2013: Web Designers & Users Will Undergo A Big Change [Infographic]

There are some ideas that are so different and creative compared to anything we’ve ever seen; yet when you think about them more, they make so much sense. Those are the most inspiring ideas to me. For example, someone somewhere had the idea that talking on a telephone while being confined to the length the cord would reach was dumb. Suddenly mobile phones were born, and it was a big change. I could probably list a thousand of these kind of ideas right off the top of my head.

I recently read about an idea like this related to web design, and even though I’m not a designer, it blew my mind because it made so much sense. I’m a very heavy Internet user, and I’m very aware of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to design. This is an idea that I think will be a big change, and a change that will benefit us all in the coming year.

I first read about responsive design a few weeks ago right after Mashable launched their newly designed site. It was an article that Pete Cashmore wrote called Why 2013 Is The Year Of Responsive Web Design. He pointed out that in November, Mashable was accessed by over 2,500 different devices. That is a big change compared to years in the past. Our hunger for using multiple mobile devices (sometimes simultaneously) is growing at a fast pace. I know I often have my laptop, my iPad and my iPhone all in use on different websites at the same time. I’m constantly switching back and forth. Apparently that is a popular way to browse the Internet and access information.

Your website may have a desktop version and a mobile version, but are you really providing the best user experience for all the tablets that people are using to check out your site? Would it even be possible to create an app for every one of those devices? Probably not. In a nutshell, responsive web design revolves around the concept that instead of having a few versions of your site, you would have one site that is able to detect what device a user is using and instantly re-size the screen and change characteristics based on that information. In a sense, it’s almost like the website itself would become interactive.

There are several brands who have already adopted this form of web design for their sites, and that trend is expected to continue into the coming year. It’s a big change, but one that seems so obvious when you think about it, right? This infographic called 2013 The Year Of Responsive Web Design by Uberflip explains more about this trend that will affect us all.