Every year, website design moves on leaps and bounds which although might be extremely annoying to a business owner that is constantly shelling out cash for website improvements, is extremely exciting for those internet marketing folk out there. Each year, we see a host of new trends in website design and whilst some of them will be long-lasting, others will die out before the year ends.
Despite this, it is important for anyone in the website design or internet marketing industries to be aware of these trends and what their clients might want in the year 2013.
Here are a few of the website design trends expected next year:
#1 – Responsiveness
Responsive website design looks great on all devices, regardless of screen size/resolution.
This is perhaps going to be the biggest website design trend of 2013 and most likely, perhaps years after that too. In fact, I personally predict that within just a couple of years, almost all websites will be responsive in their design as more and more devices with different screen sizes and resolutions are created.
What is responsive design? Well, it’s basically a way of designing a website so that it conforms to any screen size. Let’s say that you’re looking at a website on a large monitor, a website with a responsive design will look great and it will look equally as great on an iPhone or iPad device. Responsive design eliminates the need for a separate mobile website and therefore will save business owners a hefty sum of money if they think ahead.
In 2013, it is likely that most new websites will be responsive in nature (so long as they’re designed by a reputable website design company).
#2 – More Video Content
You might not think this is really a website design trend but in a way, it is. Videos are extremely popular online and are likely to be more years to come. In 2013, more companies are expected to use video content in their website designs. A lot of companies are expected to start implementing video content on their landing pages as well as a range of other website pages.
Over the last few years, broadband speeds have become a lot faster around the world which had led to video content being more readily available for people around the world. Now, companies finally have the opportunity to use the power of video to increase website sales and to inform the increasingly lazy web surfing population about their businesses.
Gone are the days where pages of text would rule a website. This will now be replaced by engaging, shareable video content that will make an impact on visitors.
#3 – Parallax Scrolling
Parallax scrolling on iutopi.com.
I know what you’re thinking; what the hell does Parallax scrolling mean? Well, I’ll explain. In its most basic terms, parallax scrolling is simply a style of website design in which the elements of a site scroll in different ways in order to make the website to appear to have a 3D movement to it.
Parallax scrolling creates and impact with visitors and helps capture their attention. It is also likely that vertical scrolling will replace horizontal scrolling on a lot of websites as this is more suited to the range of devices that are being released right now. Tablet PC’s and Smartphone devices work in different ways to a desktop computer and with such a large percentage of the population now owning these devices, vertical scrolling makes websites more usable on all devices.
Modern users of the internet are looking for the most user friendly website that offers the information in a simple and classy way. Not complex architectures where information is inconsistent across devices and hard to find.
#4 – Bigger Website Buttons
As previously mentioned, web users are increasingly looking for websites that offer a simple means of navigation and that don’t overcomplicate things. One of the things that will go some of the way to achieving this is bigger website buttons. Often, menu systems are small and complicated but in 2013, it is thought that large website buttons will replace these confusing designs.
One example of this in action is the recent Windows 8 operating system. This OS uses a tile based interface that allows for quick and simple navigation around various programs. It is likely that this is something we will see more of in 2013 as users demand simple websites.
#5 – Typography Designs
An example of a typography design.
All websites use typography of some kind but usually, the typography used is pretty much the same across a range of websites. As branding becomes more and more important to companies, it is likely that they will create typographies of their own that can be used on their website to show off their brand.
This is something that is already being used by some of the major brands out there but in 2013, it is expected that this trend will further take off. These days, images and videos are used on websites and typography is often used in logos and other marketing materials but rarely is a custom typography used in the actual text on a website.
Typography design is a very existing trend and will no doubt lead to a lot of more creative, visually appealing websites being created.
