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Web Design Trends We Can Expect for 2011

In all areas of activity at year-end assessments are made and new projects for the year ahead are prepared; also this same period or a bit later, at the beginning of the new year, predictions about what will be used for the next period are attempted. An informed person is forearmed so establishing trends for the new year or even attempting to make predictions is not a fad or a waste of time. A web designer will always be concerned about what will happen in the new year, especially because this area is very flexible and what is “hot” today, tomorrow could easily be old-fashioned.

On the other hand a quality layout must pass the test of time, regardless of when it was published, its’ inherent quality will make it stand out. Nonetheless these will often fade when faced with the clients’ request for a web site that is modern and trendy. It is true that very few people who are not involved in Web design are interested in making the difference between what is trend (fleeting) and what is quality (timeless), but a designer must know how to reconcile both camps.

This article aims to provide an overview of 2011 in terms of design evolution. Absolutely no one can give an exact answer and the whole article is just an assumption based on personal experience and opinions of established web designers. My personal opinion is that this article really emphasizes the highlights of the year that has just begun. It would be fantastic to hear your opinions about what 2011 will bring, so please use the comments box for this.

2011 – A year of surprises

The battle between large corporations with online involvements, which is basically everyone, has become quite fierce so in order to become more competitive the most important projects are kept largely secret, nothing more than just teasers are offered to enable speculation and leave the customers expectant. It is true that this usually attracts audiences but the market is becoming increasingly difficult, customers have very high expectations so collaboration is becoming impetuously necessary.

In web design there are many problems that require a common solution (for example in how browsers interpret scripts) and only a major decision can bring about a new surge in layout construction or design in general. Microsoft announces the launch of IE9 and though nothing concrete has been released yet it’s clear that IE decline can not be tolerated by the company, Windows 7 has just appeared and seems to have won the hearts of many users but there are rumors that the new version, Windows 8 will produce a revolution in the whole v-world. Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs seem to always have an ace up their sleeves and it seems that this year will have enough surprises for the users. No doubt this year will see new Apple products that will seem more and more “devices of the Star Trek.” 2011 is a year in which the unknown can play a major role as any surprises may cause important reactions in design.

CSS3 and HTML5

2010 was the year that will be marked in history as the year when CSS3 and HTML5 appeared. So far these new versions have shown only that they will form the basis of new sites in the future, 2011 and future years will really show why CSS3 and HTML5 are regarded as being so very important.

A more than obvious proof of the fact that the site of the future will have its skeleton built with these is the new tags that are inserted specifically for easy construction. “<content>“, “<header>“, “<footer>” are just some of the new tags that will surely bring great benefit to designers.

Another thing that is expected from the new version is achieving a better interaction between website and user, the times when a site was just a source of dry information without any real dialogue are gone. Extreme interactivity creates a community and it seems that this is to be the future of the entire Internet, a global community composed of multiple smaller communities. CSS3 and HTML5 are elements that will need to help more and more the integration of social networks in the design of a site. The current implementation is done well enough but it’s already becoming commonplace, we hope that in 2011 we will have more innovation.

Flash is losing ground though designers acknowledge that it allows an easier transposition of the creativity of a designer in creating a layout. It seems that the dynamism of flash cannot be matched but CSS3 is a very fierce competitor. The result: an increasingly tight competition between designers and more interesting sites for visitors.

Mobile devices

As a site is no longer just an address where you can find the desired information the Internet is not just a global network but has become something all people find at least useful, if not vital. Years past have seen the debut of gadgets that allow access to the Internet, the future will surely be theirs. Everybody is happy as they can stay connected anywhere with their phones, but the work behind a website in this case is enormous. Designers are walking a minefield, until recently the innovative spirit of originality consisted in inserting elements of a layout in a format very well-defined, but today the size of the monitors or screens that the site will be displayed on is hugely varied and this turns into an important unknown in the equation of its construction.

Mobile sites require different sizes and due to the variety of their resolutions and sizes everything becomes relative. A trend that will surely be very strong in 2011 is the sites for mobile devices. Many sites have mobile versions but tablets have become an important segment and designers will surely take them into account. Perhaps a revolution will occur when a site will be displayed in any format on any gadget, let’s hope that 2011 will bring that.

In affirming the identity of a company, corporation or even of a site the variants for desktop, phone and perhaps other devices should have as similar a construction as possible. Mobile sites will surely be more simplistic with poor navigation options which apparently do not favor the official version. As such, although quite present this year, the sites who are built on simplicity, with the idea that less will mean much more in mind, will be very successful and will be appear in increasing numbers.

Browser Wars

Browsers nowadays are very powerful and interesting, but for a web designer the sheer number of browsers is not a plus but a continuous source of problems. Because of the competition between browser producers and lack of cooperation and communication between them, each provides certain specificity in the “rendering” of sites and web designers and developers are the ones who need to harmonize these discrepancies. Certainly this is not a trend in web design but an approximation of browsers would be a very good thing for designers and developers and would bringing substantial improvements at least for the loading time of a site.  Remember, quality passes the test of time whilst a trend is fleeting!

Images used in this article are courtesy of Shutterstock.

Written by CrazyLeaf Editorial

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