Happy New Year!
Things were exciting in the website design world last year. Things look just as exciting in 2013 and if you’re in the market for a new website this year you’ve come to the right place.
We’re going to look at some of the biggest website design trends for 2013 from the experts themselves.
These are things the best folks in the business are planning on doing for clients in the coming months. You’ll want to pay attention, but still look for ways to make yourself different. There are lots of exciting things to look at so let’s beging.
1. Responsive Design
It’s been a busy year at Sarah Lynn Design. The company has been releasing client websites that use responsive techniques.
As more people browse the Web on mobile devices it’s becoming important to provide a consistent and enjoyable experience. Responsive design allows your website to adjust to the device the person is using.
For the business owner this is great because there is only one website to maintain. For the visitor it’s great because they can get an equally enjoyable experience on the desktop version of the site as well as on the tablet and mobile versions.
It’s important to note that you should aim to include all or as many elements as possible on all versions of the site.
2. Interactive Design
Flash was the original interactive design and it had its place, but kind of fell out of fashion.
The New York Times recently did something different with its Snow Fall article.
How awesome is that?
Newspapers need to try different experiences to cater to those using different devices to browse the Web. Other websites can use techniques like this where it makes sense. Images and video are becoming an even larger part of the Web experience and when it makes sense you can use interactive design to stand out from the competition.
3. Suggested Search
This was an interesting suggestion from Smashing Magazine. The idea comes with the realization that overall ecommerce design is changing for the mobile experience. The entire article is great, but the suggested search is important.
Mobile users don’t have time to type entire keywords and phrases into their phones. By programming and designing suggested searches you can save them time and even push them toward certain items if you wish.
4. SEO Is Not Enough Anymore
Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz does annual predictions and this is one for 2013. I almost went with the trend on Google Analytics, but I think the SEO/Inbound Marketing trend is more important for business owners and managers.
There is still a lot of focus on SEO and that’s fine. The concept of SEO, though, still seems to be found in the short-term strategy area with business owners. In the next year that hopefully will continue changing into inbound marketing.
It’s just a change in words, but inbound marketing means doing everything you can do get people to come to your website. This includes blogging, using social media, building email lists, etc.
You want your site to be SEO-friendly in design and function, but it’s not enough anymore. To get search traffic, social traffic and other sources of traffic you need more and that includes content like blog posts, videos, etc.
5. Landing Pages
There seems to be a growing trend of landing pages. Here is one mention on Onextrapixel. I’m seeing this a lot in the web services world. An example would be Copyblogger. They sell a few different services and for each they expertly use landing pages to get conversions.
The focus on landing pages is to have razor sharp focus. There are very few calls to action, but plenty of information aimed at convincing a visitor to make a purchase or to sign up for something.
Conclusion
It’s an exciting time to be working on a new website design. If you’re in the middle of the process or are just starting consider these items. Some may apply to your business so be sure you’re ready for the changes coming in the New Year.
Did we miss anything?
Share your own thoughts in the comments.
