Thread: Web 2.0 Design.

It is claimed that Tim O'Reilly's article,

What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software

introduced the term Web 2.0 like Jesse James Garrett's article

Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications

introduced AJAX. At present I am reading the excellent book The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

by Jason Beaird where he writes about Web 2.0 design.

In KW's web 2.0 design has one or more of the following elements:

• Background gradients.
• Rounded corners, like the mozilla homepage.
• Gradients and whitespace.
• Web 2.0 texture trend: Subtle three-dimensional compositing effects. Same example as above.
• Three-dimensional illusion.
• Use of large types for taglines and headers.
• Trend toward using massive fonts, a trend many people claim is borne of a concern for accessibility rather than aesthetics.

Any comments, other important elements in Web 2.0 design and site examples?

KW Search: Web 2.0 design

I thought Web 2.0 was all about interactivity, dynamic applications and user control. I didn't think it was anything to do with graphic design!

hey, checkout my new 2.0 Blog, website at Oursource Now

I think it has all the graphic design elements of web 2.0

and because it is a blog so it has many of the AJAX user friendly interactivity features.

Good design in my view.

Originally Posted by kgun

In KW's web 2.0 design has one or more of the following elements:

• Background gradients.
• Rounded corners, like the mozilla homepage.
• Gradients and whitespace.
• Web 2.0 texture trend: Subtle three-dimensional compositing effects. Same example as above.
• Three-dimensional illusion.
• Use of large types for taglines and headers.
• Trend toward using massive fonts, a trend many people claim is borne of a concern for accessibility rather than aesthetics.

Any comments, other important elements in Web 2.0 design and site examples?

KW Search: Web 2.0 design

I have a problem with that, if I round the corners on a website then it is now web 2.0. I think we should be at web 2002.200 by now.

Rounding the corners and it is web 2.0 design LOL.

But I would have problems with rounding the corners, since I am not a designer.

Had to read some CSS or paste in code / styling.

Better interface design is at the core of Web 2.0, one might reason, so I am in full agreement that the advances in the visual environment that have been speared on by usability and functionality concerns ought be included as part of the overall development curve, and be associated with the version in which they are introduced.

All of the visual trappings in KW's web 2.0 design list, posted above by kgun, have been around long before Web 2.0, but the trend toward their practical use in meaningful, associative and interactive ways has taken on steam within this part of the curve. It is as much Web 2.0 as any AJAX script.

Yeesh this thread is almost 2 years old.

That said, James you're taking kgun's cite of a comparison between web 2.0 and ajax out of context. The 'first' use of the names are all he (or rather, his source at O'reilly) is asserting.

Also, every bullet point on that list is something that was either challenging or impossible with older versions of html table-based inline-style layouts and slower bandwidth except for the 'large type/massive fonts' items. The enhanced ability for designers to design pages has kept apace with the programmer's ability to program cloud-based web applications. In the average web user's mind, the two are not separate.

I'm okay with that. It's hard enough to visualize these applications of technology already; it would be even harder if you took the design 'face' of 2.0 away.

Originally Posted by jamescabrera

which is web 2.0 but has no connection to web 2.0

That bit confuses me