All throughout 2013 there has been an enormous surge in new web design trends. In this article I would like to delve into 5 design trends for the 2013 year.
The design influence is merely a reflection of our culture and expectations for users. Ideally these trends represent favorable ideas in the web design community. However designers will always have their own opinions when it comes to design terms, so take these ideas with a grain of salt.
1. Mobile Website Design
It is said that by 2015 there will be one mobile device for every person on earth and online mobile use is predicted to overcome desktop use. A proper mobile website design allows you to take advantage of unclaimed market territory or connecting with clients, personnel and consumers on the go in a way that is simple, convenient, and personal.
- 75% of customers prefer a mobile friendly site (Google, 2012)
- 70% of mobile searchers act within an hour; only 30% of PC searchers do (Mobile Marketer 2012)
- One third of mobile searches on Google are for local businesses and services (Diana Pouliot, Director of Mobile Advertising, Google)
- 61% of customers who visit a mobile unfriendly site are likely to go to a competitor’s site (Karim Temsamani at IABALM 2012 via IAB)
- 58% of mobile users expect mobile sites to load as quickly as or faster than desktop sites (Google 2012)
- Mobile accounts for 23% of web traffic. This is a 90% increase on 12 months previous (12.6%) and over 8 times higher than 24 months previous (2.7%) – Walker Sands (January 2013)
2. Large Photo Backgrounds
Photographers and fans of photography will enjoy this design trend. I have seen countless showcases discussing the ideas of big over-sized photography in the background. It’s an excellent way to capture your visitor’s attention and it can look great when done properly.
I am often fond of big photographs since they can be pleasing on the eyes. When blended into your layout, this design technique can give your website a major edge in marketing.
3. Social Media Sharing
Marketing is one of the ultimate determining factors in a website’s success or failure. Social media and viral marketing have exploded in many different websites. Digg used to reign popular in this domain but has since conceded to rivals like Reddit. But these are not the only two popular resources for sharing stories online.
You can check practically any social community for sharing badges and will likely find a great solution. You can position these badges pinned to blog posts and articles anywhere in your layout. These are still used actively by readers and fans who want to share content quickly on places like Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn.
4. Infinite Scrolling
Infinite scroll loading has been around for at least a few years. But this technique hadn’t really hit mainstream until this year and I’m sure it will continue into 2014 and beyond.
Pinterest has adopted this loading technique for their layout and it works beautifully. You can search anything and the results page will continually load as you scroll down. Pagination is basically a non-issue and doesn’t even work as a detriment into the user experience. Talk about designing for simplicity!
This is an excellent technique which does not work on every layout, but for the right websites this can look and behave phenomenally.
5. Fixed Header Bars
Using the CSS position:fixed; property is a great way to staple a header bar onto your website. As visitors scroll down your page this will offer constant support for navigation and a trip back to the home page. This trend has been around for a while but now we are seeing this in full force.
Fixed headers are so interesting because they can work on practically any website. This includes social networks, blogs, and even design studios or private companies. The design is very trendy and looks great paired with most layouts. But aside from the aesthetics, this bar also provides an exceptional user experience without needing to look very far to navigate the website.
