Website Designer Trends In 2011

By Author: Grace Alexa
Total Articles: 119
Comment this article

As the New Year approaches, everyone has their own set of predictions, including predictions for website designers in the coming year. As always, web designers are looking for old stuff that can be packed away, part of the learning from the past year that doesn't have to be carried forward and implemented into the New Year as things have change. As always, designers are looking for new ways to help their clients engage their target audience in useful and memorable ways.

Nearly all website designers will be asked to implement a number of newer design techniques that are currently inspiring people and making websites more visually appealing, including the following:

1)Single page layouts. These will prove a challenge to every web designer as it intends to carve away everything that is unnecessary without eliminating the useful bits. Single page layouts move away from quirky and awkward navigation to move toward a minimal approach. Similar to a business card, a single page layout becomes a one-stop-shop and lets the website designer narrow and targets their focus. It also lets the users quickly see all that is available ...
... on a website in just a few quick seconds. Once they click and launch into any of the objects they are interested in, they enter a more standard-looking design.

2)Really big images and oversized logos and headers are a new effort in branding for websites. These huge images are intended to draw visitors into the site and designers may find themselves enjoying the use of these big statements in their website designs simply for their ability to instantly convey the site's message. It's also a great technique for adding depth to your website pages, which leads us into the next trend.

3)Shifts in perspective will also challenge the average designer, and in the coming year website designers will see more requests for depth and perspective in their website designs. This means that users want to see websites that aren't displaying the typical flat design we've seen in the past. Think about your foreground and background options when you are designing your newest websites.

4)Changes in typography and typefaces, including slab typefaces which are bold and imposing and use all capital letters. Website designers can uses these traditional media typefaces in combination with larger headers and images in ways that demand the viewer sit up and take notice. Of course, getting the user to sit up and take notice is always what web designers want to accomplish and this is a great new technique.

5)Lastly, magazine layouts will challenge website designers as traditional media and press deliveries fade away into online entertainment. In traditional media, where information and images are carefully organized into a single page is familiar to viewers and it gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling of comfort as they review the material. Magazine layouts have become hugely popular for blogs, but are now becoming familiar layouts for corporate sites, and more.

If you notice a common thread in through these techniques, it's probably a return to the old, so to speak. As traditional viewers are faced with any number of new technology outlets including smart phones, the iPad, and electronic readers, many in the web designer community are finding that a return to retro designs is a great way to re-orient, inspire and engage their viewers. These retro designs are giving viewers the feeling that they remember the website design, which often works well for bringing users back into the website.

Grace is an associate editor to the website www.sigmainfotech.com.au. Sigma InfoTech is a firm, Website design Sydney Australia for small and medium business, specializing in Graphic design, Application Development and Web Development.