Top 5 web design trends of 2013

Top 5 web design trends of 2013

Things move fast in web design! 2013 will see more new trends emerge all seem to be gathering pace…

1. Responsive Design

You might have seen us banging on about this in previous posts but it’s big business this year as we all seek to accommodate the huge range of different display sizes.  It’s a big task and you will normally need a complete redesign to achieve a fully responsive design.  Find out more about our thoughts here >> 

2. Full Screen Backgrounds

A nice way to ensure you captivate your audience is to fill their browser window with interesting imagery which sums up what you are all about. Screen sizes are getting bigger and avoiding too much white space is easily fixed by a large background image which can give your website a nice look and feel without causing too many issues with download speed.

3. Simplicity

People like simplicity and it is increasingly popular when we talk to clients.  If you can get the balance right, a nice simple design will maximise your chances of converting visitors into customers.  Beware! it is all about balance – too simple doesn’t work either!

4. Sidebars

Popularised by Facebook, the simple sidebar is getting a revival this year with loads of new designs incorporating a left sided sidebar navigation system, leaving the majority of the screen available to impress.  Often it is animated with some nice hide/show functionality.

  

5. Retina Support

Apple are leading the way with retina graphics.

Their new MacBook range and the 3rd/4th gen iPad’s come with retina screens which essentially work at twice the resolution of normal displays, creating a really clear and crisp visual experience.

The problem for web designers is that it messes with a long established method for producing web graphics.  To get it right you need to create 2 different versions of each graphic element which can load should a retina display be identified.  It increases load times but it does look great.

Vector graphics can be used for icons and other suitable graphics to save time.  This year will see more Apple products launched with retina displays and undoubtably other manufacturers will be joining the party in 2013.See Retina.js website for a cool script - we use it!