23 September 2008

Web 2.0 woes

In my profession, I like to try and keep up with the latest developments. This often involves reading blogs and I've become aware that there is an underlying movement against web 2.0 design.

What is web 2.0 design? Well, it's a bit of a buzz-phrase, but it generally refers to clean designs that use gradients, drop shadows, very large text headings and lots of AJAX. Sites like Flickr are prime web 2.0 candidates.

Some pundits feel that although still popular, the days of web 2.0 design are numbered. I am not so sure simply because it's easy to implement, consistency of design aids familiarity, it is centred firmly around branding, and it's well known. These factors I think will not see the back of web 2.0 for some time yet.