Website Design Trends in 2013

The Evolution of Website Design

Published on October 12, 2012 by: James H. Hobson

Website design styles and coding are continually evolving. In the past several years website design has been more about style and aesthetics. In 2013 the code side of website design will be more important than ever before.

The aesthetic styling of full width layouts and media integration will remain. The best website designers will be creating responsive websites. There will be a demand for a single website that renders properly on desktops, tablets and mobile devices.

The technical side, coding and development, is where the top web design and development companies will pull away with admirable distinction.

Responsive Web Design Basics

The essential elements of responsive website design include the use of valid HTML5 and CSS3. Although certain browsers do not render the full benefits of CSS3 it is now a best practice in website design. Because of the need for better structured content the use of the 960 grid system is highly recommended.

The Uber-Technical Considerations

Website coding needs to focus on delivering the fastest possible page load times. While the use of HTML5 will streamline some of your website's code, greater attention must be applied to minimizing image file sizes and carefully choosing video integration options. The use of XML site maps, video site maps, open graph tags, canonical tags and site verifications will be very important.

Utilizing Google Webmaster Tools and third party site evaluation tools can be very helpful in fine tuning your website code for better performance. Tools like Majestic SEO or Site Explorer are two favorites.

The highly skilled developers will add use Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Scalable Vector Graphics allow developers to create dynamic and interactive graphics that are rendered via code, not traditional images. SVG can be combined with CSS3 to enhance video content

Website Design for Better SEO

When your designer is working with their wire frame layout you will begin to see changes that are driven by search engine algorithm preferences. Content placement in 2013 will play a significant role in achieving better ranking results.

The first 200 characters on the page carry more weight than the remaindere of the text. Block level content organization is essential to appease search engines and help users.

Each page needs a unique page tile and description. Your page title should be 70 characters or less. Your page description should be 150 characters or less. Both should not be spammy and should be relevant to the page's content. Use of the keyword tag is not necessary however if used it should be no more than 7-10 words.

Additionally, every page should have accurate (non-spammy) alt tags and title attributes for links.

Website Usability in 2013

The use of larger buttons will be more common in order to help the "tap and go" mobile devise user. Mobile devide use may also inspire website designers to design content to be presented with vertical scrolling in mind.

Going Too Far

There are some brilliant minds that continue to create really impressive effects. While effects such as Parallax Scrolling are amusing they have little value for most business sites. Personaly, I think these things go too far relative to what a business site requires. Splashy tricks add to page load times and business website users want information, not entertainment.

Website design trends in 2013 will drive significant steps forward. Our prediction is that 2013 designs will make many of todays web designs look outdated and seem primitive.