms of user-friendliness, but how does this make you as a company stand out in this digital age? You can't expect potential customers to remember your website if your competitors are doing exactly the same thing. People often talk about innovation, and yet everyone has the same kind of website.
So as designers and developers, we have the responsibility to experiment and to come up with innovative ideas. We create a digital product, but we shouldn't forget that our users are also just people. They aren't robots consisting of algorithms and logic. People are guided by their feelings, so it’s time to make the internet more human.
2. Static is not an option
Animation is a perfect way to make your digital product more human and tell your story. We at Lunar are already long-time fans of animation, but during the conference it became clear once more how important animation is to stand out from the crowd.
Before Steve Jobs announced its end in 2010, Flash was responsible for the most creative and experimental era the Internet has ever known. However, thanks to the technical progress of the past few years, all of these effects became possible again. In addition, the world we live in is not static at all, so why should our digital world remain so? You can tell your story through animations such as parallax, preloaders, micro-interactions, page transitions, kinetic typography, AR, VR,... The options are endless.
1 thing is for sure; static is not an option.
3. Letters are the new black
Typographic websites have been on the rise for some time, which was also noticeable during the various talks. Recent technical CSS improvements allow us to experiment with letters in animation and layout. Before text was functional, but now it is often used creatively to provide a certain atmosphere and personality for your website. Your typography basically becomes the concept of your website.
Paragraphs have an aesthetic value and the layout breaks with the typical block boxes, which gives you more of a magazine look and feel. A major part of this is the combination of different fonts, each with their own personality.
Rather than images and videos, typography is now the primary design element, which of course improves the loading time of your website. Using larger fonts is not only trendy, but it also enhances the user-friendliness of your website. No need to put your nose up against a screen, type is now in your face!
Curious to find out how this is expressed in real life? Have a look at our cases.