Emerging web trends for 2010

 What is changing in how we are using internet and what web design does to accommodate it?  Here are some trends that I’ve noticed as 2010 nears:

Talking about Web2.0 doesn’t mean anything any more

It’s become one of the cheesiest terms around. For some it means online software as a service; for others it means large typography; and for some it still means reflections of things on a shiny surface and vertical gradient across the bottom part of a text line. When someone starts to talk to me how he wants Web2.0 design – I know he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Just cut to the point and tell me all you want is a red background…

Geolocation based interaction

Yahoo’s GeoPlanet with its Where on Earth IDs is creating base for interacting with, and targeting local businesses, communities, users. No longer is global internet good for everyone. In search or quick engagement and relevance, we can now listen to local trends and interact directly with them to get better response. Twitter even created a special API for that.

Mobile applications are king.

People refuse to be tied to a desktop computer in order to get all the benefits of the internet they are already used to. It’s not fun watching movies on a small screen, but paying for your coffee with an iPhone, booking a hotel or buying any tickets has become something that you just expect. Embedded GPS allows to build ‘discovery’ applications that will not just show you a map of the area where you are, but also a list on nearby businesses, attractions or hospitals. Updating your status to Twitter, Facebook, and filming events as they happen on the street to send them immediately to a local news station is normal activity.

 Increasing shift toward one online identity

With thousands of websites requiring your registration, frustration is growing against yet another user ID and password. We are seeing an increasing shift toward combining multiple sign-ups into one online identity and social activity being an integrated part of the network as a whole, rather than concentrated within individual social applications. Facebook Connect, Google Wave, Brightkite and others are offering social integration tools.

Huge webpages

We are seeing more websites where everything is huge to stun and awe. Huge headers with oversized logos, huge pictures, not to illustrate content, but to attract a visitor; skipping menus and traditional navigation in lieu of large interesting typography with interactive links to all that’s important in an introduction sentence, including your other social sites will dominate in 2010. Scrolling takes over clicking this time around – pages become longer to accommodate larger, full screen headers. Heck, the whole website is becoming one long page.

Interesting designs

Step away from boring corporate façade. Media is mixed; sketch and hand-drawn pieces co-mingle with smooth vector graphics. Bold and unusual typography replaces mediocre pics, page is showing a new perspective, different from flat plane of the paper; modal boxes force viewer to focus where designer wants them to be in terms of context function. Familiar magazine layouts, where page is divided into large grid boxes becomes prevalent for sites with lots of information. Also language becomes less formal, it doesn’t have to always be About Us | Services | Clients | Contact.

I am really looking forward to more interesting web.

Chemical mutiny coming of age?

In quest of healthy living…

I am coming from the screening of a new environmental film – Chemerical, just produced by a young Canadian vibrant environmentalist Andrew Nisker. It’s about time that we have more of such films, and I wish they are distributed everywhere. Especially they should be taught to teenagers who in turn will make their current and future families (two shots in one) to realize that chemicals have gone too far.

Plastics defined our generation.

 Colorful, sturdy, moldable, weight efficient, recyclable, fashionable, but edible…? My first shock in real life education on health and wellbeing was back in 90s when I learned that margarine is… yellow color asphalt. Supposedly the same compound. My face became suddenly red, as guilt of feeding it to my children for the last 15 years in all kinds of home baked products was creeping up to my consciousness.  I felt betrayed. I wanted to educate myself immediately about what else I didn’t know that was harming my family.

 I started to read food labels and became a hater of packaged goods. All of them seemed to have long name chemicals that did not sound good to me. Calcium propionate and stearyl in bread? I thought stearyl belonged to candles, and I certainly did not want to eat those. Why all of a sudden all these gums in dairy products? I wanted a cottage cheese, not a gum to gunk my guts. I understand that most of these additives aim at prolonging the shelf life of the goods. But I am concern about health of my family, not about convenience and logistics of the food industry. I rather go to Polish or Portuguese bakery to buy bread without any additives every second day than store bread for a month with stearyl in it.

One of the most upsetting moments in the last half a year was to find in the list of ingredients in my beloved pumpernickel a caramel colour – which sounds very natural, but it turns out is one of very offensive bad chemicals. Betrayal again. Why would anyone in good state of mind add any artificial colour to food? Most of children’s food contains unnecessary artificial colours. I think it’s a crime. I’d love to see all chemical colours banned from food. And this includes dying salmon in vivid pink so it looks “wild”. Period.

