What's HOT in Site Design?

[udc68]

After reading through the thread of "What is so 90's", (and really enjoying it...) I thought it might be fun to make a list of good site designs, and hot trends of the day.

I think one returning favorite in design is SIMPLICITY. Google's interface proved that content, and speed are still the champions in design.

[pixelkat]

I think what seems to be "HOT" in web design these days is getting the biggest bang for the smallest amount of buck. More attention is being paid to repurposing web content to other platforms that simplicity is the name of the game.

Just as music genres splintered into hybrid subgenres, I believe the same has happened with web design. It's not even possible to nail down color trends as it was before. Like in 2001, everything seemed to be gray and orange. In 2003, I noticed a lot of dark blue and orange palettes.

It's more about what you DON'T see anymore, like a lot of dropshadows, black backgrounds with white type, beveled curves and buttons, large background images. far fewer image maps, and thank god, not many more framed sites! Messy and/or chaotic is gone as a trend, but is still around. Euro car sites look similar to each other - colorblocks defined by gray outlines and type on white backgrounds.

Don't get me wrong. I still cruise the web for design brilliance, and regularly add to the 10+ gigs of site screen captures I keep on hand for inspiration, layout and interface ideas, but it's less about a single trend, and more about what works. Getting people to visit a site once is generally pretty easy. It's giving people a reason to come BACK that remains the real challenge.

I could easily list 100+ sites that I have been inspired by in the last 3 months, but you wouldn't be able to detect any specific design trend. Some I like for color palette, some for a theme, some for unusual layout, some for effective site architecture...

I will list a few webdev shops whom I think are among the best in the world for consistent design, dev and innovation, but only reflects the corporate segment of the industry. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't browse retail or entertainment sites for fun anymore. No time! I spend 40 - 60 hours a week on the web, but usually it's strictly biz-related:

<snip>
No URL's please, see TOS [webmasterworld.com]

I have hundreds, maybe thousands bookmarked and/or archived on my hard drive.

kr

[edited by: limbo at 1:43 pm (utc) on Feb. 12, 2008]