Top 5 Web Design Trends of 2012

• Brad Harris
• January 19, 2012
• 4 Comments
• Design, Web Design

Another year has come to an end and 2011’s technological innovations certainly kept web designers and developers on their toes—mobile became the mainstream, new coding techniques skyrocketed creative design potential, and typography climbed to a whole new level of awesome. So what’s the forecast for 2012? I might not have a crystal ball to consult, but I have a few predictions of what I think 2012 has in store for us. Let’s dig in:

Responsive Web Design

As we’re moving into the digital age, end users are tapping into a variety of technologies to view websites on such as tablets, mobile phones, regular monitors and large/widescreen monitors. With responsive web design, one can create flexible and dynamic website layouts that fit the screen of all of these devices at any resolution. It’s a fairly new practice that started to get hot in 2011, but not a lot of designers have started implementing the technique just yet. Considering the continued growth of mobile and tablet use, I expect that in 2012 this particular trend will really take off.

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More Color and Texture Usage

Minimalistic design really had its heyday in the past, but 2011 celebrated greater attention to detail and the use of unique textures to jazz up white space. Stay tuned for 2012 when this approach is likely to explode onto the web design and development scene. I predict dull colour pallets normally seen in “retro/vintage” design will be ditched in favour of attention-grabbing bright colours and rich textures.

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Typography

I know you’re probably thinking “duh”. I must admit, typography is on my list every year, but it’s always a pretty safe bet to include because the variety of web-ready fonts being added every day is mounting and browsers are getting even better at supporting them. It goes without saying that in 2012, this trend is likely to attract even greater popularity in the web design world.

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BIGGER and Better

With monitor sizes taking on Hulk-like proportions, designers are able to create on a larger scale than ever before. 2012 should see greater use of larger elements, including text, photos and icons. We’re starting to see web design that relies more on visual cues than oodles of content, so expect the trend this year to be large photos paired with more concise copy.

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Display Items

Banners, page ribbons, bookmarks or other types of display badges are going to be a top trend for 2012—guaranteed! These items are often used for mobile app and blogging websites, and since tons of free resources are now available on the web, there’s no doubt they’ll be sticking around in 2012.

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What kind of predictions are you making for 2012? What would you like to see? We’d love to hear your ideas!