Trends

What the Web Wants. 8 Simple Ways to Improve Typography In Your Designs. I wrote this arti­cle for Smash­ing Mag­a­zine and it was pub­lished last Fri­day on their site. I’m re-publishing it here for your read­ing plea­sure. Enjoy. Many peo­ple, design­ers included, think that typog­ra­phy con­sists of only select­ing a type­face, choos­ing a font size and whether it should be reg­u­lar or bold.

For most peo­ple it ends there. These details give the designer total con­trol, allow­ing them to cre­ate beau­ti­ful and con­sis­tent typog­ra­phy in their designs. Measure The mea­sure is the length of a line of type. A sim­ple way to cal­cu­late the mea­sure is to use Robert Bringhurst’s method which mul­ti­ples the type size by 30. Leading Lead­ing is the space between the lines of type in a body of copy that plays a big role in read­abil­ity.

Many fac­tors affect lead­ing: type­face, type size, weight, case, mea­sure, wordspac­ing, etc. This takes some finess­ing to get the right spac­ing but here is an exam­ple of what the code would look like: Hanging Quotes Scale. Web Design Trends for 2010 | Web Design Ledger. With a new year on the horizon, it’s time to pack away the old, worn web designs and prepare for the brave, new face of tomorrow. Although trends don’t start and stop on January 1st, there is a definite shift from what we craved at the beginning of the year to what we are seeking tutorials for at the end of the year. Most of the time, this shift is subtle. It’s a perfection or re-interpretation of a currently hot trend. Trends help us evolve as designers. As we master the skills of design aesthetic, we continue to push forward to what’s next or what needs to be fully discovered.

Make no mistake about it, you will recognize the ideas behind these trends. 1. Splash pages are so yesterday. Main Idea: Huge headers that make your visitors remember you. 2. Hand-drawn design is not exactly new on the horizon, but we all know that it is still on the fringes of web design. Sketch in 2010 will become more elemental, and not as much the main focus of a web design. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Top Internet Trends of 2000-2009: Democratization of News Media. It's November 2009 and we're nearing the end of a decade. It's been a tumultuous time of change for many industries, much of it driven by the Internet.

The newspaper industry has been particularly affected by the Web. Over the past 10 years, news media has undergone a seachange akin to the invention of the printing press in 1440. Just as Johannes Gutenberg's printing press brought books to the mainstream public in the 15th century, Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web brought commercial publishing to the people. The Web has always been a medium where people could just as easily write as read (yes, the read/write Web), however it didn't reach its potential until blogging came along earlier this decade.

Blogging Blogging not only allowed anybody to publish easily to the Web, it ended up shaking up the print media world. Blogging began in the 90s as a form of online diary - Rebecca Blood wrote a good pre-history in 2000. Blogging software was one part of the democratization of media. Resources and tools for a Location-Independent, Digital Nomad En. I thought it’d be helpful to compile a list of resources—consisting of books, tools, blogs, links, and guides which have helped me learn to brand myself, build an extensive network, travel around the globe, and design a business that I can run from anywhere in the world. Check back often, as the Thrilling Heroics Resources section will undoubtedly grow steadily as I learn more and as my business grows… I recommend bookmarking this page for future reference. Enjoy! Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links to products that will earn me a small commission that will help keep ThrillingHeroics.com alive.

These are all products and resources that I have used with success or that come highly recommended from my colleagues and mentors, and because they are helpful and are companies that I trust. Required Reading for Bending Spoons Here are my “Most-Important Books”—or MIBs. How I Do It Build Your Business & Online Presence Gadgets & Gear for Digital Nomad Workers. The Three Waves of Enterprise 2.0: Climbing the Social Computing. As organizations begin to embrace social tools to collaborate, connect workers together, capture knowledge, and drive innovation they soon encounter a phenomenon that they weren't necessarily expecting. As critical mass is achieved and general participation rises, there is a subsequent, and often dramatic, increase in the volume of information that is visible on the local intranet. Now I should be clear that the intranet is often a depressingly static place even today in many organizations.

