As the year comes to a close, we take a look at the emerging trends of 2009, related to web sites and blogs alike, that show no signs of slowing down in 2010.
Retro:
Retro designs are here and they seem to be here to stay, for the moment at least. What makes retro design so popular? It may have something to do with the tone of colours as well as a different mind-state from a designing perspective, most websites stick the written or un-written rules of the overly used “web 2.0” where designs are more geared towards gloss and glitter. Retro designs are a breath of fresh air to the design community, look for the same in 2010
Magazine Layouts:
As sites expand from a single person blog to a dynamic website, many blogs and websites alike are incorporating a content structure that was at one time identifiable to print magazines. 2010 can be see as the emergence of the magazine layout. With several sites pushing forth typography and the importance of typography will empower many designers to push the boundaries on how content can be structured.
Simplicity:
One of the most famous acronyms in the design world “K.I.S.S” look for 2010 to be another year where web design thrives on the theory that “less is more”. Although the concept of minimalism has been around for years now, many sites especially company static pages and portfolio blogs are, are switching to a more elegant and simplistic feel, lets face it many of our clients couldn't care less about the “glamour” a portfolio has, but rather the message and service that an individual, or company, is offering.
Typography:
Of all the emerging trends, I predict that 2010 will be the year of Typography. With many typefaces about to be free for use on web sites, empowers designers a different perspective on web design. Never more so than now has typography gotten the recognition it deserved. Look for more sites to put a further emphasis on how content will be styled and displayed.
Site Maps as footers:
You may notice the footer on Digg, Firefox, and Apple. In 2009 quite a few other web sites have made the switch from the standard footer (copyright, contact us, about us etc.) to a more meaningful purpose placing your sitemap as a footer, as previously discussed in our article on the benefits of using a sitemap as a footer.
Single Page Layouts:
This trend in particular started to pick up sometime around 2008 and showed no sign of slowing down in 2009. Look for 2010 to be another year where single page layouts, commonly used on portfolio sites, to be the “in thing” in the designing community. Having a single page layout does have its advantage especially for those who do not have a lot of content and want to place a larger emphasis on completed projects.
Stay tuned as we take a look at the emerging trends in e-commerce designs for 2010.