Like the ever-changing connection speeds to the Internet, design trends for an online presence move at an exponential rate—it is sometimes exhausting just to keep up with what’s new, “in,” and popular. What is most important, however, is effectiveness. To be effective, a web page design must simply look good. With all things visual, though, good looks can be subjective.
Designing Today’s Online Consumer Experience
The challenge for today’s designers, and the future of design, is to make the online consumer experience pleasant and stress-free. Searching for terms, finding information, and easy navigation of a web page are aspects that cause the consumer to feel positive about a product or service. Do you remember how you felt the last time you had to play net detective and go from link to link, page to page? The online consumer wants a simple, yet nice-looking page to look at, and doesn’t desire hunting around and getting lost seeking links to find the information they desire.
10 Years – Has Software Really Changed?
Many designers agree that early the web “look” was not aesthetically pleasing or innovative, and it was not until Web 2.0 that design started coming into its own. But how much has the basic software really changed? There are always new bells, whistles, and widgets with competing software and all the updates. One important change is user-friendliness; you no longer need to take classes in writing code or buy a book on how to compose in HTML, this can now all be done with the click of the mouse, and following simple instructions. People can now spend time creating their own web pages instead of hiring an expert (although we say, “Hire that expert anyway!”).
Where Do Great Design Ideas Come From?
Like all great ideas, they come from great thinkers who are always observing the movement of life around them—from the bus passing on the street that has the local ad on the side, to the billboard two blocks away, from a new hit TV series, a hip indie movie, a song, a painting, an icon or a person shouting “Get a Life!” at another person. Great ideas come from the all the outside influences around us. Designers process these aspects of life to visual ideas for the web.
Great ideas also come from dialogue, from brainstorming, from teamwork. Sometimes an idea may arise out of solving a problem for something unrelated.
Designers are always open to new influences, new concepts, and innovative ideas that spark even more ideas.
Here are some nifty designs that have recently popped up. Each is influenced by pop culture, history, literature, and the culinary arts. Note how each makes uses of artistic vision, easy navigation, easy-to-read-text, and a pleasing-to-eye sensibility to create an online consumer experience that anyone would want to re-experience: