Web 2.0, as described by many, is often used to describe a resurgence in the web economy, a new level of technological interactivity or a social phenomena deriving from new types of online communities and social networks. In whatever ways they might be described, the new web 2.0 sites show a remarkable change in the patterns of design. Certain common styles and trends can be observed in most of these sites, that has probably included designing too as a part of web 2.0 definitions.
The basic patterns that most of the web 2.0 sites follow are:
a. Simple Layout: The layouts generally stick to 1-2 column formats. This provides a cluster free navigation and easy sorting of the contents. These pages read in a straightforward way from top to bottom, and you don't find your eye skipping around trying to work out what to look at. It's a much calmer and more solid browsing experience than in times gone by.
b. Centered Orientation: In comparison to the liquid layout or left-aligned fixed-width layout of yesteryears, the new designs call for a center-orientated layout.
c. Content Designing: It is often said, that the mantra of web 2.0 designing is "Design the Content, Not the Page"! Well, this can also be observed in quite a lot of cases. It is no longer designing a blank page to be filled with content later. Rather it's about designing the content, to make the site look more in sync with its theme.
d. 3D Effects: This is another of the very commonly found designing component for all web 2.0 sites. Glossy effects, reflections, bright colors and drop-shadows, are the latest designing trends.
e. Background Colors: As already mentioned, the page backgrounds are not the main aspects of designing any longer. Rather, they are generally filled with soft natural colors, gradients or simple diagonal or horizontal stripes. These simple backgrounds help to further enhance and highlight the importance of the already designed content.
f. Cute Icons: As with strong color and 3D effects, appealing icons and buttons can add that bit of polish to help give a page a high-quality feel. But used too much, they'll have the counter effect, cluttering the page and confusing the user.
g. Big Text: Important sections of the site are generally written using bigger texts. This is surely to attract the user's attention. However, not all the text should be using the same bigger fonts, simply because then none of them would be bigger than the other.
h. Big Input Fields: Bigger input fields are seen in the recent web 2.0 sites. This probably helps to validate the content design and the bigger text part of layout. Moreover, it somehow emphasizes the user interactivity of the web 2.0 sites.
i. Stars and Badges: Last but not the least, comes the bright stars and badges that have almost created a revolution in the web 2.0 designing. Almost all the sites that claim to be web 2.0 essentially include a bright star or a badge somewhere on their site. Mostly seen in their declaration of a beta release, the stars and badges can also be found in buttons and contents.
In addition to the orthodox definitions, these new, classy and smart web-designing trends also help to define a new breed of websites, the ones known to us now as the web 2.0 sites.
Thanks to Judy Hunter, is a technology and internet freak, an avid blogger and trend analyst who writes for 123Greetings.com and quite a few other websites. She also specializes on relationship management.
