The Bleeding Edge

CSS and Web Standards have pretty much been beaten to death. As a result most websites are designed very similarly, in the typical blog style. Flash made a huge splash and fizzled. It was a phenomenal idea, many people have implemented it well, but for the local masses it became more time-consuming to create than the payoff.

So what is next? In an ever changing, continually evolving, technological world I think there are couple of things that are going shape the internet in the following years.

CSS and Web Standards have pretty much been beaten to death. As a result most websites are designed very similarly, in the typical blog style. Flash made a huge splash and fizzled. It was a phenomenal idea, many people have implemented it well, but for the local masses it became more time-consuming to create than the payoff.

So what is next? In an ever changing, continually evolving, technological world I think there are couple of things that are going shape the internet in the following years.

The underlying catalyst for change in the internet and design will come from advancements regarding the backend programming of websites. The drastic improvements in the speed of data retrieval, especially dynamic data will create avenues for the frontend (design/usability/interactivity) that have been unheard of up till now.

Google Maps is an absolutely amazing example of how backend programming has redefined the frontend. Increased speed is key. Google would have never been able to pull this kind of thing off 5-10 years ago (or maybe they were trying to and it has now been perfected).

Another great example of backend programming enhancing and redefining the frontend is Panic’s online apparel store. To add a shirt to your shopping cart just drag it into the bottom section of the page. To remove it simply drag it out of the the shopping cart. What is awesome about this method is that the page doesn’t need to reload, making the user’s shopping experience seamless.

Frontend design will be able to take on a whole new meaning. Webpages will become more interactive, without the use of Flash. Usability will become similar to your Operating System in its ease of use (minus the occasional blue screen of death or the spinning beach ball). Reloading of pages will be uneccessary to retrieve new data. Greater user customization will take precedence over static design.

The biggest trend for design is that things are changing from designer-centric to user-centric design. In the past what the designer came up with is what the user is stuck with. Customization wasn’t heard of. If the font size is too small, deal with it. Now, if you don’t have options to increase/decrease font size you’re living in the stone age. This type of user-centric design will be critical. It will be all about how to make the user’s experience as wonderful and seamless as possible (this should have always been the case, but is more realizable now).

It will be critical for the next generation web designer to understand not only design, but also how programming interacts and compliments design. Focusing upon the user’s experience and their desire to retrieve the data they want in the most seamless and efficient manner.