This article covers Small business Design Trends for next year, including the process of embedding non-websafe fonts onto your site, experimenting with CSS3 and HTML5, creating a Mobile Website, and implementing design styles from Tumblr.
Web Fonts
Have your heart set on using a particular font on your site? You may think your online video sales Web site won’t be complete without the “Showtime” font. But what if your visitors’ browsers don’t have Showtime installed and default to Times Roman instead?
If your page requires an unusual font, you can now embed it using CSS3
In the past, customizing the typography (fonts) on your website has been very complicated and included work-arounds such as using graphics or flash to render the text correctly on the site. But recently, the situation with fonts and the web has significantly improved. Services such as TypeKit, Fonts.com Web Fonts and Google Web Fonts, make it possible to use web fonts on your own site with very little effort, for either free or very nominal costs.
Now, small businesses will be able to maintain best practices while still remaining true to their brand. Using the same fonts on your website as you use in your print material is something we all should strive for, as developing a consistency between materials promotes brand recognition and makes you appear professional and trusted to your customers and clients.
HTML5 & CSS3
Until now, it was difficult to make the decision to use more advanced versions of HTML and CSS, for fear of shutting out parts of our potential audiences. Now, HTML5 and CSS3 are ready, and we can begin to adopt many of the cutting-edge web design elements they offer.
The newest versions of HTML (5) and CSS (3) allow small business owners to experiment with a great deal of interesting, interactive elements. The best part? the latest versions of the major web browsers — Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera, along with almost all modern smartphones — all support CSS3 and HTML5 features and elements.
HTML5’s most touted features are media (audio & video) playback and offline storage. HTML5 is an excellent alternative to Adobe Flash, which currently doesn’t work on most smartphones, and is slowly becoming obsolete as a video player.
CSS3, allows you to create more graphically interesting elements for your website, such as scalable buttons, bar graphs, sexy dropdown menus, speech bubbles, interesting hover effects, photo galleries, shadows on your images, and much more!
- What is HTML5, and Why Should You Care? (Switched.com)
- 5 Tools For Integrating HTML5 Video in Your Website (Mashable)
- Introduction to CSS3 (DesignShack)
- 7 Awesome CSS3 Techniques You Can Start Using Right Now (Mashable)
Mobile Website
With the increase of advanced cellphones and small screen reading devices, the push for 2011 for small businesses should be to optimize their website for these devices. Creating a mobile version of your website is an effective way to make sure that your visitors are getting the most out of your website, no matter what they are using to view it.
- 8 tools for easily creating a mobile version of your website (Mashable)
- A Guide to Mobile Web Design Tips and Tricks (Mashable)
Tumblr
Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme’s HTML. Even if you don’t use Tumblr for your company blog, you can incorporate design elements of Tumblr — distinctive icons for post type, big, beautiful typography for titles and headings, and a minimalist layout.
- About Tumblr
- Tumblr Adds Curated Topic Pages for Better Content Discovery (12.20.10 - Mashable)
Questions / Comments?
Contact Bullzeye Design today with any questions or inquiries on implementing the trends in this article. Do you know of other trends for the upcoming year? Share your resources with a comment!
