Web design
Mobile web and usability
There are more smartphone users globally than desktop and laptop users but the usability of mobile websites and applications is still well behind the usability of desktop websites.
From last few years, anyone working with search engine optimization do make sure that website should also have a mobile version or the results in Google might affect the website rankings. As per the trend, we see that mobile web is on an increasing spree and it is growing with each passing day hence is an important factor for search engine optimization.
Despite the growing user base on mobile devices, there are very less number of people who are really designing for mobile web. Not only for the Google algorithm but for user experience as well, mobile website plays an important role.
There are some technological advancements for the same:
a) Responsive web design
b) Adaptive design technique
c) Mobile apps for smart devices
The basic requirement to have a good mobile web presence is that it helps users to navigate easily whichever is the platform they are using to browse the web, and it does not do any sacrifice for your website purpose but helps increasing audience for the websites.
For any of your requirement for web design, responsive websites and mobile apps, contact us.
Web design
Latest web design trends
Since its inception, web design and development has seen many changes in it’s visual appearance as well as in the technological advancements. With the changing times, website design technology has evolved and many new terms have taken an important place, which are currently key to be followed for having a modern and up-to-date website for your personal need, corporate website design, e-commerce or any type of website design and development.
I would be listing few hottest trends, that are currently been followed by the web designing and development industry:
1) Responsive web layouts:
I feel that responsive web design has been changing the way the websites are designed to match all forms of digital media. The idea is to support various devices from laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and anything released in the future.
2) Retina display support:
First engineered by Apple Inc. retina display provides a much clearer view on the screen due to twice as dense display as compared to an LCD screen. This means pixel-perfect web designers supporting retina devices will need to create two sets of images.
3) Infinite scrolling:
Infinite scroll loading has been around for at least a few years. This technique is not yet used very vastly on the websites, but looking at its user-friendly nature, it will surely be used widely in near future..
Pinterest has adopted this loading technique for their website design and it works very effectively. You can search anything and the results page keeps on loading automatically as you sroll down the page.
Another great example is on Tumblr. You can blog and reblog photos from other people you follow which all appear on your Dashboard. So after logging into your account all the most recent posts will scroll infinitely down the page.
This is an excellent techniquebut does not work on each web design idea, but for the right websites this can look and behave effectively.
4) Large photos as background images:
An image is worth 1000 words, and it’s an excellent way to capture your visitor’s attention and it can look great when done properly.
When photographs are blended into your website design layout, this technique can give your website a good edge in marketing.
5) CSS transparency
The new CSS3 properties have allowed for opacity edits on any webpage element. This means you have control to generate transparency in any modern web browser – no Photoshop required! This trend of web design transparency was recently discussed on Codrops with some very enlivening talking points. It is very light-weight technique in latest website design trends.
6) Social Media integration:
Search engine optimization is one of the ultimate determining factors in a website’s success. Search engine marketing, social media and viral marketing are exploding in many different websites.
You can check practically any social community for sharing badges, feeds, hashtags and will likely find a great results. You can position these badges pinned to blog posts and articles anywhere in your layout, make your hashtags viral on social media. These are still used actively by readers and fans who want to share content quickly on places like Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn.
7) Mobile navigation toggle:
When speaking of responsive design one of the most difficult questions is how to build a solid navigation. You want to give your readers quick and easy access to all your important links, without fmaking it cluttered in any screen resolution. It is also a good idea to keep your responsive navigation hidden away until it’s not required.
What I like most about the toggled navigation is that you can design menus in so many various forms and layouts. We can have links drop down from the top, right, or slide, or push content from the left or right side. Web designers have various options to play with UI experiments in website design and development.
8) CSS3 animations:
The CSS3 transition property and all the related browser prefixes offers CSS dynamic effects just like JavaScript. Designers can now animate effects on the page based on different CSS properties. I have seen a lot of nice hover effects and form input fields using these transitions the right way.
Another excellent and very inspiring example comes from a CSS alerts tutorial on Codrops. Notice how you can setup various times and settings for the animations.
This is definitely a trend which offers some promise in the coming months and years with lots of room to advance. I am confident that newer web designers will give rise to booming animations all created without the use of scripting.
9) One-page/ Single-page web design:
Single page design is a big topic and covered under many different categories. Obviously there have been single-page websites since the creation of the World Wide Web. But over the recent years we have seen this trend evolve to sport a more natural user experience, which is a very attractive and stylish way for web design.
Website design for Cage App is a great example of many trends listed in this article. They are utilizing a single-page layout brilliantly with content split up by horizontal containers. But you will also notice the very top of the page features a blurred background photo effect, which is a good idea for a stylish website design.
Plus when you scroll down the page, the navigation bar stays where it is as fixed, at the top of your window. Incorporating other popular design trends into a single-page layout is one solution for drawing attention from visitors and making one captivating website design.
10) API’s and open-source
Open source is been around for many years and is changing the web since its inception, and are very important part of website design and development industry. Mostly, we could also be talking about free website templates, layouts, or CMS software such as WordPress.
Open APIs and resources like Github allow designers to not only prototype layouts, but also animations effects on the webpage. jQuery has a many many number of plugins for free download to be found all over the internet, which you can use in website development.
Open source is a very energetic and strong part of web design and development. This truly is the greatest time in web design industry, to be getting started and advancing your knowledge in the field of designing and developing websites.
You can contact us for your website design and development requirement, to get the quality solutions.