It does not stop at food. As a good mother I cleaned my house thoroughly and frequently for years and years with all kinds of chemicals that were presented to me by TV and every day advertisements as the best for the purpose. They smelled ‘good’ and everything looked so clean. It just that I was getting these sneezing attacks more and more often, my breathing was not without wheezing and I was oh so tired without apparent reasons. I knew something was seriously wrong when I lost completely my sense of smell about the age of 45. It was allergies and aging, as explained my doctor. Surgery on sinuses and nose was recommended, with unknown result. He suggested I better become accustomed to not having smell for the rest of my life. Boy, did I become a diligent reader again. I love flowers, I love food – how can I live without my smell? Thank God for internet, easy access to all kinds of research materials and alternative medicine.

In the next stage of my health education I learned that all the cleaning products I used so much were quite harmful.

I had to learn how to live without pinesol, javax, urethane, lysol and air fresheners. I was already half way to a clean indoor air considering I am not a fan of any candles and scent sticks, which deteriorate quality of the indoor air even further. It was really easy to get rid of all chemical cleaners while yearning my smell come back from the other side of the rainbow.

I had to wait couple of years, but you cannot imagine what a happiness it is to have your smell back. Even stinky soggy urban streets make me feel so much alive again!

 Next stage in the quest for healthy living is a deep look at the cosmetics and water.

I know, water should have been first. Good few years ago almost everyone got rid of lead water pipes in their homes. Now I am reading that copper pipes also pose some new risks. Bottled water? Well, did you read the label? Yes, water has a label with list of ingredients… and one of them is fluoride! OK, it kills bacteria – but at the same time it is harmful to me too. RO water gets rid of all, including minerals, and attempts to bring them back come with other additives. It all becomes catch 22. Sounds like I am just worrying too much. Fine, but what I already know about healthy living, I will apply. There is no going back. I wish I was taught these things in grammar school.

If I am for healthy living so much, why don’t I just get out of the city and into wilderness, to bath my soul in pure nature? Well, to tell you the truth, I am afraid of bears…

Wilderness has other dangers too. I am a city girl, a baby boomer, my income sources are in the city, I am used to certain conveniences and I don’t think that city should exclude healthy living.

I will vote with my buying power which foods, cosmetics and cleaners I like and I urge you to do the same. Go see “Chemerical” and educate yourself about what doctors, advertisements and chemical companies will not tell you.

Support free choices for a healthy environment.

Going nuts over [micro]management

Don’t you love these bosses who are a control freak over every aspect of your job to the point that makes you scream?

My geeky exercise patterns

Toned bodies of red carpet celebrities seem like a dream we can never reach. On the other hand turn around on the street to see [not so much] elderly people in their mobility scooters… I am over 50, with sedimentary life style and I hate exercising [period]. I don’t want to end-up in an electric scooter, and I am told people can live to 125 with full flexibility and good health if they stay active. This is not my usual blogging subject, however EXERCISE has been way too long on the first page of my to-do list to ignore it any longer.

So what’s a geek to do?

Twitter, Facebook replacing websites for business

Changing landscape of social networking demands changes in businesses marketing tactics. If your goal is to increase exposure (whose isn’t?), then you no longer look for SEO strategists. Battlefield moved to social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Swirly thingies have 2008 stamp all over them

Are you a victim of the current trends? Once an Adobe subscriber, you are on top of what’s hot and what’s not in design world.

Readability over form

Fascination with a form, moving pictures and mind-piercing colors does not always pay off for your website design.

Turns out, some visitors that stopped by because of shouting form, got upset quite quickly when they either could not read what was all this about or couldn’t find easily information they were looking for.

 

Are current advances in technology killing family life or bringing families closer together?

By now everyone heard the popular claims how computer activities can destroy family life. The worst case scenario just happened in Barrie where a teenager disappeared from home after his parents, with best intentions, took away his gaming privileges. We all pray for his safe return and look around for self-assurance to locate our own children.

Did anyone find you yet?

Since December we have 17 million sites more. If you think you were afloat, check your ranking now… Surprised? You should be. Internet is evolving so fast that any fairly new technologies in online marketing are becoming irrelevant sooner than ever.

Some of the best software comes free

Being a startup you worry about every dollar spent. Software is the last on your list. You assumed it would come with your computer. And now you have to write this first invoice, you look at start, programs… where is this Microsoft Office? Nowhere to be found. And it was always there in your corporate office…