Here at Minnick, we’re looking forward to a great 2013. If you’re like most of our clients, you’ve spent the last 3 years cutting back and doing more with less. Your web site is probably the same or in worse shape than it was in 2009, and it likely hasn’t had a complete redesign in at least 5 years.
The good news is that web technology hasn’t been holding still during the recession. The greatest minds on the web have been hard at work creating new technologies and ways of building web sites that make them easier to use, easier to build, easier to maintain, and more usable by larger numbers of people. Now is the time to redesign!
Here are a few of the trends that make now a perfect time for your complete site overhaul:
1. Responsive Web Design (RWD)
One of the hottest buzzwords of the last couple of years, RWD is a technique and design philosophy in which a single web site design adapts, or “responds”, to the layout and size of the browser where it’s being viewed. The result is that the same Web site can be viewed and easily read on everything from mobile phones to desktop web browsers.
2. HTML5
HTML5, the latest version of the language all Web pages are written in, is here and it’s ready to be used today to build your next-generation site. Although it’s not slated to become an official standard until 2014, it’s already supported by every major web browser and every smartphone and tablet. The benefits of switching to HTML5 today include better accessibility, support for mobile devices, easier audio and video, faster download and page rendering due to reduced need for images, and cleaner code. You’ll also get the exciting feeling and recognition from your peers that comes with being ahead of the curve.
3. Web Fonts
Thanks to Web font foundries like Google Fonts and Typekit, your choices of typefaces for your site is practically unlimited today.
4. CSS3
The latest version of Cascading Style Sheets, the standard for adding style and layout to web pages, includes a multitude of new features that make web pages more interactive, more beautiful, and faster. These features include effects such as drop shadows and rounded corners, layout functionality such as automatic multi-column layouts, and animation without the use of plugins.
It’s an exciting time to be working on the Web. The standards that were just starting to take shape during the last decade are now fully grown up and mature. Companies who redesign their sites during 2013 will benefit from the fact that these technologies have been around for a while. They’ll also benefit from the fact that their competitors have been sitting on 5-year-old websites that don’t yet take advantage of all the great new inventions of the last few years.