It's apparent that year 2011 is not about beauty, it's about function. The trends for this year and the emerging decade are intuitive design, constant connection and virtual reality.
There's a fine line between design and development as we move into this decade, and this line is becoming more blurry. It's not enough to draw beautiful mock ups in Photoshop anymore. These days, the average internet user requires even more.
All beauty, with no substance, gets boring after a while. If your only goal is to impress a community of fellow designers with your flashy designs, you will find yourself trudging beneath the tide.
In order to be relevant, a supreme designer should be able to create an environment which charms and captivates the user to the point where he does not want to find the 'Back' button. Any designer can get 'oohs' and 'ahhs' that are easily forgotten. But the ultimate goal of a designer is not to dazzle but to entangle.
Several elements come together to forge such a wonderland: harmonious color scheme, intuitive design, easily accessible information and fast response. Moreover, one can never underestimate the power of simplicity as this has always been the case. You are also no longer at the forgiving discretion of the desktop, or even laptop, computer. The design must contend with smart phones, netbooks, tablets and the like.
Smudge some more awareness than you have, as here are the web design trends fin 2011.
Integrating CSS3 + HTML5
What a gratifying sigh of relief! CSS3 and HTML5 have been on the distant horizon of web design for the past couple of years, but now, in 2011, we've seen an explosion of it. Designers are finally starting to let go of Flash. However you may feel about Flash, you do know that it does not play well with some of the hot, new technology available to your current and potential visitors. In 2011, you will slowly step away from Flash and embrace the magic known as HTML5.
Flash and HTML5 are not equal opponents. There is plenty of room for both in 2011. The problem is that designers in 2010 (and before) misused Flash. Case in point, very rarely should your entire site be made of Flash, especially these days. HTML5 alleviates some of the burden we have placed on Flash. However, HTML5 cannot (yet) replace the extraordinary design elements we can achieve through Flash.
Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that CSS3 is available to us in a real way this year. Move over Photoshop because CSS3 is making short work of text shadow, border radius and image transparency. If you have not already begun, now is the time to really delve into understanding CSS3 and HTML5.
Full Photographic Backgrounds
Large scale backdrops will surge in 2011. These images will be high resolution, and covering the entire site. Large photos are an instant way to grab your audience - they cannot help but to see it and have an opinion about it. The background photo must be content-appropriate. Simply having a pretty image in the background without any context will disrupt your user's experience. Trends point to soft and slightly transparent imagery that does not overshadow your content, but harmonizes with it.
Simple Color Schemes
Simplicity. There's nothing quite as impacting as an honest message on a quiet backdrop. Quiet can be interpreted several different ways. Forget black and white or shades of gray. Think of green, yellow or even red as your primary color. However, limit your palette to two or three colors. Work within the shades of each color for variety. It can be truly remarkable what a few colors can do for your message.
Mobile Compatibility
Smartphones, iPads, netbooks, oh my! There's a dizzying amount of mobile products available to the consumer in 2011. This means your web design must be responsive to multiple viewports.
Creating a mobile-ready website is not simply removing the bells and whistles from your design. This can create a vacant and impersonal design. Although not impossible, distilling the magic from your original design into a pure representation of your brand is tough.Fortunately, technology is quickly removing this burden.
With the help of CSS3, primarily media queries, mobile web design has taken a big leap forward. One of the most important advances is that you can design a whole site and allow your coding to conform to the user's viewing medium.
It may be tempting to just create a dedicated mobile site, but that may no longer satisfy your audience. Increasingly, mobile sites include the option to visit the original site. If you do not offer this option or if your original site is not optimized to mobile standards, you are simply not living in 2011. Forecasters predict that smartphones will outsell personal computers this year. Bulletproof your design to meet this demand.
