With new technologies in web design appearing every year, it is more important than ever for web designers to keep in touch with the latest trends and jump on the bandwagon lest they be left behind with the dinosaurs of the industry. Thanks to constantly increasing Internet speeds and new and improved technologies, web designers also have more opportunity to unleash their creativity. Web designers should no longer feel the need to provide standard designs which offer little that’s unique and memorable.
Over the next year, we will very likely see an abundance of new trends in web design. A lot of this is also due to the fact that there are more ways of connecting to the Internet than there ever has been. Gone are the days where Internet browsing was restricted to computers. Today, many people get online with tablet computers, ultra-portable netbook computers and iPhones as well as other mobile browsing devices. To reach the largest audience possible, web designers are going to need to expand their outlook and start getting involved in new areas. Following are some of the most significant trends that we can expect to see over the next year.
Touch-Screen Browsing
Touch-screen browsing is nothing new, but it’s about to get a whole lot more widespread. Touch-screen browsing is no longer going to be restricted to mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones.
Touch-screen monitors for desktop computers and laptops are already starting to make an appearance. In 2012, Windows 8 will also be upon us. Windows 8 introduces a whole new interface style inspired by the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 operating system as well as other mobile operating systems. Although most desktop users will continue to use a keyboard and mouse for some time, touch-screen input is inevitably going to take over. Internet Explorer 10, which will be shipped with Windows 8, will use the new “Metro” interface for full-screen browsing optimized for touch-screen input as well as keyboard and mouse input.
Many websites are already being optimized for touch-screen usage and web developers will want to get involved if they don’t want to get left behind.
Typography
It wasn’t so long ago that web designers were, for the most part, restricted to using only a few different fonts and standard, repetitive designs were the norm. For many years, this has made the majority of websites look rather similar in their appearance in many respects. The typography trend is one which has been growing over the past couple of years and there’s little chance of this changing in 2012 with the increasing popularity of dynamic fonts and font replacement technologies.
High-Definition Media
More and more people are connecting to the Internet with ultra-fast broadband connections. This has given rise to a demand for higher-quality content such as high-definition video and large, quality images and other graphics. With compression, rendering and optimization better than ever before, there’s no excuse for using low-quality, blurry images in a website.
High-definition media is already becoming standard and, to leave a good impression on their visitors, web designers need to keep up with the times. With this being said, it’s also still important to consider the large number of web users who still access the Internet through slower connections. Any site which is particularly graphically-intensive should also have a low-bandwidth version to accommodate as many surfers as possible.
