15 top web design and development trends for 2012
By Craig Grannell on January 09,
2012
Craig
Grannell quizzes the industry’s finest about the web design and development
trends that will occur over the coming 12 months and that you need to be
mindful of
2012 looks set to be an interesting
year. The economic fallout continues to batter industries worldwide, seemingly
with no end in sight; and many governments are doing their best to censor the
internet, to deny citizens basic rights or prop up ailing media companies.
For web design and development, 2012
could be similarly turbulent. We’re in the midst of various skirmishes: mobile
greedily gobbling up market-share from the desktop; native apps threatening
aspects of the open web; paywalls barricading previously openly available
information; the collision of consolidation and fragmentation; and skeuomorphism
within interfaces contrasting starkly with new, innovative methods of designing
and presenting information and content.
Short of owning a working crystal
ball, it’s tough to predict exactly what’s in store, but a number of designers,
developers and industry figures have given it their best shot. Here are their
predictions for the industry over the coming year, and the trends you need to
be mindful of in order to succeed.
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1.
Progressive enhancement
According to Happy Cog founder Jeffrey Zeldman, “the rise of mobile and the
dominance of WebKit-powered smartphones over traditional desktop web browsing
is convincing even die-hard skeptics to embrace progressive enhancement, HTML5,
CSS3, and other tenets and aspects of standards-based design”. He adds that IE
now more fully supporting standards should further bolster this “rush to
embrace the shiny new”.
2.
Responsive design
Zeldman continues that we’re also
experiencing a “standards nightmare”, but in the hardware space: “There’s a
plethora of devices out there with widely differing abilities – it’s never been
more confusing or challenging to create brilliant interfaces that work across
them all.” Because of this, he expects responsive design to play a big role in
2012, “bridging the enormous gulfs between platforms”.
Clearleft founder Andy Budd reckons this
could be a means for “forward-thinking publishers to usurp Apple’s paywall on
the iPad,” and predicts a gentle trickle of big responsive sites turning into a
flood by year’s end: “It’ll be like the standards movement all over again.” But
Flat Frog Design
user experience strategist Erin Jo Richey thinks it won’t be plain-sailing:
“Just because a site can shrink in size, that doesn’t mean all the information
is equally valuable on desktop and mobile. The type of information users
interact with needs to adjust as fluidly as the size of the site itself.” She
says 2012 will therefore find more project leads and clients see past screen
size and demand an appropriate strategy dictates the content that appears at
various resolutions.
Responsive
design, as per the website of Elliot Jay Stocks, will be commonplace by the end
of 2012
3.
Flash will survive
Much was made of Flash’s supposed
demise in 2011, yet designer Tom Muller
forecasts that Adobe’s technology will have something of a resurgence during
2012: “Many people back the idea of not creating Flash sites, favouring web
standards, and I’m less inclined to use it these days. However, I nonetheless
believe it’s here to stay for a while.” Muller explains that during 2011 he was
involved in three major projects that relied on Flash, simply because it
remains the best tool for interactive video, animation and 3D online.
“Web designers and developers
sometimes lose sight of what works and is demanded by a larger audience, due to
preferring what’s considered ‘cool’ in their bubble,” he adds. “More big brands
will shift from Flash, testing the water with HTML5 and CSS3 for focussed
campaigns. But for entertainment sites, Flash is – and will remain – the
predominant tool of choice to create engaging experiences. And that’s because
those sites act as an extension of a movie’s universe, not only existing to
serve cold information.” In gaming, Dull Dude Games founder Iain
Lobb predicts an even bigger return to
Flash: “Clients will try to steer things towards HTML5, because that’s where
the hype is, but I think often the right thing to do will be steering them back
towards Flash.”
Sites
like Threaded show there’s still a place for Flash on the web
4.
Native support for plug-in features
Even if Flash thrives in 2012, the
march towards extra browser-native features and power will continue, says Opera
web evangelist Bruce Lawson:
“As support for the various aspects of ‘HTML5 and friends’ improves and comes
to more browsers and platforms, we’ll see greater pressure for native browser
support of features that we used to use plug-ins for: camera and microphone
access with HTML5 getUserMedia, and other things further out, such as support
for adaptive streaming of multimedia.”
2012
will find more browser-native features that once would have required plug-ins,
such as Sean Christmann’s video demos
5.
Appification takes hold
Remy Sharp,
self-described ‘MasterChef of code and cookies’ maintains 2012 will see
browsers get closer to the platform: “I’m expecting more high-quality,
high-performance games running in the browser, in a way where you can’t tell if
they’re native or not.” He also thinks we’ll see more sites working directly
with files and other aspects of operating systems.