Depth Perception in Web Design
No, we are not dealing with the aerial 'I can see your coffee cup and keyboard on your website' design of two years ago. Depth perception is about creating dimension in your web design, so that parts of your site looks nearer than others. It conjures a faux 3D effect when done masterfully. Remember what it felt like watching the blockbuster 3D movie, Avatar? The elements jumped off of the screen, quite literally.
Although 3D technology has no yet made it to web design, you can still replicate depth in your design.
Parallax Scrolling
This is not just for old school video games. As aforementioned, the hot web design trend in 2011 is creating a sense of depth. What better way to create that than with parallax scrolling?
The parallax effect uses layers to present the illusion of a 3-dimensional space. It can be accomplished with some simple CSS tricks or the help of jQuery plugins like Spritely. Parallax scrolling can be most effective as a secondary element on your design, for example, as a header, footer, or background. Making it an integral part of your navigation however may prove frustrating for your site visitor.
Designing for Touch Screens
Technology has become much more tactile. Usability is shifting from abstract to tangible. This means that instead of navigating your mouse to remotely connect, your destination is literally at your fingertips. Tablets, most smartphones and some desktops use touchscreens. Does your design accommodate fingertip navigation?
How much of your design is mouse-oriented? As designers, we worship mice. Our links light up when the mouse hovers over. However, there's no hovering in touchscreen. How will your design indicate links to your visitors? What about drop-down menus? That's also a no-go in touchscreen design.
Similarly, how will visitors peruse your site? As controversial as it may be for standard web browsing, horizontal scrolling may be more appropriate for touchscreens. Fitting nicely into this niche is a magazine-like layout where visitors virtually flip through your site.
Lastly, consider using liquid layouts as part of your commitment toward responsive design. In 2011, you are no longer dealing with screen resolution size. Visitors can change their viewing orientation from vertical to horizontal. Your design must be flexible to meet any challenge.
Creative Domain Names & Integration
Although not in the strictest sense a web design issue, we've been alot more creative domain names. The once-coveted ".com" domain has lost a lot of its appeal - primarily because you have to think up words in Na'Vi in order to find a domain that has not been thought up yet. This year we've seen a more wide-spread venture away from ".com" and into more whimsical domains like ".me" or ".us". Think of the possibilities and scoop it up as there's no constant limit to creativity.
Quick Response Codes
If you have noticed those square barcodes popping on business cards, magazines or else where, you may already know that they are a hot trend in 2011. How exactly does QR Codes translate into web design? Amazingly well, in fact.
The barcodes are called QR, short for Quick Response. Simply take a photo of the unique barcode with your camera phone. Like magic, your phone will call up the website associated with said barcode. The beautiful thing about QR is that you can use it in a myriad of ways. Feature your QR on your website, in order for site visitors to have a shortcut to your mobile site. You can also track your visitors through QR, by placing a special referral code on your URL. When you are leaving comments on websites, use the QR as your avatar.
2011 is all about mobility and it will be smart to take advantage of this new medium.
Thumbnail Design
The ever-enterprising folks at Google have introduced the average user to thumbnail browsing. Gone are the days of clicking through to see the content of a website. These days, you just click on the magnifying glass and hover (assuming you're not on a touchscreen). Magically before you is a glimpse of what waits on the other side of your click.
If your design is Flash-based, that is definitely going to be a problem. The preview will not display those elements of your design.
As the average internet user becomes more surfing-savvy in 2011, more people are navigating by these means. It is just too great of a temptation not to judge a site by its thumbnail.
Constant Connection & Life Stream
Last, but certainly not least, is the focus on constant connection in web design. The internet is, by nature, a sterile environment, and we make it human by sharing our lives in an open forum. We have seen more intimacy through the form of lifestreaming.
Personal blogs and portfolios in 2011 have prominently feature live Twitter feeds (not just a link to the Twitter page). People lets you know where they are at any moment of the day via Facebook. In fact, there were some dedicated lifestream for all of one's online activity, which is a good way to keep in touch and establish authority in your niche.
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