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I agree and disagree. (*gets ready for long rant*)
First of all, I love what web 2.0 stands for, not as a design look but the idea behind that which IS web 2.0 and the things that made it. del.ici.ous, youtube, myspace, flickr, facebook and a thousand million others. User-controlled content inside an online enviroment. Every other person has a blog, everyone is on facebook etc. A very good concept indeed, as I'm shure (almost) everyone agrees on.
But this isn't what is discussed here, but the current trend in design that is connected with this, the "web 2.0 look". Gloss, reflected logos, you name it, you know what I mean. The web 2.0 look has lots of qualities that shouldn't be cast away, like the ones mentioned above in this thread. Big type, easy navigation and clean layouts. The thing is that while the web 2.0 look carries alot of good qualities it is also becoming stale, boring and generic. You aren't looking at a standard web 2.0 page anymore and thinking "whoooaa! wicked!" - you are thinking "oh... erm, isn't this what vista looks like?".
And with "destroy web 2.0" - nobody is saying "cast away everything web 2.0 stands for!", it's more a plead to evolve. If all designers sat and followed the current trend not bothering to add something new then we'd probably still would sit on
these! (I know it's cute, but that's beside the point :P) - take the pieces that work and evolve, stagnation is such a bore.
And, in adress to:
Quote:
Originally Posted by georigin
I think we (as designers) are looking at this esoterically. Which is fine, but the real approval should come from common folk, people who use the net.
As long as it isnt ugly and the content is easily legible its accepted by the common folk.
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True and false (imo) - we as designers would have a pretty easy and pretty boring job if that were the case, if the criteria for good web design was "It shouldn't be ugly and common folk should accept it", then... well, I knew a great deal of designers who would quit their job to say the least (imagine the uproar, the protests, the killings in the street!!!!). A designer's job is to communicate ideas through visual design and interface - not making things look "okey and not ugly". Everyone can do that, you don't need a BA in graphic design to make somthing "not ugly".
Apple made a revolution when they made coverflow, and I bet they didn't know the extend of their actions. The reflection is now a "instant coolness - just add sugar" to logodesign, webdesign, every single thing. Apple amazingly still pulls it off, as do some websites and designers, but mostly it ends up in blandness and boringness (I'm not putting myself on my high horse here, I've used way too many of them myself, trying to cut down on them though :P).
Now, I'm not butchering everything that is web 2.0 - but I posted those links to make people think about it, you can say all the cool kids on the block is trendy, but the coolest of them is the ones one step in front, or at least those who try to be, mix trendy with some personality, try to push some borders, not thinking that what is right to do is the thing that is trendy, and it's only trendy because computer arts say so
Sorry for the huuuuge post and if some think I'm trying to be provocative, but I do hope people read this and take it for what it is... something to make you think
viva la revolution! ;D