From a visual standpoint, Muller
thinks this approach will find designers taking “major cues from tablet and
screen interaction,” resulting in a “hybrid design that lives between ‘point
and click’ and ‘touch and swipe’”. He also reckons 2012 will find skeuomorphic
and heavily textured design lingering, not least due to Apple pushing it so
hard on their devices. But publication designer Roger Black argues in
a world of content, designers and editors will “have to shed this propensity to
take what they know and convert it to something else”. He recommends: “Don’t
think ‘newspaper on the tablet’ or ‘mobile magazine site’, for example, think
‘digital publication’.”
In terms of technology, social
software consultant Suw Charman-Anderson reckons the convenience of apps is a boon for consumers but
a pain for developers, in “having to create an app for every platform and deal
with various store policies”. Beyond the native-versus-web-app row, she sees
2012 bringing about “widespread adoption of mixed native/HTML5 apps, where you
can feed content to your apps across all platforms from a central source”. She
cites Pugpig.com as an
example: “They’re already merging iOS and Android with HTML5 and creating great
user experiences. It’s only a matter of time before this tactic takes off as
the only real way that smaller content producers can keep up with the demands
of different platforms.”
Apple’s
irritating penchant for skeuomorphic design will continue to influence
designers, thinks Muller
6.
Web app fragmentation
While web apps should find increased
success in 2012, Lawson fears the year will also be one of fragmentation,
replacing one group of proprietary systems (native apps) with another. “The
spirit of co-operation between browser vendors will continue for the HTML5
spec, but not filter into other web stack specifications,” he says, sadly,
noting that we’ve already seen Chrome-only apps. “A severe case of ‘not
invented here’ can be seen in the 10 – yes, 10! – different app manifest formats invented by vendors instead of collaborating to make the
W3C one better. This harms developers and, worse, lack of interoperability
hurts consumers.”
Mozilla technical evangelist Rob Hawkes is
optimistic that Boot to Gecko,
Mozilla’s ‘operating system for the open web’ could boost the chances of
web apps and “remove the reliance on proprietary single-vendor stacks for app
development”. Initially focussed on mobile, it will implement a variety of Web
APIs to access elements of mobile hardware.
Still
in its early stages (the grab shows a UI mock-up idea from the Wiki), Boot to
Gecko could aid in the fight against web-app fragmentation
7.
Mobile gets bigger
Speaking of mobile, a no-brainer
trend prediction is the continued growth of mobile traffic and usage. “Mobile
web-based apps will dominate, and we’ll see the rise of mobile MVC frameworks
like the one 37signals is working on,” opines Treehouse founder Ryan Carson.
In terms of market-share, mobile
platform strategist Peter-Paul Koch
expects mobile browsing to exceed 10 per cent in 2012. “Clients will clamour
for mobile sites, and web designers and developers must be ready or risk losing
clients,” he warns. Koch holds that making sites ready for mobile will also
cause change for the good: “No more Flash, hover effects and pixel-perfect
rendering in all browsers. Instead: responsive design, device APIs, and
deciding which features are so important that they must be shown on the mobile
site, along with an enhanced awareness that a website should work on any
device.”
Mobile
growth will increase the number of mobile-optimised sites in 2012
8.
A device explosion
Easy! Designs Principal Aaron Gustafson thinks
growth in mobile will lead to a major challenge: “Designers and developers will
have to embrace the smaller tablet form factors – think Nook Tablet and Kindle
Fire instead of iPad – as cheap tablet devices flood the market.” Lobb adds
that this will lead to more developers “needing to own multiple devices, in
order to check site compatibility”.
Designers
will have to embrace smaller tablet form-factors in 2012
9.
Respect beyond aesthetics
Designer and illustrator Geri Coady notes how we often say good design is invisible, yet
“rarely take notice when a website or app shows incredible attention to detail
not only in visual design, but in the choice of language and the behaviour of
interactions”. She thinks that 2012 will find more designers and clients
understanding that appearance alone isn’t everything: “We should treat style,
content, and behaviour with equal respect – they must work together to
strengthen the meaning and personality of a site, app, or brand.”
Such understanding will come from
enhancing skill-sets (Carson reckons in 2012 that “any web designer who isn’t
also a front-end developer won’t be able to find work”) or through
collaboration. “I’d love to see more developers learning from designers, so we can
do a better job of implementing designs. And vice versa, designers learning
from developers, to understand what’s possible, and why some things are harder
than others,” muses Sharp. The net result, says ‘Typomaniac’ Erik Spiekermann:
“More designers will have an affinity with code and more coders will have an
affinity with design”.
10.
