Design trends seem to be sweeping across all areas of design right now. Whether it’s digital design influencing or fashion design influencing interior design, there is certainly a big crossover between the different fields of design, with each taking inspiration from the other.   One of the biggest crossovers we are seeing right now is between digital design and interior design. It’s unclear which is having the biggest influence over the other, but we are definitely seeing trends emerging across the two design disciplines that show the influence they are having on each other.   Whilst there is no doubt that digital designers are taking inspiration from the world around them – the homes they visit, the coffee shops they frequent and the places they work, given the amount of time every Australian is spending online right now, it seems more likely that digital design is having the bigger impact on interior design.

The rise of internet browsing

According to ABC News, Australians are big users of the web, spending on average nearly seven hours each day on phones, tablets, and computers. The research carried out in 2018 shows that sites like Reddit, Facebook, eBay and Tumblr all rank in the top ten when it comes to the sites where Australians spend most of their time. The top 50 sites, however, is made up of a diverse range of websites and it is the design and layout of these websites that are having an impact on the way we design the interior of our homes.

How is digital design influencing interior design?

Whilst the overall design of something – the end product – is the thing that we see, the process for how designers get to that end product is also something that digital and interior design has in common.   If we think back a decade or even 20 years, website designs were cluttered and full of bright colours, different fonts and an assortment of images. Jump forward to 2022, and we now see that the best websites tend to be clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate.   In much the same way, interior design trends are leaning towards an uncluttered look, with clean lines and colours that make the transition from one room to another – much like the transition from one webpage to another – a seamless one.   One of the first things that a digital designer will do with a new website is look to “clean house” and remove all the unnecessary noise from the site that detracts from the main goal of the website – to convert the user into a paying customer. The first steps of creating an uncluttered interior design are much the same – remove the unwanted furnishings that add “noise” to the design and create a clean space from which to work.   This “clean design” approach is one that is being taken in homes throughout Australia and it’s not just inside the house where we are seeing this approach, but outside too. Gardens and backyards are becoming valuable spaces and instead of treating them like a storage space for things that won’t fit in the house, designers are also considering the layout of gardens and yards when they are looking at the overall design of a house.

Making an impact in a crowded space

Whilst clean lines and less “noise” certainly help to create a user experience that is easy to navigate, it’s also important to stand out both online and in the real world.   As the Australian housing market continues to grow in strength, homeowners looking to sell are turning to interior design in order to help their homes stand out from the crowd. According to The Guardian, overall housing finance in Australia in December was 31% above where it was 12 months ago, “suggesting house prices around the country are set to rise faster than they have any time in the past decade”. This has prompted homeowners to turn to interior design in a bid to help their home stand out from the rest in what looks to be one of the busiest years for housing sales in recent times. In a similar way, website designers are constantly looking for ways to make their website stand out from the crowd. When you consider the amount of online content consumed throughout Australia every single day, it’s not easy to create a design that is both memorable and one that leads to a conversion. There are some industries that are doing it well. Websites like Betway Casino tend to stick to intuitive designs, often with a bright font colour on a dark background. Vibrancy and design come through the range of online slots and table games that can easily and regularly be updated by the casino platform. Games like Starburst, Cleopatra, and Thunderstruck II demonstrate that flexibility – each has its own unique theme and colours, and the platform’s colour scheme helps this to stand out. TV streaming platforms are another great example of this approach. Think of leading streaming sites in Australia including Netflix and Stan and the things they have in common – clean lines, dark colours, bold branding and easy navigation. All of this is made possible through digital design and whilst interior designers may not go down the route of black walls and red features like Netflix, the principles are the same, no matter the colours a designer uses.

Summary

Great design today – either digital or interior – comes from an understanding of the need to deliver an outstanding user experience. Whilst we may not talk about user experience in relation to interior design, the way a home feels, the places we keep our things and the way we can relax are all the equivalent of “user experience” metrics in the online world. Digital designers want their visitors to feel comfortable on the site and have the freedom to browse, enabling them to do the things they need to do easily and without fuss. The crossover between the two disciplines is quite remarkable and is something that we expect to see more and more of as people spend even more of their time online.