This year's strongest sites share a few traits: bold, confident typography; motion that's used sparingly and with intent; and a noticeable pullback from framework-heavy builds in favor of fast, simple markup.
Performance has become a design constraint, not just an engineering one. Sites that load quickly and respond instantly to input are outperforming visually heavier competitors, even when the heavier site looks more impressive in a still screenshot.
The practical lesson for anyone briefing a new site: ask for performance budgets up front, and treat them with the same seriousness as the visual brief.
