Web trends – follow or define?

For 2010 there has been a lot of pre-emptive trend defining in the press. It has to be said that a lot of these 'trends' are just logical evolutions in usability and effective communication. There is much posturing about what twists the web is going to take both atheistically and functionally.

It would seem that the hand-drawn/sketch style that was very popular in the last half of the year in 2009 is transforming into a more considered approach, combining hand drawn elements into cleaner more open design with emphasis on content impact, usability and simplicity.

This year has been dubbed 'the year of typography' with typography becoming the new image. With greater technical abilities to implement type on the way like fontdeck and the existing javascript solution cufon. The ability to design with fonts other than the standard handful that we've been restricted to, will certainly create a richer and more exciting internet.

It will create further problems especially for fontographers who have already had their livelihoods heavily curtailed by the web. The minefield of copyright and permissions will be fraught and although fontdeck say they will deal with these problems through their hosted service, the greater use of fonts across the web will inevitably increase the instances of copyright infringement as people scrabble to jump on the band wagon.

The uptake of .css3 by most major browsers (except internet explorer of course) will create a more engaging experience too. The ability to add drop shadows, transparency and rotate and scale elements on the fly with code opens up a world of possibilities previously only available on the flash platform. Although there is much talk of web v3.0 and augmented reality I think this year will see a rapid refinement of web v2.0 and greater uptake of standards based coding.

That said, there are some fantastic leaps in genuine technological advancement surrounding Flash. Ever greater 3d possibilities and the success of other 3d media for example the movie avatar, will drive the development of revolutionary web experiences that will re-define what the web is capable of.

All theses predictions are just that, predictions. In the brief and frenetic history of the web it is safe to say that nobody, regardless of standing and experience can foresee how the web will change. There will always be a handful of visionary, renegade designer/developers that will create sites that re-define and smash what has gone before them. With truly mind boggling programming which re-writes itself according to user input. Gadgetry that uses human gesturing, fibre optic hardware infrastructure plus the constant boosts in processing and storage capacity it is certain that next year will bring much more than better typography and user experience.

As a designer it is important to be up on future trends. However it is important to take them with a pinch of proverbial salt. The most exciting element of web-design is the ability to take what's there and develop it in to something new and fresh. Web-design is unlike any other art. It does not have the tangible longevity of a painting or a sculpture, it is for all intents and purposes a figment of the imagination. The only way to define it as true art is for it to have an effect on the ground, on human society and instigate some come kind of reaction in the physical world. So make this the year that you define yourself, your work and it's ability to change the world around it.