Posted by Pragmatic Design on 2 January 2012 | 3 Comments

Tags: Web design, business

As another year starts, we look at 5 up-and-coming website design trends which we think you'll be seeing more of through 2012.

1. Mobile-optimised websites

The explosion of customers using mobile devices to access the web went supernova in 2011, and there's no sign the growth slowing down. A “responsive” website will adjust its layout for the smaller screen of an iPhone, and again for the medium-sized screen of the iPad.

But it's about more than just shuffling content into narrower columns- if you're serious about selling online then your website must cater for fingers as well as pointers. If your business doesn't cater for the massive mobile market then you could miss out on valuable sales in 2012.

2. More animation, less Flash

The code that powers web pages continues to evolve, and as the latest version (HTML 5- together with CSS3 and jQuery) becomes more widely adopted, we expect to see more animated effects creeping into websites through 2012.

Of course animated websites have been around for many years thanks to Flash, but we're expecting to see much more subtle animation than gaudy intro-screens that do nothing but hinder SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and frustrate users.

3. Bye-bye rectangles

Take a look at almost any website, and you'll probably see that everything is rectangular- images, blocks of text, headers... We won't go into the boring technical reasons for this, but the advances in website code will liberate the web designer from the set square.

4. Bigger, bolder, simpler

Huge headers, enormous images, bold colours and a simple, uncluttered path to the end goal (an enquiry or sale) will form the basis of many websites in 2012. The days of huge, text-heavy, corporate mega-sites are coming to an end and being replaced with smaller sites for a specific purpose.

5. Fonts

Typography has finally found its way to the web! A typeface isn't just a font- it can be an art form in its own right; it can convey the corporate values you've worked so hard to achieve; and offers your website that final bit of polish.