Web Design Trends in 2009. Part 1

Designers are fickle people, they like to experiment with things. Therefore, they often try various approaches to solving problems, which in the future may become mainstream and classics. As a result, other artists notice all this, start using some nuances themselves, and then a trend emerges.

Over the past few months, the SmashingMagazine portal team has analyzed many web designs, new trends, and various artistic solutions. As a result, the article “Web Design Trends 2009” was born: new developments, design elements and graphic approaches. All of this is spiced up with professional reasoning and excellent shining examples.

In the original, the first part of the material contains 10 web design trends of the year out of 25. The rest will be published a little later. I hasten to assure you that they will also be translated and posted on the pages of the Design Mania blog, so stay tuned and subscribe to RSS! The only thing is that I decided to split the article into several more parts, since there is a lot of information (both textual and graphic).

1. Printed letters (imprint)

One of the most unexpected trends in the review over the past few months has been the use of “printed letters” (which seem to be pressed into the surface) in web design. Perhaps the most likely reason for this trend is that this technique has rarely been used until now. The print effect is used in a variety of styles, websites and themes, in particular, it is most commonly found in product designs or online services.

2. Advanced user interfaces

Fortunately, the user interfaces in modern websites and applications have become much more beautiful and friendly. Over the past year, the experience of using such solutions has increased, which has led to the development of interfaces in the direction of similarity to classic dectopic applications. AJAX and Flash technologies are widely used for dynamic user interaction. This is what visitors expect from modern, sophisticated, professional solutions.

In particular, we saw a lot more light spots, padding and white space for various design elements. We ve also noticed that many interfaces use intuitive visual cues for users. For example, buttons often change their appearance depending on the state – “normal” or “pressed”. In addition, more and more services can now be “personalized” by the user, that is, customized at his discretion. For us, this is a clear sign that responsive user interfaces will be popular in 2009.

Both examples are proof that web application developers pay much more attention to functionality and try to provide the user with a more interactive and responsive solution.

3. PNG transparency

Although PNG transparency is not supported by Internet Explorer 6, it seems to have gained a lot of popularity over the past year. Obviously, web designers are trying to integrate background images as best they can into the actual content area and are aiming for a style that is often seen in print magazines. In most cases, a translucent background stands out from the background of the page to emphasize an important design element, such as a headline or ad. Sometimes PNG transparency is used as background for pop-ups.

Last year smashingmagazine described various ways to use transparency creatively in web design, and it looks like a lot of designers have decided to experiment and apply this technique in their work.

4. Huge typography

In 2009, large typography should remain in vogue. In particular, design agencies, portfolios, product websites and online services will use large typography to highlight the most important places and texts on their own projects.

The font size of these design elements often exceeds 36 pixels, in many cases expensive fonts are used to attract the audience. In general, designers pay more attention to typographic details and font selection. Consequently: Satli websites are more beautiful, consistent, look solid and trustworthy.

5. Replacing the font

Just as designers pay a lot of attention to typography, they look at the use of fonts on a site page. While the classics Helvetica, Arial, Georgia and Verdana undoubtedly dominate, we have seen some font replacement trends (with sIFR, for example).

Interestingly, these fonts are often discreetly integrated into designs. They are almost never used for the sake of application or to “refresh” the typography of a website. Designers use this approach, combined with beautiful typography, to enhance the project s appearance and visitor experience.

To be continued…

PS Learn to draw stylish geometric lines in Photoshop.
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