But those applying Enterprise 2.0 (social, emergent, freeform approaches to business activities) can soon find that the opposite is often the case. The information captured and the knowledge shared in a social business environment is usually globally visible and lasts long after the collaboration ends. And this new information visibility is invariably a good thing. I'm calling this information explosion scenario the "first wave" of Enterprise 2.0. 1st Wave: Information Explosion.

Resources and tools for a Location-Independent, Digital Nomad En. 6 Ways to Use Ning for Business. David Spinks is the Community Manager for Scribnia, where the world's bloggers and columnists are reviewed by their readers. He also blogs at The Spinks Blog about business, careers and professional communities. There is an almost overwhelming number of options on the social web for businesses to create and participate in communities. You hear a lot about Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter communities, and even LinkedIn Groups; but businesses have another option when looking to build a community online that's often overlooked despite having nearly 40 million users: Ning.

Ning allows businesses to create their own off-site social network for their brand’s community, and participate in existing conversations with the communities they are looking to engage. Here are 6 ways businesses can put Ning to work. What is Ning? Creating a social network on Ning or participating in networks already popular on the site are great ways for businesses to add value and connect with potential customers. 1. 2. 3. Top Internet Trends of 2000-2009: E-commerce.

Over the past decade, Amazon.com and eBay have continued to dominate the online retail market in the United States. However, there have been signs that more social and distributed forms of online shopping are gaining traction. eBay, in particular, is beginning to lose ground. In this post, we review the past decade of e-commerce and the key trends. Advances in recommendations technology, together with the emergence of social media and mobile commerce, have combined to change the way e-commerce is transacted.

In a follow-up post, we look at current statistics for online retail. This is the third in a ReadWriteWeb series looking back at some of the key trends of the past 10 years. Recommendations Technology Advances Over the past decade the online retail industry has seen great strides in the use of recommendations technology. Many of the retail recommendations in use today rely on implicit user data. Social Media Takes Retail to Blogs, Social Networks Conclusion See also: 10 Web trends to watch in 2010.

Mashable's Pete Cashmore says real-time communication, Internet TV and social gaming will be big in 2010. Mashable's Pete Cashmore lists his 10 Web trends that we'll be talking about next year Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time communications trend will grow The cloud-computing movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010 2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market Editor's note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media.

He is writing a weekly column about social networking and tech for CNN.com. (CNN) -- As 2009 draws to a close, the Web's attention turns to the year ahead. What can we expect of the online realm in 2010? While Web innovation is unpredictable, some clear trends are becoming apparent. Real-time ramps up Sparked by Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, the real-time trend has been to the latter part of 2009 what "Web 2.0" was to 2007. Augmented reality. 30 Top Blogs For Social Media Updates | Showcases. Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).

It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. In nutshell, Social media describes websites that allow users to share content, media, etc. Common examples are the popular social networking sites like Friendster, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. Social Media Networking really important for people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Social networking has created new paths to communicate and share information. Components Of Social Media Social media can be said to have three components. Common Forms Of Social Media Examples of Social Media Tools.

My picks for the 99 most useful Social Media (and PR) Blog posts. Top Web Design Bookmarks of 2009. I read a lot of design-related articles & blogs online – I mean, really, what else can you do when you live in Edmonton, which was the coldest place in North America on Dec 13 at -58C with windchill? Anyway, I’m constantly bookmarking items I think might be useful for me as a designer in the future – some I never end up using, but some I definitely do! This year, I found some great articles on web usability (always good to be able to effectively communicate why you made a particular design choice to a client), WordPress and jQuery, as well as a few others. Here are my Top Web Design Bookmarks of 2009, with thanks to everyone in the design community who keeps openly sharing their knowledge.

