The Future of Web Design

Future of web design 2010

The Future of web design 2010 had all the elements of excellence which its speakers declared were essential for successful web design. It mixed the things the audience already knew to be true with some things a little more new. The event also provided a very enjoyable experience from the man in a bowler hat to welcome you in, delicious food and most importantly free coffee.

The themes of the day were creativity and utilising psychology with the objective of enhancing a users experience. Providing 'delights' to the user was seen as the pinnacle of web design in the future. Aaron Walter used 'Maslows Hierachy of Needs' to explain that currently a lot of designers stop at the glass ceiling of 'usable' but must go into the realms of pleasure and delight to add value to their designs. He also used what was one of the most repeatable phrases of the event Usable=Edible, the idea being that a rice cake is food but not as yummy as cheesecake.

Aral Balkans 'The Art of Emotional Design: A Story of Pleasure, Joy and Delight' went into detail about how when designing his Feathers app for the iPhone he added touches that were not just usable but generated emotive attachment and increased interaction. However Dan Cederhorn pointed out that applying these delights was important but not making them so critical that they could have a negative impact on the end user experience. Connected to this was Simon Collinsons 'what will web design look like in two years' taking the grid design as an example: timeless, used by many, with many years ahead of it, strength in simplicity and ease of understanding.

Bringing this thinking to the web should be integral not an extra. Users have to be central to everything you do as a web designer. Thus enriching their experience is of the utmost importance. Big brands like Apple and Mcdonald's spend millions and years of effort in creating positive word and feeling association with their logos, it is important to see this in action on a website.

In order to successfully enrich a website for your audience you must know how your audience thinks. Knowing your audience becomes the most important aspect of web design. Learning physiology being of the upmost importance to any budding web designers arsenal. There are endless websites, how do you make yours stand out? By 'creating talkaboutability'. Which simply means what it says. Making sure people want and can easily talk about what you provide. So a little psychology goes a long way in making sure that a product is enjoyable for a user , which is so crucial to success.