Bored by Web 2.0 Design

Glossy buttons, reflective logos and beta buttons are everywhere. Designers have become magpies taking anything shiny and using it without thinking whether it makes a website better.

Web 2.0 design

Welcome to web 2.0. The land of shiny surfaces, reflections and half finished websites. Much like the code libraries out there designers are grabbing what is freely available without understanding how it works or what it is used for. Many Web 2.0 sites are over obsessing on design without focussing on what is really important - the user experience. Even operating systems are guilty of this. Windows are marketing the 'Wow' for example on the Vista UI. Yes it does look glossy and shiny. Wow. But what about the annoyance of having to click ok every time you want to do anything?

Successful sites are not jumping on the bandwagon

The emerging winners in the Web 2.0 gold rush have not adopted glossy AJAXified interfaces. Instead they have opted for good old fashioned intuitive interfaces. Look at Basecamp for example. A critical eye might say it is light on design. But it does what it needs to do and helps the user to complete tasks easily. They use AJAX sparingly and don't rely heavily on it. Flickr is clean and lean and helps the user to perform tasks quickly and simply. Surely they could lose the Gamma tag by now though!?

Both sites have been successful as they make it easy for users to do what they want to do quickly.

Using new technologies prudently

Code libraries have emerged that allow designers to plug functionality into sites quickly and easily. Sadly though in many cases designers and coders don't understand the code they are using. More often than not AJAX on sites is not thoroughly tested across different browsers and operating systems. This is a huge failure of Web 2.0. My personal experience is that AJAX is very hard to do well. You must cater for users with Javascript turned off and most importantly understand the technology you are using. Many projects opt to use AJAX without realising that it may in fact increase development time. As the deadline looms a worse product is produced, but with a few more bells and whistles.

Looking back to the 80's

Web 2.0 reminds me of the synthesizer in the 80's. It is a new toy for designers to play with. It does so much. The majority don't understand what they are using and most of what is being produced is utter rubbish. A few visionaries really do get it though, but they probably won't be acknowledged for another 20 years.

Time to reboot

For me it is time we looked beyond the glossy surfaces and reflections. Designers need to focus more on user experience. They need to look outside the web for inspiration. It seems to me the history of Graphic Design has been largely dumped for a fading AJAX effect. It is time to look around outside the web: at posters, at newspapers, at typography, at history. It is also time designers get to grips with the fact that if a user can't interact with a site then it has failed in its main purpose and they are not doing their job.

The web is still new and we are all still learning. I'm bored of Web 2.0 design though.

Comments

Erwin Heiser Feb 13 2007

Spot on!
What most clients ask for are simple, easy to navigate and easy to use sites; often this means less technology not more…
Cheers,
Erwin

lovedoc Jul 5 2007

It’s like a kid with a new toy at Xmas. They’ll soon get bored with it and end up playing with the old ones.

Sherman Jul 6 2007

Well, if not over-done, the shiny reflections to the right images/objects could make the web sites more interesting to the visitors.

After all, it’s mimicking the 3D world our live in, with light and shadow.

Human eyes are attracted to “real life” objects, such as those with reflections. Even though they may not be executed realistically, the human brain will fill the gap and process the shadows and reflectons naturally.

Sherman

Alex Feb 1 2008

Let’s not blame the glossy button. I agree web 2.0 is soon becoming a bad buzz word (actually it already has). However, the problem is not the graphics or the “bling” but more an understanding that good web design is more than just being flashy. Good usability is a core to any web design project. There are many great sites with glossy buttons, gradients, and drop shadows that incorporate these along with a foundation of usability design.

Unfortunately, there are many amateurs that design sites that are usability nightmares. All their attention has been placed on graphics. It is these people that quickly give Web 2.0 a bad name. Web 2.0 is supposed to incorporate good usability design, semantic code, and appealing design. Most have 1 out of 3.

So I won’t jump on the bash 2.0 band wagon. Instead of bashing 2.0 design. Let’s understand what the real problem is. A glossy button is not the problem. I repeat a glossy button is not the problem. The problem comes from knowing nothing about design except for making a glossy button.

SEO Services Auckland Feb 27 2008

Well..yes is easy to get bored. But this is fashion trend. Don’t know who started this. Shinny and shadow is everywhere then they will stay they are web 2.0 shIt. My clients start to ask me something 2.0 and they dont even know what is 2.0