Happy 2012 everyone! When looking at what's in store for us in 2012 we'd rather ignore the woeful cries of more euro zone troubles or a double dip recession and instead throw ourselves into the ever expanding possibilities that the web has to offer us! We're talented in many fields of expertise but we haven't quite yet mastered the art of fortune telling, however based on current shifts and emerging trends here are some of our predictions: 1. Responsive web design With the increase in mobile usage and the explosion of cheap often smaller tablet forms on the market, such as the Nook tablet and Kindle Fire, not only will the Webfuel offices be full of multiple devices on which we can test all the lovely sites we build but we'll also be taking a look at responsive web design. Responsive web design is the concept of developing a website design in a manner that enables the lay out to get changed according to the user’s computer screen resolution. For example a 4 column layout may auto simplify into 2 columns on smaller screens. It's still a very new concept but with some major brands already implementing responsive design themes it's expected to become more prominent in 2012. 2. Animation Flash animation has dominated web animation for years, however not without problems. Its inability to be indexed by search engines has meant many companies steered clear and now with its inability to run on smartphones and some tablets, its usage has fallen further. However with the introduction of HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery in recent years many developers are now turning to these tools to create their web animations. To see an example of this kind of animation look no further than the banner on our homepage. 3. Mobile gets bigger A prediction that we can all see coming is the continued growth of mobile traffic and usage. In terms of market-share, mobile platform strategist Peter-Paul Koch expects mobile browsing to exceed 10 per cent in 2012. Making web sites ready for mobile will also cause a shift in web design. Gone will be the days of Flash, hover effects and pixel-perfect rendering and instead we'll see responsive design, device APIs, and clients will be making decisions on which features are so important that they must be shown on the mobile site and which can be dropped or pushed down the page. 4. Font face usage Web designers have been biding their time, we first heard about the @font-face CSS method which allows you to embed web-safe fonts to websites in around 2004. It has taken almost 15 years and half a dozen font replacement techniques to make this CSS3 method work in most modern browsers. Now most browsers support it and already we are starting to see an abundance of websites using beautiful and readable typography. In 2012 we will probably see this go mainstream. 5. Google Changes Links and PageRank matter less and less. In 2012 your Google positions factors will probably be about other signals rather than the conventional back links. Google will use all kinds of other data including feedback and even human reviewers to overcome the big decade long link buying spree. The Panda update early on in 2011 focused on quality, so metrics such as usability, readability and overall usefulness became the focus. The latest algorithm changes in November 2011, dubbed the freshness update, focuses on the newness of content for certain key terms. The quality of your site and keeping content fresh has never mattered more. |
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