It’s important that your web site keeps up with the latest trends. If it doesn’t, your web site may soon look out of step. We’ve compiled a list for both web site owners and web designers of what we consider will be hot topics in 2012.
Social Media sites
It’s no longer just your web site’s relationship with search engines that can be relied upon to generate the most traffic to your site. In fact, your website may not survive if it’s not followed, liked, and tweeted about. Your web site marketing strategy should involve integration with major social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Single Page web sites with sliders
With the use of sliders, web site authors can now pack a lot of information on to one page. Rather than navigating to another web page, the reader can click on a visual symbol to be taken to another item of content with no scrolling required.. A neat little trick for small web sites and very search-engine friendly.
Designing for mobile use
According to the latest data, smart phones will outsell personal computers this year. As a result, your web site should be designed with mobile users in mind. CSS3 permits a smooth transition to smart phone use
CSS3
With most modern browsers now adopting CSS, web designers now have far greater creative freedom than before. CSS font face now enables designers to use any font of their choice. Web designers now have nearly as much freedom as print designers. Other advantages of CSS3 include the ability to handle multiple background images and multiple-column layouts.
HTML 5
HTML 5 mark up language was still being finalised as late as June of this year. The latest version of HTML now enables developers to offer more exiting and interactive websites and more powerful and efficient applications. HTML5 offers benefits when managing data, drawing, video and audio.
Large images and photo backgrounds
Web designers are more frequently designing sites that occupy your entire screen and this is most often achieved with a background image that fills the browser window. These images are also scalable so your site looks good in both larger and smallers screen sizes.
WordPress
WordPress originated as a blogging tool but has since developed a content management system. WordPress allows you to set up your own web site and customise it without really understanding any of its programming features making it ideal for small businesses. It’s now become so popular that you can troubleshoot nearly every problem online and you’re sure to find an answer to your query. WordPress is keeping up with the evolution of the internet adding new features regularly so we think it’s going to be around for some time to come.
Article written and provided by Reactive Graphics – Web design London – established 2003
