1. Responsive (multiple fluid grid layouts) or Adaptive (multiple fixed-width layouts) Design
   We briefly talked about this at the jQuery presentation and I foresee this being a popular approach in our future projects. With mobile and tablets becoming increasingly popular, this is a somewhat reliable way of accommodating them.
2. Grid Layouts
   Using grid layouts, especially when building a responsive, adaptive design.
3. User-centric Designs
   Paying closer attention to the user, context and objectives; not just technical or visual aspects.
4. Mobile-first Approach
   Some may disagree, but when building a responsive designs it’s important to know what’s the most important aspects of the site (what’s the excess… imagery and animations).
5. Progressive JPEG
   Using progressive instead of baseline will be the new thing in 2013. Photos are what slows down a site. A baseline jpeg is a full-resolution top-to-bottom scan of the image, and a progressive jpeg is a series of scans of increasing quality. And that’s how they render; baseline jpegs paint top to bottom and progressive jpegs quickly stake out their territory and refine. Read more about this here: http://calendar.perfplanet.com/2012/progressive-jpegs-a-new-best-practice/
6. IE7 Dies
   Of course it depends on the client, but supporting IE7 is not only a waste of time and money but also limits the design. As of November 2012, IE7 was used 1.1%.
7. Google-inspired
   Designs taking on more of subtle gradients and sharp edges. Fewer sites will be inspired by Apple and more by Google.
8. HTML5 & CSS3
   This has been introduced a couple years ago, but I can see CSS3 becoming even more popular in 2013… giving way to the slow death of IE7 and IE8. Depending on the project, usage of more animations and 3d transitions.
9. Retina Displays
   Since Apple has introduced their retina display devices (currently iPhone 4+, iPad 3 and MacBook Pro), there will be a greater means to support these displays.
10. Social Integration
    I don’t see much changing in how we integrate social media into our projects, but if there is a project where users create accounts, sign up forms may become easier by signing in with your Facebook or Twitter account. It’s an almost one-click sign up.
11. Web Fonts
    A greater use of Google Fonts/TypeKit in designs.
12. Parallax & Vertical Scrolling
    These types of sites will become more popular this year. Here’s a cool example (http://johnpolacek.github.com/scrollorama/). I don’t see this type of effect being used much in typical B2C or B2B sites.

The design was provided to us from Maddy Hague, creator of Somewhere Splendid. MixxCreative was in charge of developing the site using WordPress. There was a lot of customization involved with this project. We had to handle user registrations, custom post types (Projects and Vendors) and allow users to save projects to their dashboard.

MixxCreative built a custom WordPress plug-in for Confetti Pop that tied into the site giving members the opportunity to favorites any project they wanted to a project board they created. In the admin panel, you can see how many favorites a project received, when it was added and who added it. This allows the administrator to track which projects hold a higher value.

Visit Confetti Pop to see more.

Screen Shots

Why do they use it? Simple. It’s easy-to-use, free, open-source and very flexible. The possibilities are endless when it comes to using WordPress as your CMS. We here at MixxCreative can help you build your company’s business on this amazing and progressive platform.

You can get a better idea of just how powerful it is by viewing the infographic below.

Click to view the infographic

Not only did we provide them with their own custom design, but by using WordPress as the software they are now able to update their own site. Using custom triggers and hooks with our advanced WordPress theme, the client can upload new gallery images easily. 

The home page is definitely the shining armor of this creation. There’s a decent amount of information here, but it’s laid out in a way so that the visitor does not get lost. Adding new pieces to the slideshow and new testimonials is easy with our custom WordPress theme.

Visit Stuyvesant Press, Inc. and check it out for yourself.

Screen Shots

In addition to having your website designed, developed and put on the web for all to see, you need to consider if you want your site to be available on mobile devices. How often have you needed information on-the-go and when you went to the website it was the full version and it took forever to load (not to mention the data that it drains from your mobile plan). I’m sure it’s happened but nowadays it’s becoming less frequent.

Businesses are realizing the importance of getting their website designed and developed for mobile. For example, restaurants notice that one of most important things on their website is the menu (and sometimes pricing). The first thing available on a mobile version of their site should be just that, the menu. Of course it depends on your business and what the needs are of your customers, but the main focus is that it’s critical to deliver to your clients fast and with reliability.

Even if your business already has a website, mobilizing it is always a great idea.