Dubai web design trends for 2013

October 30, 2016 - 7 minutes read

Dubai web design trends for 2013

Larger Fonts

This is yet another one I’ve started to notice. It seemed that for the longest of times, 12-14px fonts were the standard across the web for body text. I’ve seen many websites opt instead for much larger fonts in the range of 16-18px for just their body text. Here is one by Trent Walton. This is significant in the fact that with responsive web design, typography plays an important role in the readability of content. When 18px font is displayed on a Phone, it’s much easier to reading than having to read 12px text. However, the trade-off on this is that when large Blog, articles are written with such a large font, it becomes rather obnoxious when viewing it on a larger, less pixel-dense screen.

Larger Search Bar

This is one that I hadn’t notice until fellow Industry writer, Jordan pointed out to me. Search is becoming of a significant factor in every aspect of designing. This past year was the first time Google search had hit a plateau and I believe it’s due to more proprietary forms of search instead of an over-generalized method. Although this does not refer to the large search field, Path has made a big dive into a unique search function that is custom-made for their services.

New Colors

60 % of the apps on my home screen are one color. Blue. I understand the color theory behind blue. We’re half of a decade into having an application store with icons to represent apps, yet one color has consistently ruled them all.
Websites from Tumbler to Pandora are lathered generously with an absurd amount of blue. Color theory is interesting as all get out. So get out there and change it up a bit. Not every color is going to work; that’s a fact. But there’s no harm in experimenting and stepping out of the norm.

This isn’t so much a trend as it is a plea, but maybe with a bit of wishful thinking, things will change.

Branding

Web site designing in 2013 isn’t going to throw brand identity to the wind in exchange for trendy and fashionable designs. There’s a return to authenticity that’s coming into play more ever this year. web design doesn’t harmonize with your mission and your vision; you’re more likely to fall flat. As you revamp your image for 2013, don’t don the thick black glasses if you have 20/20 vision, and lay off the quirky comedy if you’re a stuffy, buttoned-up type. Play with what you have, don’t strive to imitate a fad in the name of attracting more visitors. They’ll see right through you.

Social Integration

Websites inching toward the simpler side of things, multiple images and loads of intricate graphics are going by the wayside. Instead, websites are grabbing visitors’ attention with large images. Think micro shots blown up to use as background images for a huge impact. Large visuals aren’t exactly new; in fact they were pretty standard with Flash-based websites in the past. But with the growing use of CSS3 & HTML5, the same strong-featured types of sites will be optimized for tablets and mobile devices as well. Large visuals help with your company’s visual branding too. They take up all of the real estate on the web page, showing your visitors that you really own what you advertise.

Responsive Design

Responsive design made a monster splash in 2012. What started out as a seemingly simple idea revered only by nerds has quickly grown to a methodology used by giants such as Google, Microsoft, Disney, and time? And why would the momentum stop? Tablet & mobile use is increasing a percent or two by the month and while responsive web design has made great strides to effectively target these users in 2012, the concept is still in its infancy. In 2013, look for a greater amount of planning to be done earlier in the process rather than building a desktop site and merely making it responsive. As Luke Wroblewski writes in his acclaimed book titled “Mobile First,??? the idea of designing for the desktop first is quickly becoming obsolete. Instead, designing with mobile in mind first can lead to cleaner content and a better overall user experience.

Typography

The year 2012 saw a rapid rise of web font services. Adobe purchased Type kit, The Font Bureau released Web type, and Hoofer & Frere-Jones announced a web font service of their own. Overall, the design industry is on the verge of a typographical renaissance as more designers use these services in their repertoire. Furthermore, clever use of CSS and JavaScript are allowing us to mimic a range of typesetting techniques, including letterpress. In 2013, look for less Arial and Georgia and more Avenir and Bodoni.

Huge Buttons

One thing responsive web design has taught us is that there’s a lot more tapping and swiping happening on websites nowadays. And because of the touch interfaces found on mobile devices, it should come as no surprise that an upcoming trend for 2013 is for user interface design to be as finger-friendly as possible. Initially, big buttons were used for beautification, but in 2013 they’ll become a necessity. And it doesn’t stop there. Rather than pinch zoom to read the tiny 12px type that was for so long the standard in web design, designers are opting for larger type. 16px body font size and 48px wide buttons are the new black in 2013.

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