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Hottest Trends To Web Design In 2013

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Responsive Layouts

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

The idea is to support all devices from laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and anything released in the future.

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Retina Image Support

Apple first engineered this idea with the iPhone 4 and has since applied this screen display onto their other devices, including the iPad and some MacBooks.

Retina screens are basically twice as dense as any average LCD. So they are the same number of physical pixels, but digitally twice as many pixels can be fitted into the same physical space.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Single-Page Web Design

Single page design is a big topic and covered under many different categories. Obviously there have been single-page websites since the creation of the World Wide Web. But over the recent years we have seen this trend evolve to sport a more natural user experience.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Fixed navigation/ Fixed Header Bars

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Enormous photo backgrounds and Large images used for large impact visuals.

Photographers or even fans of photography will definitely enjoy this design trend. It’s an excellent way to capture your visitor’s attention and it can look great when done properly.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Lazy loading / infinite scrolling

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

A number of social media websites have begun applying infinite scroll effects onto dashboards and timelines and user feeds. This effect was gaining traction due to the popularity of Twitter and Tumblr’s unique layout style. And now more recently Pinterest has also adopted this infinite page scroll on their homepage.

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Vertical Scrolling

Vertical scrolling is easy, convenient for all the mobile users. Vertical scrolling is quite user friendly, efficient and definitely allows easy navigation. Apart from all this, another trend that is expected to hit 2013 is vertical scrolling of menus and buttons.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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CSS Transparency

The new CSS3 properties have allowed for opacity edits on any webpage element. This means you have control to generate transparency in any modern web browser – no Photoshop required! This trend of web design transparency was recently discussed on Codrops with some very enlivening talking points.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Digital QR Codes

The abundance of mobile smartphones has led to a surge of QR Code apps. This stands for Quick Response Code and has developed from the older UPC barcodes. You will find these tagged everywhere from restaurants to event venues and automobile sales lots.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Detailed IllustrationsNewer design trends are all about catching and holding one’s attention. I feel that illustrations perform this task brilliantly. The problem is finding a designer who can make such impeccable works of art, or even teaching yourself.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Mobile Navigation ToggleWhen speaking of responsive design one of the most difficult questions is how to build a solid navigation. You want to give your readers direct access to all your important links, without flooding the page making it unreadable. It is also a good idea to keep your responsive navigation hidden away until it’s needed.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Fullscreen Typography

Earlier I mentioned using big oversized photographs in the background of website layouts. This trend can be extended to focus on typography as well: designing your webpage text so it fills the entirety of the browser. Some users may find this annoying. But this is not often the case if the layout is fitted perfectly for super-large text.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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CSS3 Animations

The CSS3 transition property and all the related browser prefixes offers CSS dynamic effects just like JavaScript. Designers can now animate effects on the page based on different CSS properties. I have seen a lot of nice hover effects and form input fields using these transitions the right way.

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Circular Design Elements

The trend of circles within website layouts is something newer and has been given a lot of attention recently. Designers like circles because they are clean, neat, and generally fit into any layout block. You can build patterns and even fix your page elements into circular designs (eg. user avatars, share buttons, post dates, etc).

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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Thank you

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast

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AuthorSameera Thilakasiri is a front-end developer based in Colombo. Specialist in UI, UX, SEO, IA, IxD, RWD. He is blogging technical areas and lifestyle photographer while is leisure. He can be reached by http://www.sameerast.com

by Sameera Thilakasiri | www.sameerast.com | Twitter @ sameerast