Creative Web Design

As we enter the second decade of the Millennium, we see a paradigm shift in the preferences of internet users. They are no longer content with Photoshop mock ups. Beauty, at a certain point, gets boring, if it's not accompanied with functionality and substance. So, if you're a web designer dependent on flashy do's, you'd soon become obsolete. You need to try something new and hot.

The hottest trends for 2011 in creative web design are instant connection, responsiveness, and virtual realness.

What Must Creative Web Designers Offer?

Today, a web designer has to work not only to mesmerize the internet users, but also to keep them caught in the web. It's easy to get wow's and aha's with a design. But these exclamations soon vanish into thin air, as an average, busy web browser soon forgets what website they clicked moments ago. Simply getting lots of praises doesn't help in marketing a website and pushing it to the top rankings. What's the use of a site that does not bring business? Nobody designs websites simply to impress or entertain viewers. Or do they?

If you wish to do serious business, you must create a design that captures the interest of browsers to such an extent that they hardly want to know where the "back" button is located on the screen!

The challenge of 2011 is that web designers need to create a design that goes with smart phones, tablets, netbooks, and other sophisticated gadgets, besides the basic desktops and laptops. A combination of harmonious colors, spontaneous design, easy-to-use features, quick loading, and useful content makes for a "blockbuster" website.

Ask yourself: "why you need to design a website?" One word that comes to your mind instantly is: advertisement. Ok. But a website is more than just a promotional tool. It symbolizes your business in the virtual world. When you make a website, you're actually making your identity online. People would soon associate yourself and your business with whatever you put on your site. It's a window through which the visitor can see what's inside - a window to the soul of your business!

That's the reason why webmasters prefer hiring professional designers who are experienced in creating effective designs that spell profit. A proper use of colors, graphics, text, animations, and interactive features is crucial in making your website attractive as well as useful to the browser.

It's common to see designers taking inspiration from natural elements like trees, leaves, flowers, water, sky, and others. Elements like cartoon characters, light blurs, geometry, and abstract art also play a vital role in creating fabulous designs to be put on the web world.

Five Elements That Will Rule the Web Design World In 2011

Simple colors. For a sophisticated and professional look of the website, use only two or three colors. Create shades of color, instead of contrasts.
Limit flash. Switch to HTML 5. For hard core web designers, flash is their basic love. However, 2011 brings in a fresh perspective on the website appearances.
Optimize the website to mobile standards. Remember, 2011 is likely to be the year of smartphones. So, if your website design does not favor smart phones, you're obsolete.
Create depth on your website. Remember "Avatar"? This blockbuster started a completely new fashion of 3D characters. Parallax scrolling allows you to create a 3-D illusion on your site, which is the hottest trend of 2011. Use it as a secondary design element on the background, or header and footer.
Attention, designers! Does your design allow touch screen navigation? Or are you still mouse-oriented? It's time to come out of the mouse obsession and embrace fingertip navigation.
Use liquid layouts for a more responsive and trendy website design.
Another hot trend of 2011 is large scale backdrop. A high resolution image will cover your entire web page. What's the idea? Well, try ignoring a spread out photograph on the screen! You just cannot! So, that's the idea. No matter how busy and quick a web browser is, a large backdrop will make them stop and click. However, the image demands transparency and softness so that it does not overshadow your content.
QR or Quick Response is hot in 2011! It is similar to the square bar codes on magazines or business cards. This year is about technological mobility and QR will make your site more functional. You can have a short cut to your mobile site through QR or track your visitors through it. Whatever, it makes a fashion as well as a functionality statement.
Thumbnail browsing remains hot this year too. The visitors need not click to read the site content. They can simply use the magnifying glass and hover over the text. Talk of making the web browsers lazier!

The designer who manages to create a blend of appeal and interesting effects, easy navigation, fast load time, and readable content is a hit in 2011.

With regards to programming, the site should be 100 percent error free and well coded that compliance with web standards and is compatible to browsers. With regards to content, the site must provide interesting, useful, and all-embracing information. All this makes for a great web marketing package. Stuff like SEO and SEM attract the search engines; things like an impressive design and content attract the web browsers.

Cluttered websites are out. Flashy ones with multi colors are a sore to the eyes. Just as designers in the fashion industry need to keep tab with the changing trends and have the knack to forecast fashion, designers in the web world need similar abilities. Similar to fashion, web design has a cycle too. If colored graphics ruled the roost in the past years, shades and even colors like black and white promise to charm once again.

If you're capable of creating an extra ordinary design, reflecting your signature style, fine. If not, it's best to follow the trends and use your creativity to produce something outstanding. Web designing is, in itself, a component of marketing. Let your website speak for you.