Perfect Full-Page Background Image CSS Tricks is a great website – a web designer’s goldmine, if you will – and this is but one of a ton of great articles on Chris’ site. I have yet to implement it myself, but I hope to soon! 10 Usability Findings & Guidelines Hit the jump for more! ViewLikeUs BrowserShots. 2010 Predictions. Every year the ReadWriteWeb team tries its hand at predicting the future. Looking back at our 2009 predictions, we got some wrong (I predicted that Facebook would sign up to OpenSocial) but others turned out to be on the money. I correctly guessed that the usual suspects would remain unacquired in '09 - Digg, Twitter, Technorati - but that FriendFeed would get bought. OK, so I guessed that Google would be the buyer. But close enough! Without further ado, here are our predictions for 2010. SEE ALSO: ReadWriteWeb's 2009 Year in Review.

Richard MacManus, Founder & CEO, @rww 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Marshall Kirkpatrick, Lead Writer & VP of Content Development, @marshallk 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Sarah Perez, Feature Writer, @sarahintampa 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. iPhone app backlash begins. 8. iTunes announces a web service, thanks to the Lala acquisition. 9. 10. Jolie O'Dell, Writer & Community Manager, @jolieodell 1. 2. 3. 5. 6. 7. Dana Oshiro, ReadWriteStart Writer, @SuzyPerplexus 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. The Content Economy by Oscar Berg: Have you seen these social me. 34 Places to Get Design Inspiration – Online and Off | Freelance. 25 Startups That Will Be Shaping The Next Web. April promises to be quite the busy month for European startups that are preparing to launch on stage.

As Mike Butcher wrote earlier today, GeeknRolla will be rocking London on April 20, with a host of great speakers and fledgling tech companies dying to show off their stuff. A week after that, I’ll be attending the fifth edition of The Next Web conference, an annual event held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At the latter event, 25 startups will be pitching a live audience of over 1,000 attendees: venture capitalists, press and early adopters will be once again out in full force for the occasion. Keep reading if you’re interested in attending as well.

The organizers of The Next Web 2010 say they have reviewed 245 submissions, looked at 73 one-minute video pitches and ultimately selected 45 companies for a back-to-back interview round. All finalists will launch a new service or announce a major update at the conference. See you there? Web Design Trends 2010 - Smashing Magazine. Web design is a fickle industry. Just like every other form of artistic expression, Web design has undergone a continuous and surprisingly fast evolution. Once a playground for enthusiasts, it has now become a mature rich medium with strong aesthetic and functional appeal. In fact, we are experiencing what could be the golden era of Web design — or at least the best period thus far. We have powerful new tools at our disposal (CSS3, HTML5, font-embedding, etc.), a plethora of freely available resources, a strong design community and also (if you needed any more!) Reliable support of Web standards in the major browsers. We’re seeing better interaction design and more aesthetically pleasing designs.

Please note: this article is the first in our series on the current state of web design. 1. As designers, our job is to communicate ideas effectively. Attractive things work better and help focus and keep the user’s attention. 20Large version21 Further Reading Link 27Image source3128 FFFFound! 3. Website Archives Design: Good Practices and Examples - Smashing. Advertisement The archive is one of those often-overlooked parts of a website that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Too often it’s thrown on a page that’s no different from any other page on the website, or it’s ignored altogether. The archive offers a lot of room for creativity, though.

Whether you opt for an abbreviated one in the sidebar or footer or devote an entire page to it, the archive an opportunity to make your design stand out. Common Design Approaches While there is plenty of room for creativity, there is also a number of things to keep in mind to make sure your archive is functional and user-friendly. 1. There’s no sense cramming your archive into a space that’s too small. 1Neography2 uses a lot of white space to showcase its posts.

The opposite is also true. 2. You archive should be findable by casual visitors. There’s no point in having an archive if you make it impossible to find. 3. 4. 6On Colly.com7 users can browse archives by year or by categories. 5. 6. 7. Showcase.