Follow these 6 UI background design trends to make your interface more colorful

Whether designing a web page or a poster, background images are the most commonly used design element that best reflects the current design trend. The same is true when designing apps. In the past 10 years, the taste of use has changed a lot, and now, the entire design trend seems to be at a critical turning point.

Among the many designs we can observe, light-colored backgrounds are the mainstream. Light-colored backgrounds are unlikely to dominate the main subject, making the visual subject more prominent. Nowadays, we gradually find that the background also has the function of supplementing the main subject, and this supplement is subtle. The functionality of the background can actually be strengthened. This idea can be applied in today's APP interface design to make the overall design more balanced.

Most UI designers today understand that incorporating elements into the background can attract users’ attention, enhance product tonality, and improve content readability. This also prompts images, illustrations, color blocks and other elements to play a greater role in the background.

1. Use color to break up the background to create a sense of drama

Split-screen design is not new, it is a design trend that has existed for a long time. On desktop screens, split-screen design has always been effective, and the wide screen gives designers enough space to display, but it is a challenge on mobile devices.

Fortunately, UI designers have found a solution, and contrasting colors are the best way to increase visual appeal.

In this design case by Tubik Studio, the designer uses unevenly distributed color blocks to divide the screen, and uses white background blocks to carry the main content to avoid being disturbed by the background color. The designer makes full use of the confrontation between contrasting colors and the contrast between white and white. The function is perfect, but it is also interesting and beautiful.

2. To create an atmosphere, add auxiliary graphic elements to the background

Although it sounds strange to overlay various graphic elements on the background image, it is indeed a background design method that is gradually becoming popular. However, there is a risk that if too many graphic elements are overlaid, the overall look will be too messy. Try to find a balance between enriching the visual and creating visual pollution. The final design effect can bring you unexpected high-quality results.

Although mobile phones are getting bigger and bigger, screen space is still precious. By overlaying some specific graphic elements, you can create visual depth and give users a sense of space.

Another benefit of this background design is that you can make the entire UI more visually appealing. When designing, it is important to maintain consistency between elements and ensure that different elements remain coordinated when presented on the screen.

3. To maintain the overall feeling, use the whole picture as the background

Using a whole picture as the background has always been a debate among UI/UX designers. Yes, you read that right, this has always been controversial. Some people like to use pictures as the background, while others cannot accept this presentation at all.

But regardless of personal preference, this kind of background application is becoming more and more popular. In the UI interface of the APP, if you can use the full-screen background flexibly and freely, it will definitely be helpful for the subsequent design.

The amount of information presented by the picture is of course unquestionable, but what is more important is how to fit the brand and atmosphere and present the proper aura.

Of course, the core skills are the control of transparency and the design of the content box. In order to avoid insufficient contrast between information and background, a reasonable method is to use a content box to carry the foreground elements. In order to avoid the background image from being too dominant, you can also use the control of transparency to ensure that the background image is smoother and more natural, and will not affect reading and use.

4. If you need to enhance feelings and emotions, use a gradient background

After the gradient color returned a few years ago, it has been used more and more widely in design. Gradient color not only gives the design a stronger personality, but also can generate enough emotional resonance with users.

You can use gradients to create tone, create contrast, and even use gradients as visual clues and guides. For example, when you use blue in the background, you can use the gradient to create directionality and guide users to browse to a specific place.

However, the most important reason why gradient backgrounds are popular is their ability to resonate with emotions. Many UI designers have realized the huge impact of psychological factors on mobile devices, and whether they can awaken users' emotions is the key.

There are many ways to design a gradient background. The size, direction, contrast and brightness of the gradient background will all have different effects. Of course, the gradient background must also follow a principle, that is, it cannot dominate the design. When designing, you can also use the transparency adjustment to reduce the contrast between it and the CTA button.

5. Use illustrations to enhance the story

Illustrators can freely draw illustrations that meet different needs, which are unique, personalized and customized. However, if you want to create illustrations that can represent a company, team, product or user role, you can't create them out of thin air, but need a research process. Through research and analysis, you can propose requirements and then execute them. Is it a robot, or a more realistic character? Or is it more appropriate to use an anthropomorphic image of an animal?

Many designers prefer to use custom illustrations in their apps because they are freer and easier to achieve a variety of goals, from onboarding new users to providing tutorials.

6. Basic but universal, use geometric shapes to build backgrounds

Geometric shapes are very basic elements. Their meaning and feeling are very basic and universal. Although they are simple, they are very powerful in UI design. A single geometric shape is simple, but combined with different effects and different combinations, even simple geometric shapes can bring out a variety of changes.

Of course, how to use geometric shapes specifically depends on what is on your UI interface, how to control the spatial relationship between the geometric shapes as the background and the main elements in the UI, and how to maintain elegance and simplicity to ensure the communication of brand information.

Conclusion

Just like other elements in the UI interface, the background is also worthy of attention and planning. The most important thing is what you want to express, what kind of information you want to convey, and what kind of function you want to achieve with the help of the entire UI interface. Only by planning well can you better present the content.

The reason why background selection has become a focus of UI design trends is largely because the focus of UI and UX design has begun to penetrate deeper into all aspects of design, and people need to consider issues more and more carefully.