New Trends!!!

Let's see, what's leading to the new trend here in 2011 as far as trending goes, ay. Theres a couple of topics that I've seen coming around, a lot of it is all new to 2011. I was skimming through an article from WDL (web design ledger) and came across what web design trends there are in 2011.

1. CSS3 & HTML5

CSS3 & HTML5 has been coming up in the web developing field for quite some time now, in 2011, it's almost taking over all of the web coding. There's less flash being integrating within websites now, which is always a good thing as far as compatibility and accessibility. The nitsy bitsy things that you see one some of these websites are now being integrating within the style sheet and the actual code. We all tend to love the capabilities with flash, but let's translate some of that compatibility with HTML5.

2. Simplified Color Schemes

"Simplify Everything", as said by Rich Silverstein from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. You're starting to see more defining color schemes coming across the web, shades of green, yellow, and red. I come from the Print industry, and notably seeing these schemes being pulled off on a web based mode is truly exciting. 2011 is showing less blacks, whites and shades of gray, and alternatively going with eye catching color schemes. It's a nice thing to see, most of your generic mainstream web designs are, plain, black and white. This is nice.

3. Being Mobily Connected

It's all about being mobile nowadays. Everyone and their mother has smartphones, ipads, tablets, netbooks. With CSS3, you can take mobile web design to new level, that will succeed against, most of the people you studied designing with. There's so many dedicated mobile sites that capture a vary wide audience, but it's not going to capture the whole audience. Although, It's highly thought that if you dont have an optimized web site that is mobile ready, then you're just not up to date, in 2011.

4. Parallax Scrolling

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5. Design ability for touchscreen devices, not your standard, "mice"

While, were already in the 3rd quarter of 2011, technology has become more innovative. You literally use your fingers with these amazing tablets, smartphones, touchscreens. Do you design so it's accessible to fingertip navigation?

Do you use hover actions? How about Drop down menus? Not compatible with your touchscreen devices. Even liquid styled layouts should be considered as part of your responsive developing design.

6. Depth Perception

Dimension. Parts of your website should be designed to look nearer than others, it creates a faux 3d effect, when done correct. You can literally see the elements just jump off of the screen, almost literally. 3D elements are crisp and simple, which what makes them so darn stunning.

7. Large Photo Backgrounds

As we've seen happening in 2011, large scale backdrops. Full Hi-Res images, just covering the entire site. I''ve once designed a site based on stock photos, There was a ginormous image of an older man covering his eyes, justified to the left with the text justified to the right. It captured the audience, it felt as though there was harmony that was flowing with the connection you had with the site, all with a large scale backdrop. Predominately, using a large scale photo, you can design with color schemes based on your image, which create an exhilarating feeling when it comes to continuity.

8. Whimsical Domains.

Not live, but how would you feel about a domain name as ... www.(your actual name).me

Pretty cool huh?

9. QR codes

I've been noticing this, not only online but also in the print industry. It's showing up on business cards, magazines, websites.

These barcodes are call QR, shorthand for Quick Response. It's the same concept as a barcode at a grocery store, you scan it and you receive some information that the sales clerk shows on her screen that you just paid $50 some odd bucks for bread. Sometimes those barcodes can be a little quirky. But these QR codes are amazing, they're free, they're fun! You can get them to specify a note, a phone number, a web address. As long as you have a device, smartphone usually, to scan it with your fancy shmancy app. You can have your audience translate that barcode to go to a website, to call a number, to show a note. Psshh, I've had personal QR codes on websites, business cards, flyers, a vinyl on my car.

Don't judge me.

That's a quick sum up of what's been happening until now, the 3rd quarter of 2011.