Design Trends of 2012

After doing the rounds of the design circuit this year, we feel we’ve got a pretty good handle on the design trends of 2011. With responsive design, and user-centred design both leading the way as the most talked about topics, we were thinking about what people are going to be talking about next year. Personally, I think that cat-centred design is where it’s going to be at tomorrow. However, this is probably why I’m not on stage speaking at New Adventures…

Instead, I’ve asked around the industry to get a few design trends that some web and UX designers see as the big things to look out for in 2012

The Rise of Content

Content-first design is something that has been talked about quite a bit this year, and is something that recent designer of the year award winner Sarah Parmenter definitely sees a big trend for 2012. “I’m hoping 2012 sees the rise of content, and with it, designers realising that without prior content, or designing with place holder text, you really are just designing a pretty, but ultimately, pretty useless, picture. I hope to see content strategists and web designers team up for more close collaboration. I’ve been working with one on a few projects and it’s made the world of difference.”

The Shrinking Boundary Between ‘Digital’ and ‘Real’

Author of ‘Undercover User Experience Design’, Cennydd Bowles, sees another aspect to the changing world of design, with the line between digital and non-digital becoming increasingly blurred:

“2012’s design trends will depend on the economy. Assuming we continue to edge away from danger, we’ll see designers spending more time figuring out how websites, apps, and other digital media can dovetail with non-digital experiences like customer service, wayfinding, and fulfilment. The boundary between ‘digital’ and ‘real’ continues to shrink, and people now expect comparable experiences online and off. Whatever label we use – service design, cross-channel UX – it suggests a strategic and far-reaching role for digital designers.

However, if the worst happens, the biggest challenge will be how to keep our jobs as banks and governments collapse all around us. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for Plan A.”

The Rejection of Skeumorphism

The ‘real’ aspect of visual design has been incredibly popular over the past few years, with paper-like effects, drop-shadows and bevelled edges making a comeback like nothing else. However, Andrew Spooner, one of the Microsoft evangelists behind Ubelly, sees things going in a different way:

“In 2012 I expect to see a revolt against the skeumorphic interface, ebook readers will drop their page turning animations, diary apps will lose their digi-leather covers and spiral bound frames and instead, designers and UX architects will acknowledge digital devices for what they are, a window to content where the content is the focus, not an ornamental shell. Consumers will welcome this – pointless applications will no longer be able to hide behind over-engineered interfaces.”

Minimalism to the nth degree

Finally, in recent years we’ve been seeing the ’320 and up, content out’ approach taking root across the web. Sam Hardacre, Leeds based designer and sketchnoter, sees this influencing design on a wider scale:

“I think with 320 and up, content out approaches become more popular among web designers, sites will take on a more minimalist look. I’ve already started to notice some recent redesigns taking this approach and think it’s interesting to see the varied work people come up with without relying on lots of decorative design elements.”

What are the trends that you foresee for 2012? Is table-based html going to make a comeback? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter.