Like everything else in 2020, digital marketing took a real hit as it adjusted to a year full of disruption. From canceled events and flights to the prevalence of remote work, it became more difficult for digital design to visualize and represent the near future. That doesn’t mean it has lost its relevance; in fact, quite the opposite is true! Digital design plays a significant role in restoring the sense of lost direction and normalcy, allowing anybody from consumers to marketing leaders to create a more tangible picture for the coming years.
Understanding the trends that will feature in this year’s design trends is one way to communicate that picture more clearly to your customers. Here are some of the biggest design trends that digital marketing services can help you watch out for in 2021.
The Internet as Real Life
As everybody retreated indoors over the past year, the internet rapidly became more like real life. Most experiences are being carried out digitally, including exercise classes on Zoom and watch parties over Netflix. This technology also provided more immersive, 3D experiences to add some variety to plain Zoom grids. Environmental photogrammetry was used by patching together hundreds of photos into a 3D image to construct physical spaces. This gives the feeling of being in that location while on Zoom. You can even interact by clicking on points of interest in the room to see more details!
The Digital Facelift
There are newfound ways to engage users with advanced designs using existing technology that everyone is familiar with: filters. Today’s filters are more entertaining and interactive than before, from recasting faces in the orbit of translucent masks or beauty filters even celebrities can’t ignore. It’s no longer about airbrushed perfection but more of an opportunity to be expressive, weird, and fun using this digital facelift.
Breaking Boundaries Between Real and Virtual Worlds
Designers from content creation agencies are continuously breaking barriers between real and virtual worlds with immersive virtual experiences. These are especially relevant now as people crave for a semblance of normalcy without compromising their safety and security given the conditions of the outside world. It seems rather dystopian, but it’s the reality that everybody is currently confronted with.
Virtual reality was already on the rise pre-pandemic, but digital design has helped it accelerate and become more widespread due to the changing needs of people in lockdown. For instance, Prada’s 2021 Fashion Show took place online without a live audience, and video cameras captured fashion models at the center of the show viewable via a VR-rendered recreation.
This particular trend will continue to develop especially rapidly as time goes on.
Personalized Interfaces
Brand designers for small businesses and corporate giants are continuing to leverage personalization in user interfaces for the ultimate user experience. Spotify is an excellent example of this with their end-of-year reviews catered to each user’s listening habits. Netflix and Youtube also recommend movies this way, and so does shopping online!
More than just working algorithms, users can enjoy “hand-picked” options on these platforms through the beauty of digital design. From the visuals on Netflix recommendations that grab your attention to your favorite online shop’s layout, digital design makes life online more convenient and personalized than ever.
Conclusion
Design is everywhere you look, and these days, digital design is more prevalent than ever. It creates a seamless transition between real life and the virtual world when the latter is essential to continue daily routines. Never have people been so dependent on technology, and never has digital design been so challenged to deliver new solutions for unprecedented problems. By being familiar with the trends set to take over 2021, your business can make better decisions about the design of your products and service offerings to ensure your audiences remain engaged and very much attuned to your presence—physical or virtual.
Elly Nora Creative is one of the best digital marketing agencies in Phoenix that offers boutique branding, content, and publicity services to purpose-driven companies and entrepreneurs. To grow your income and impact, schedule a consultation today!
