Six Expected Web Design Trends in 2013

We all know that technology and the virtual world are constantly evolving. Before you know there is a new trend in the market when it comes to web designing.As a web designer, you should be constantly striving to find the latest and trendy ways to improve the entire look of your website If you really want to see how much the web designing industry has progressed, view your website page which was four or five years back and you will be amazed to witness the obvious peculiarity between the old ones and the modern ones. Earlier, the trend was to focus more on media capabilities but now as per the new trends it is all about usability and latest stylish looks.


Expected Web Design Trends in 2013

It is not easy to predict trends for an industry which is changing with the blink of any eye. You never know what is going to be in and what is going to out from the trend list by 2013 arrives. As a designer, you have a lot more responsibility to handle in this transition period. On one hand you will be designing websites to please clients by following trends set in 2012 and on another hand, you will be designing stuff in a way so that you can set new trends for 2013. Today, in this article we will discuss some of our predictions as far as web design trends in 2013 are concerned.

Tip : Top 15 Web Design Trends of 2012

Prediction #1 – Responsive Web Design:

This prediction is expected to turn out absolutely true as we all know that new kind of desktop and mobile devices are being introduced in the market every now and then. Our Each device, be it desktop or mobile, will vary in screen size and other proportions. The reason why responsive web designing is expected to be in trends of 2013 is that designers cannot design a new design for individual website. It will not only take a lot of your time but will also cost you a fortune.

Responsive web design will eliminate all of these problems because of its ability to respond to the size of the device being used. Thanks to responsive web designs, designers will not have to make a new layout for different mobile and desktop devices. A single design will work perfectly on all devices. No would avoid this trend because this trend is expected to make things much more convenient for all the designers.

Ultimate Responsive Web Design ToolKit

This article will help designers in building a strong toolkit to make a responsive website.

Ultimate-Responsive-Web-Design-ToolKit

Responsive Web Design: An Ultimate Guide

This article will give you suggestions regarding long term marketing strategies for mobile responsive design.

Responsive-web-design

Best Responsive WordPress Themes 2012

The quality of these Responsive WordPress Themes is excellently good in real sense as this is what matters the most. You can have a quick look for selecting the designs for your device.

responsive-wordpress-themes-25

Prediction #2 – Designed Typography:

Thanks to the variations available in Typography, designers have a lot of fonts available to select from. However, selecting typography is no longer a small decision and selecting a trendy typography design is very important. Our prediction is that 2013 is going to be the year of typography as it will be given much, much importance. In fact, typography will become an integral part of any website’s design. Designers will no longer replace text with the beautiful images and will try to enhance website’s beauty through typography. By 2013, it is expected that designers will give typography a lot of importance because it is considered to be the foundation of any website.

A Collection of Beautiful Typography

2-Steven-Jobs-Type

25 Fresh Typography Free Fonts For Your Next Designs

Sketch-Me

Prediction # 3 – Vertical Scrolling:

Websites’ optimization is going to be a very important decision. Nowadays, a lot of websites offer both, vertical and horizontal scrolling as far as mobile devices are concerned. However, vertical scrolling will lead the trend in 2013. Vertical scrolling is easy, convenient for all the mobile users. Vertical scrolling is quite user friendly, efficient and definitely allows easy navigation. Apart from all this, another trend that is expected to hit 2013 is vertical scrolling of menus and buttons. When a user is scrolling a page down, the header menu should scroll down with it so that the user does not have to go upwards to view the menu again. Same goes for shopping carts and social buttons. Vertical scrolling will be in demand because it allows user a friendly navigation throughout the website.

Smashinghub is an example of Vertical Scrolling. you can only see scroll on vertical..its an example of Responsive Design.

Vertical Scrolling

Prediction # 4 – Huge Buttons:

Since the ‘touch & tap’ is getting famous with every passing day, we can totally expect the trend of huge buttons in the upcoming year. Initially, big and huge buttons were being used just for the beautification purposes however, in 2013; they are expected to become a necessity. Huge buttons will definitely make tapping a lot easier but yes, this trend does have a flaw i.e., huge buttons would definitely require more graphics which will result into slowing down of the website. Designers will have to find a way out or else this trend might not last long. Let’s see what 2013 has in store for buttons.

Huge Buttons

Prediction # 5 – Branding will take a hike:

We all know that businesses want their brand to be noticeable; people should be able to recognize their brand within seconds. The year to come is expected to focus more on designing the brand instead of simply designing a website pertaining to the latest trends. Designers will focus more on selecting the things that will compliment the brand itself or enhance the beauty of the logo. Designer will focus more on translating the business through the website and this trend is expected to last for a long time. It is very important for you as a business owner to get a website designed which represent your brand’s image and designers will research and give you a site exactly like this.

Prediction # 6 – Parallax Scrolling:

2013 will see a lot of increase in the usage of parallax scrolling effects. This thing has been in the industry for sometime but earlier it was associated with video games only. This feature will basically allow designers to control the depth of design objects on the website being designed.

Parallax Scrolling Effect in Web Design

jQuery Parallax and Scrolling Effect Plugins

scrollpath

Conclusion:

Above mentioned web design trends are only predictions by some of the experts and along with these we can definitely see a lot of other trends in 2013. Are there any trends that you think will hit the designing world in 2013? If yes, please share them with us.


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30 Comments

  1. Mike says:

    CSS3 (this includes the Typography in point 3).
    Parallax maybe next year, but like 3d movies, I am not a fan.

