As we move forward into a new year, a new decade and a new web—with the transition to HTML5 and CSS3 becoming more and more noticeable, 2010 stands to be a year of much interesting and experimental web design. Designers and developers are teaching themselves all of the fancy tricks with the new standards and starting to drop support for IE6 to favour the majority of their users now on standards-compliant browsers.

So what do I think we’ll start to see a lot more of very soon?

Serif Fonts

In the past, it has been difficult to use serif fonts on screen due to low resolution displays and lacked support for font anti-aliasing in certain browsers or operating systems, causing illegible type. As screens become larger, graphics cards and displays having higher pixel resolution and browsers supporting more powerful font rendering, it’s time to bring back the good old serifs and make them new once again.

More Experimental Typography

Now that it’s relatively easy to use custom fonts on the web—whether that be through sIFR or CSS3 @font-face or even just an image, I think it’s about time we see a little more advanced typography on the web. It’s time for Georgia and Arial to move aside and make way for some fancy fonts and type treatments.

Minimalist Designs

Minimalist web and graphic design seems to be all the buzz at the moment, with galleries designed specifically for showcasing the lastest work. With corporations like Apple and Google slowly taking over the digital world and influencing modern design, I don’t see this pattern changing any time soon.

Stricter Grids

Today, websites in general hold much more content than ever before and the only way to maintain and properly present the vast amounts of content without it getting lost is through a cleverly designed grid structure. CSS and web design frameworks such as the 960 Grid System and Blueprint are trying to help streamline the web design process with commonly used grid dimensions based on usability standards and best practices in design.

Wider Designs

As of January 2010, 76% of computer users have displays higher than 1024×768 and 97% use 24-32 bit hardware to display 16.7 million colours. In theory, this means we’re no longer restricted to our safe area of 1004×580 pixels and in fact have a much wider canvas. When the new generation of web designers catch on to this, it’s going to be interesting to see what they can do with an extra 250+ pixels of horizontal space, not to mention a lower fold line.

CSS3 Effects

Alpha transparency, text shadows, rounded corners and even CSS animations without the need for javascript of Flash are all new effects that are becoming possible, or at least much easier to implement with the introduction of CSS3. I am looking forward to seeing what the industry churns out using these new features in the years to come so long as they aren’t overused and subsequently turned into a gimmick.

Stronger Marketing Models

The final trend—or perhaps even more than that—is not an aesthetic or functional prediction, but more of a purpose. People are really starting to understand the power of the web as a marketing tool; whether through email campaigns, social media or search engine optimisation. For me, there’s nothing more stunning than a cleverly designed landing page, using all of the above features and a bit of strategy to ensure success. This really is what I love about the web.

In Conclusion

I think we can expect one of the most experimental years to date in web design for 2010. The death of IE6 and the continual rise of standards compliant browsers; Firefox, Chrome & Safari, the growing presence of CSS3, HTML5 and jQuery and the increased methods of accessibility will all contribute to this. What are your predictions for the new year or even decade?