Web Trends Report

#1 Mobile Computing

Refers to technologies that allow you to take your computer with you.

3 basic genres of mobile computing:

  • mobile computers (notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones)
  • remote connection
  • desktop virtualization

Mobile devices are becoming the virtual newspaper. The use of mobile internet has evolved to being a part of daily life. Users are more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information. Text-based searches have also contributed to the rise in popularity of accessing news and information via a phone.

According to a comScore survey for daily access by unique users via mobile device, news & information increased 107% and social networking sites/blogs increased 427% from January 2008 to January 2009. The social networking or blogging grew to 9.3 million daily mobile unique users. As a result, web designers have a need to be educated in web device design and ready to design to accommodate this audience.

Designing websites for mobile devices brings some unique situations and challenges. It requires a strategic approach from the designer and developer.

Considerations for Mobile Design:

  • Clean, semantic markup
  • Separation of content & presentation with CSS
  • ALT tags
  • Labeling form fields
  • Use of heading
  • Avoid floats if possible
  • Reduce margins and padding
  • Pay attention to navigation
  • Consider color contrast

Opinion: I believe that this trend going to be a high priority trend due to the dramatic increase in smartphones and other web-enabled devices. After the dawn of the iPhone, other phone carriers are following suit with similar smartphones. From my own personal experience, I utilize the mobile computing for doing homework when away from my desktop computer especially since I have a such a busy life. The same goes for my co-workers who just recently purchased other smartphones – for handling work for their other jobs when "on the road".

#2 Social Networking

Help you connect with others who have the same interests or share similar goals or work in the same industry.

Types of web 2.0 tools:

  • blogs
  • microblogs
  • networking sites
  • wikis
  • niche forums
  • article directories
  • sites to build mini-sites

It is so important in this day and age because the internet is the place to be for everything - shop, sell, learn, meet, etc. Social networking's importance can make or break a site by remaining unseen or anonymous. Use the tools to your advantage.

Social networking sites are the models for the internet marketing of the future. Blogging opened up a dialogue that social networks expanded. Businesses are tapping into these social networks to expand their customer base, but they have to have an idea of what they want to achieve in order to make it succeed. It needs to connect to other elements of the sales and the marketing strategy. It provides additional ways to reach customers, interact with them, and respond to them.

Starting a blog won't get significant SEO traffic for several months, but targeting online social networks will generate traffic instantly.

Opinion: After reading various articles, it seems that if a business is going to remain competitive, it needs to get involved in social networking – one way or another. I have seen a boom in businesses encouraging the visitors to follow them on Twitter or be a fan on Facebook. The radio station I listen to is even rewarding random fans of their Facebook with concert tickets. This is definitely becoming a standard.

#3 Design/Usability

Design: Visual aesthetics of a site
Usability: Ease of use of navigation to a particular destination or give input and receive meaningful responses

Design makes the site visually stimulating and includes color selection, imagery and other visual elements.

Aspects of Design:

  • color choice
  • shape
  • imagery
  • negative space

Elements of usability usually include sitemaps and wireframes.

When these elements are considered and well implemented, the user experience improves greatly which increases the perceived value.

Some of considerations of design include:

  • browser support
  • form design - comment forms, search forms
  • light weight - with success of netbooks and smartphones, websites will become smaller again

Opinion: Naturally as a graphic artist, I feel this is a strong trend. From personal experience, I will perceive sites that are visually appealing and usable must better than those that don't make the extra effort. There are so many resources out there for web developers to use if they aren't the visually creative type. The content has to be REALLY good to make me want to come back. Also on the note of browser support, I deal with my own concerns since I work on Macs. Some sites just don't display correctly (text jumps to strange locations) and some just display what they want or "greeks" it out.