  2. AKS says:

    Thanks for the providing on what is going to trend in 2013. It will keep us up to date. thanks!!

  3. Jim says:

    Earlier this year we switched to a single page, vertical scrolling design with stay at top navigation and have found the site to be WAY easier to maintain.

  4. Bart says:

    How about single page websites?

  5. martin says:

    i have been going around looking at several parallax scrolling sites, and have to say that it bad, usability wise. Hard to read, harder to see what goes with what design element, and so on.

    sure its great for advertisement or campaign flashy special event pages, but for general sites..NO way in hell.

  6. george says:

    I believe responsive is the Winner here, with so many mobile devices !thanks for sharing

  7. Rolando says:

    Really great post. I didn’t think parallax was growing so much. I’ve been asking for it, but without the responsive part. I’ll do it in the near future.
    cheers,

  8. Seera says:

    I agree responsive design is growing day by day. But most of the responsive designs are simple.

    Any one has some samples, which has parallax scrolling in responsive design?

    Most of the parallax websites are not compatable in accross devices.

    can any one share some best parallax sites which has compatablity?

  9. Calvin says:

    This is a great trend resource.
    Keep it up!

  10. Dine says:

    Implementing the trends will also depend on the amount of content that needs to be shown, but looking forward to the typography trends.

  11. Liam says:

    I think fullscreen is also a design trends in 2013. But it does not list here

  12. nathan says:

    great point with typography and branding – I’d like to attest to the floating scroll – we all know it is awesome and super easy!!! Also, as for responsive design – i am seeing a trend of say simpler designs and generic template based sites… Seems many of the mobile designs are all looking the same… I ran across a site using off-canvas approach like facebook’s mobile design and feel that is a great user experience and needs to be noted as well… As wordpress becomes more popular i think the need for talented brand managers to step in and say ENOUGH! You are unique and we can make something truly custom but fail to see that being a trend for 2013 as most small entrepreneurs and businesses budgets won’t allow it – truth is right now i’d say a huge % of website more than 60% could all be improved with a $15 wordpress theme… that is sad but true as most businesses want web design to be like a vending machine and simply want to press the ” Cool Button” and pop out a website! : ) Fun times ahead!!!

  13. Doug says:

    I agree with Simon… Build your buttons with a tiny, repeating image using CSS and text and you get a small-sized, search friendly button.
    It’ll be interesting to see if the trend continues to simple, blog style designs….

  14. Jerry says:

    I tend to think it’s going to decrease in complexity, with an emphasis on less graphics, less fanciness, less art.

    Just basic three color simple websites with large buttons and no frills. Like ATM machines.

  15. Ralf says:

    Nice overview of the new trends. I would like to know more about how I can program/design our page to respect Responsive Web Design. Could you send me some more infos on that?
    Thanks

  16. It’s all about responsive design. Good point on vertical scrolling as well.

  17. Dan says:

    CSS3, Transitions and Transformations once IE 10 is released which supports these functions. I also agree with the above comment, vertical scrolling is an intuitive reaction, not a trend.

    Nice list though!!

  18. Dietmar says:

    Well, this list is not really a suprise! You can exchange the 2013 with 2012 and the list will still be true. I think the main new trend for 2013 will be the extensive use of HTML5 and CSS3 features

  19. shane says:

    Hi, nice list. Maybe I’m ahead of things or behind but I actually thought all of these things were pretty big already (except big buttons, no pun intended)? Responsive design is blowing up all over premium template sites (and has been for at least a few months), parallax has always been very popular (as has hand made type) and, if you mean “one page” websites for vertical scrolling sites, then those, too, have been quite popular. Maybe all of these things will pick up even more in 2013. I’m also a web designer and nerd out on all of these things so it could be that I seek them out more than the average web surfer. Awesome post, I love the JQuery scrolling effects that are out there.

  20. Christian says:

    Can you really say that vertical scrolling is going to be a trend? Vertical scrolling the expected behavior of a website since the birth of the web.

  21. I-dizajn says:

    Wow this is great…Well a lot of these are used today all modern sites use som of them..

  22. sarah says:

    Informed predictions here, thank you! I think that the oncoming surge of omnichannel marketing will force content strategists to adopt “adaptable” text segments. Instead of crafting content for one specific place on the web, it will have to be created flexible enough to work in several places, through different channels ( and perhaps even serve different purposes). Exciting times ahead!

  23. simon says:

    I’m not sure that huge buttons would require more graphics and slow the page load speed. Our mobile sites use CSS for the buttons + I’m sure this is common practice nowadays. It’s easy to grab a CSS gradient that works cross browser from Fireworks and plug it into the CSS.

  24. nuut says:

    Agree with all your predictions ! Parallax scrolling is very effective with tablet devices.

  25. Great post! We’ve made our predictions too: take a tour!

  26. Responsive web design is surely to be there in 2013 as the advantages offered by it are many. I agree that vertical scrolling is another big hit. One page websites will surely become popular in 2013, even more than what they are today. Thanks for sharing your insight.

  27. ccruz says:

    Great blog post. I definitely agree with these predictions. Responsive websites are big now and will be a must for 2013. Vertical scrolling is another big one. I can’t tell you how much I hate horizontal scrolling on my smart phone. Especially when I am trying to read an article. Thanks for sharing.

  28. Del says:

    Definitely, what a fantastic blog and enlightening posts, I surely will bookmark your website.
    Best Regards!