subject: 5 Web Design Trends That Are Making An Impact In 2012 [print this page] Your website is the face of your company on the Internet and having an outdated website will do more than drive away traffic, it will drive away business. Users are less inclined to spend time on websites that are not following the latest trends. Keeping your website fresh and up to date is not as daunting as it seems. 2012 has brought with it some exciting changes to the way we think about web design.
Compatibility with smartphones and tablets is more important than ever before. Users are accessing all sorts of websites using iPhones, Android Tablets and more. Your website must look and function great on a smaller screen and a different platform. Utilizing the touch screen technology and creating applications or mobile sites is essential in keeping users interested. Do not burden your site with images or videos that take a long time to load and try to avoid Flash, especially in the creation of all new content. You want a simple site that loads quickly, is easy ato use and looks professional.
Connect your website directly to social media sites. Like most business these days you probably have a Twitter or Facebook account, but are you getting the most out of it? Your customers can do all of your marketing work for you if you provide users the opportunity to share your content and website with their friends. Give your customers reasons to share or even offer special incentives if they post about your product or service. All of this sounds great, but without a direct connection between your social media presence and your website, you will lose business along the way.
The use of fixed navigation will keep your users on track and moving around your website with ease. Impatient and hyperactive users tend to click all around the webpage and get lost in never-ending cycles of links to other pages within your site. Fixed navigation will help users focus on what is most important about your business. To implement fixed navigation, the logo and left and/or top navigation tabs are constant in place regardless of where the user scrolls or clicks on the page.
Users have spoken and multi-column menus are the preferred type of navigation menu. Much debate has gone on as web design techniques developed, but the value of seeing all of the headings in one menu outweighs the occasional burdensome, packed menu. The reason is that with a multi-column menu, a user can navigate through the website without technically clicking anywhere. It is a way to preview all the material before committing to clicking on specific content. If you have a lot of subcategories and specific web pages, the multi-column menu may pose a challenge, but should be used as often as possible.
Incorporate HTML5 and CSS3 into your coding. Be a part of the next wave of coding when you make the switch to the newly developed codes of HTML5 and CSS3. The beauty of this new trend is that you can have complex animations and pull out all the stops of a flashy website without writing endless lines of code that slow down your website. There are some additional features that HTML5 and CSS3 makes simple such as rounded corners, using multiple background images, and creating box and text shadows to name a few.
These five trends are the most important ones to consider in 2012 as proceed with your web design, but you can research additional, more minute trends to really get the most out of your website. Including these five trends now in your website will help you turn each user that visits your website in 2012 into revenue.