Social battles heat up
The importance of social networking
sites will continue to grow throughout 2012, but opinions differ regarding
potential outcomes. Developer Blaine Cook
has an inkling that “Facebook will continue to wane in importance, and we’ll
see more start-ups like Path, Instagram, Tumblr, and Spotify, where social
interactions are being pushed out to the edges”. But Muller reckons “more
social sharing networks and apps will try to take a piece of the Twitter and
Facebook pie, but will actually end up integrating those into their service”.
He also wonders whether Facebook will “offer tools to create sites, instead of
just pages,” to satisfy people’s desire for “continued integration with social
media, and services that allow you to share your life online”.
Social
will continue to heat up in 2012, and Cook sees more start-ups like Path taking
over from giants like Facebook
11.
Growth of the two-screen model
“I think the two-screen experience
will be big in 2012,” predicts Budd. With TV companies more aware of
competition in the living room, they’re increasingly keen to push timely,
relevant content to this second screen. “Examples in 2011 included the
play-along version of a Million Pound Drop, and the Nature Watch tablet demo
from the BBC,” continues Budd. “Numerous start-ups have moved into this space,
including Shazam’s new TV-show tagging abilities, so expect much more in 2012.”
More companies will take advantage of the second screen in
2012
12.
Distributed workforces
During the next year, Richey thinks
the set-up of many companies will be atypical. “A new generation of young
designers and developers entered the workforce in a time of lingering
adversity. With a variety of technologies at their fingertips, many creatives
have learned to find jobs, network, and acquire new skills from their bedrooms,
the corner café, or a destination around the world,” she explains. “As the
economy improves, many designers and developers won’t be willing to trade in
their work style and relative freedom for a cubicle space. With a growing
number of high-profile tech companies embracing a mobile and distributed
workforce, employers looking for top-notch talent may need to re-evaluate their
workplace culture.”
37signals
CEO Jason Fried has condemned traditional office culture. Expect more companies
to have atypical set-ups in 2012
13.
Stronger customer service
Headscape co-founder Paul Boag reckons 2012 will be the year of customer service within
the web industry: “As web designers, we like to think we just build websites.
We don’t. We also offer a service to our clients. We are often so obsessed with
user experience, code and design that we forget other important factors such as
good communication, understanding business needs and exceeding client
expectations. If we are going to prosper in 2012 we need to blow our clients
away, not just their users.”
14.
Better value, not lower prices
Budd believes that the web industry
is on a “continuous march towards professionalism” and this means designers and
developers need to “up their game or run the risk of finding themselves in a
price ghetto”. During 2012, he hopes to see a different approach from more
designers: “Stop compromising standards and rushing out poorly planned and
poorly implemented projects. Stop cutting corners and instead put in the effort
required to deliver your clients exceptional value.” Spiekermann adds that
clients will increasingly learn to react strongly to such attitudes and also
“understand that websites are never truly finished, along with being more
accepting of an agile process”.
15.
Pushing the boundaries
Ending on a high, Edge
of my Seat founder Rachel Andrew thinks 2012
will be a year in which technological and skills evolution could be rapid.
“Throughout 2011, we saw browser support for parts of HTML5 and CSS3 improve to
the point where we can really start to use this stuff in our work, and so we’re
having to work out the new best ways to do things,” she says. “I’m finding on
every project I start now I need to check myself, making sure I’m not doing
something because that’s the way it has always been done when we now have new
and better ways to achieve the end result.” Andrew believes 2012 will
increasingly find designers pushing the boundaries of new technology,
“experimenting, throwing away what doesn’t work or that which has been replaced
with something better, and working out new best practices based on what we now
have to work with”.
The
fight for internet freedoms
Not a design trend so much as an
argument for activism. A number of developers are concerned that lawmakers
continue to argue in favour of curtailing internet freedoms, which in Europe
and the USA is typically at the behest of media giants. Zeldman says that “like
anyone with even a basic understanding of how the internet works, I’m radically
opposed to SOPA,” which he refers to as a “truly terrible piece of legislation
that would be impossible to enforce and would shut down virtually every site on
the web […] and destroy the DNS system”.
Tumblr
is one of several major websites that’s been active in opposing SOPA
Koch hopes if any country passes an
insane law of this kind, “services will move or we’ll find creative ways around
them,” while Lawson longs for people to stop using a ‘think of the children’
argument as an excuse for censoring content: “I’m a parent and don’t want my
kids seeing [unsuitable content], but monitoring their web use is a parenting
problem rather than one of censorship”. Regardless, 2012 will in part be a
battle to stop governments seriously damaging the internet and therefore the
entire industry.
Referensi :
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/15-top-web-design-and-development-trends-2012
10 maret 2012, 12:19
