Web design trends of 2011

 

Web design is not exactly an Estate Agent’s primary concern on a day-to-day basis, but on that one single day that their Estate Agent website is in question, all Estate Agents want the most aesthetically pleasing website possible (even sometimes at the expense of usability).

With articles such as ‘A New Year’s Resolution for Estate Agents’ and ‘My 2011 wish list for Estate Agents online’, it will come as no surprise that web designers are looking to the year ahead and pondering future developments and trends.

So, what can Estate Agents expect to see in the second year of this new decade? Not exactly radical changes, but here’s what we at Resource Techniques expect the industry to be heading.

• Developing standards

We’re going to see much more Html 5, CSS3 and Javascript. Web designers now seem to be moving away from flash and one of the reasons is that many smart phones do not support flash. Great Estate Agent web designers will not only watch web design trends but also strive to lead the market with an unbeatable portfolio.

• Fall of browser

Internet explorer is the world’s most used browser but its popularity is in decline. According to StatCounter, people are flocking over to Google Chrome with a UK market growth of 9% since January of last year. At its current rate, Estate Agents could see Chrome overtake Firefox in popularity by the end of the year.

• Simple colour schemes

Web design has been moving toward a simpler colour scheme for some time now. This trend has been a long time coming, but many Estate Agent web designers still insist on cluttering up homepages when the huge majority of visitors are just simply looking for a property search button.

• Mobile ready

We all know about smart phones and their capabilities, even if they do harbour A LOT of germs. Every year mobile usage is reported to revolutionise the way we interact, even though it always seems to be always over the next hill.
What you can count on is that a small percentage of your website visitors will be using some sort of mobile platform. If you have the mobile capability, go onto your Estate Agent website and see how it performs.

• Depth perception

To get the most out of the tools, web designers regularly create websites that have a 3D effect. As software improves Estate Agents will see a greater use of depth perception, then as 3D capable hardware becomes affordable and mainstream, we could start to see properties in 3D (although this will be further into the future) and Estate Agents projecting properties.

• QR codes

OK this isn’t exactly to do with web design, but Estate Agents can expect to see that with a more widespread knowledge, QR codes will be used on advertisements, products and even business cards. For more information on QR codes, visit this article.

James Coyne – emarketing and social media consultant