As a blogger, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest web design trends. That way, you can make sure your blog is looking its best and attracting readers.

Numerous usability and user interaction studies indicate that websites that are aesthetically pleasing keep users coming back time and time again. But staying on top of the trends can be a challenge.

You may notice this website isn’t exactly trendy, but it does follow some core design principles that I care about and prioritise in all of my websites.

Here are some of the WordPress web design trends for 2023 that you should be aware of.

The rise of the minimalist WordPress website design

WordPress websites have been increasing in popularity in recent years with their neat and easily customizable designs. However, the WordPress website design trends for 2023 are focusing on a more simplistic minimalistic design. This trend towards lesser elements has grown in popularity due to the increasingly busy lives that most people lead.

With minimalist designs, visitors can easily find what they need with slicker effects and it allows them to engage with the content more smoothly. Additionally, minimalist designs are more efficient and cost-effective as it takes less time to update them compared to complex designs involving intricate tools such as CSS and HTML. As more people seek cleaner site layouts, the rise of minimalist WordPress websites is here to stay in 2023.

The popularity of using video backgrounds on WordPress websites

If you’re looking for the latest and greatest in WordPress website trends, video backgrounds may be just the thing your business needs. Video backgrounds are a great way to capture the attention of visitors and draw them into your content, increasing engagement. Although this trend has been around for a few years now, it continues to become even more popular due to its ability to provide visual dynamism and create a more interactive experience for website guests. As more WordPress options are developed that can easily integrate videos into websites, this trend will undoubtedly receive even more focus.

More use of animations and micro-interactions on WordPress websites

As WordPress web design trends evolve in 2023, designers are moving towards an increased use of animations and micro-interactions. Animations can help draw attention to key areas and pieces of content while micro-interactions provide a more interactive experience for users as they navigate a website. By taking advantage of these two design elements, website developers can ensure that WordPress websites are visually appealing and engaging. With the wealth of tools already available for developers, we can expect a surge in the use of animations and micro-interactions in WordPress designs over the coming year.

Divi by Elegant Themes does a great job of making micro-interactions and animations easy for the non-designer to implement. By using a few windows and a few easy-to-understand controls inside Divi, you can animate any part of your website and do so in a way that is trendy and gorgeous.

Increased focus on mobile-friendliness for WordPress website designs

As more and more people keep transitioning to mobile, website designs for WordPress must move towards better mobile-friendliness. This has been evidenced by the increasing number of WordPress web design trends that prioritize mobile responsiveness as one of their main focuses in 2023.

Optimizing a website’s performance on smaller devices requires careful thought, as aspects such as layout choice, font size selection, page load speed and image optimization are all key elements that will influence the success of the website accessibility on mobile platform.

As a result, designers should strive to increase their design knowledge around creating user experiences that optimize for smaller screen devices.

Again, this is super easy in Divi. By switching to the mobile view you can see how your website will work on devices with a tall and narrow screen.

The trend towards using more whitespace in WordPress designs

In recent years, whitespace in WordPress designs has been gaining traction and becoming increasingly popular. 2023 is expected to bring even more focus on the use of this minimalistic element in web designs. A key benefit of implementing whitespace is that it can help to define sections, separate text and draw attention to certain areas without overloading the page with design elements such as images and graphics.

As a result, more bandwidth can be directed towards ensuring optimal user experience – resulting in an overall improved website experience for users. The shift towards using more whitespace highlights the growing emphasis being placed on UX by web designers, which bodes well for WordPress websites becoming ever-more user-friendly in 2023.

More Dark Designs

Several years ago, dark web design was frowned upon. It was considered hard to read and hard on the eyes. But as we have moved more towards mobile and further and further away from desktop and laptop, dark designs are seeing a resurgence. While once white websites were the gold standard, dark sites are becoming more and more popular. A few years ago iPhone introduced dark mode on their phones, and this has showed a lot of people how much gentler on the eyes dark websites can be.

People are spending hours on their phones every day, and the brightness of the screens is only exacerbated by the brightness of white websites.

Dark websites are becoming more popular, but there’s a catch: if people are going to be reading paragraphs, it’s still a more pleasant experience for most people to have a light background and dark text. For pages where people are skimming, dark with light is often more pleasant.

An example is my Inner Truth Tarot website. There I use dark backgrounds and light text on top level pages. Blog posts, podcast show notes, etc., are all with the paragraphs on a lighter background.

As you can see, there are a number of WordPress web design trends that are set to become popular in 2023. These include the rise of minimalist designs, the use of video backgrounds, more animations and micro-interactions, increased focus on mobile-friendliness, and the use of more whitespace. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, then it’s worth keeping these trends in mind when designing your own WordPress website.

What trends are you noticing on WordPress sites? Let me know in the comments. Bonus points if you share a site for me to drool over. 😉