2012 saw the mass implementation of a number of new ideas in Web Design. As we near the end of the first half of the current year, let us take a look into 6 promising web design trends that carry promise of growth by 2014.
One major factor affecting the outcome of web design quests this year tends to be the onslaught of high end devices with powerful browsers. Another noteworthy factor is the growth of social media across all platforms which has in many ways opened up multiple doors for designs focused on user-experience(UX).
1. Responsive Web Design : Responsive Web Design is the way to go when designing for multi-browser and multi-resolution based web pages. A single page that offers the same content on different devices without altering the content delivered is the idea behind responsive web design. Not to forget the SEO benefits of such designs as they completely remove content duplication possibilities.
2. User Experience Design or UX : A good design should always focus on improving on user experience without compromising on features. This is of utmost importance when designing for mobile devices.
3. The death of Flash : After years of working on Flash based designs, most of the web design sector has moved on to HTML5. Lets hope the remaining few decide to take the same step by 2014.
4. APIs and Open Source : The entire web has been hanging out with open source software ever since the beginning. As the community moves towards web design via webpage widgets, layouts, and dynamic effects, opening doors(and windows) to virtually anyone seeking cost-effective solutions.
5. Social Media : By far and large, marketing tends to be the key element behind the success or failure of a website. And any online marketing effort is incomplete with social media. The implementation and integration of social media elements into webpages may not be new, but it is an area with endless possibilities of growth.
6. Full screen Typography and Photo Backgrounds : Content and design form the two most important elements of a web page. The mixture of rich text effects using CSS3 properties combined with the proper implementation of full screen photo backgrounds tends to be a sector which has a lot of potential. Hopefully by 2014, we will get to see more interesting designs based on the two.
