Web Design's Future
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- ape
With all this business about J2EE and SOAP and XML and all the other crazy acronyms what are designers here gonna do?
You gonna learn the technology, or get schooled by it?
- sauerbraten0
i'm lost.
what's J2EE & SOAP?
you can either be a technology puppet or a designer: CHOOSE
- sparker0
it is true that the mostly commercial future of the web is dependent on web services and functional applications online, but that doesn't leave designers out in the cold. there will always be a need for well thought out aesthetic UI's.
but, i do think designers on the web need to concentrate paying more attention to practical and usable design...rather than useless fluff.
it is also noteworthy to mention it's not just the web that is going toward an "online application" style platform...windows is developing longhorn to function like a web service run locally.
instead of using classical file systems it is utilizing a sql style relational database for the OS at the kernel level.
more and more desktop applications will move either onto the web or utilize technologies like xml. look at the new ms office release coming up.
- ape0
That's exactly what I mean. But inorder to design a good car you need to know how the car works: where the exhaust must go, how the engine gets fuel, how the airbags work...
What I'm saying is that the web's technology is becoming more complex, so the question remains:
are you going to be a designer or a stylist.
- ape0
hey sparker,
what do you do?
- sparker0
realistically speaking, there is no valid reason to be a 'stylist' on the web.
if every designer online were removed, the web would still be here, if every programmer and technology were removed, there wouldn't be a place for the designers.
this isn't a chicken or egg argument....it is a simple fact the web existed long before 'creatives' and it will continue with or without them.
design isn't an underlying technology nor an incentive to keep the web going.
sorry.
i love creative design...and i like a lot of the useless fluff i see, but the fact remains it's not an intricate part of the web.
- sauerbraten0
(i think) it's fairly difficult to stay on top of the latest/greatest super-technology and still be a great designer (i'm talking thought-out, meaningful design, not eye candy trend shit)
there's still something to be said about someone that knows how to design interfaces that are easy to use. etc. i(information design) t's a whole area of design that people often overlook because they're attracted to the glossy graphics and stuff.
there's ALWAYS going to be a need for good designers, and as technology gets more complex and advanced, the difference between designer and developer (i suspect) will become much more relevant.
- sparker0
a little of this and a little of that.
currently i am developing a new somewhat fuzzy logic database application to run terrestrial radio stations... ( ie an quasi-intilligent system to play music, imaging and commercials ) it's proprietary and will never see market.
i also write linux/unix applications and do a little server/database administration.
i want to start an open-source work group for game development...but i don't have the time.
but, really i just sit around and read.
:)
- sparker0
i agree sauer...
- sauerbraten0
sparker, you're right. designers are not essential to maintaining anything.. except things like sales & marketing.
who wants to look at sites like Yahoo all day? yikes.
- ape0
I totally agree that stylism is not need. But my question is, who will be the future designers, the design kids, or the programming kids. Who will have the ability to decide how things will work? I think I'm going to do both and I'm just wondering if anyone else is going to.
so sparker, you do linux stuff? Ever tried to do your own interface for X?
- abba_cadaver0
While Design is not essential for a the web to continue, it is essential for the web to flourish. Technology is scary place for most people and design makes the intangible, tangible. It gives a human face and feel to a site and makes a user want to dig deeper.
As far as a designer having to choose to be a designer or a mixture of both. I think as the web continues to grow each skillset will become more specialized. Designers will design the site with knowledge of restrictions with the technology available and then send it on to programmers who will code it. Of course smaller businesses might not choose this course but i think everyone will agree it will be more efficient.thats just my 2cents
- ape0
I think the division of labour is the divison of people....
Everyone should learn the technology as well as learn how to grow tomatoes
- ********0
J2EE is nice and will be picked up by everyone I would think. XML just is too strong not to want to learn, as it let's your apps talk to each other. SOAP I ain't never heard of. (x_X)
- ********0
designers are a huge part of the web and will remain so...regardless...even if there is a program or a tech. that can "design" on its own...someone will have to be there to determine weahter the design is bad or good.....its demand that pushes technnogy...and the demand comes from consumers(the economy). I mean ms DOS worked fine but with a demand came the need to improve it graphically....enter the UI
- paulrand0
schooled by it
- Edo0
J2EE is impressive, but the competition as well: asp.net and PHP 5.0.
But all of this does not have anything to do with graphic design. These are all tools for developers.Future of webdesign, I would say broadband and wi-fi. Broadband is not fully being used so far. Yes we see some amzing quicktime videos, but full integration of videa and eg flash is just being discovered. Wi-Fi because it will be praticly everywhere - think minority report.
But webdesign as it is now is dead. The web as we know it today is not very well developed and thought out. Just now the technology is being developed that can really make it into what it can possibly be. The reason for this is that it was not designed as a commercial network for billions of users but instead for educational and governmental reasons. Examples of this are the IP numbers which probably will run out within a couple of years. And the use of the Table in HTML development. The web was designed for plaintext files.
- CyBrainX0
sparker: incorrect
sauerbraten: correctDesign, style and UI are always needed for any interactive experience, otherwize the web will look like it did in 96 and before, when webmasters did everything.
All those programming languages are not the tools of designers. They are the tools of developers and programmers.
The future of the web will also be more education, 3D gaming, broadband, quicktime/flash and other devices that link to the web. There will be more ideas for things that use the internet that don't now.
- ape0
I think the idea of a "graphic designer" with vanish. In terms of web anyway.
Interface design will survive but the designers will need to know the way the user works as well as the sytem. Hopefully capitalism will die out and that will put an end to styling.
- CyBrainX0
Maybe I don't get the meaning of styling in the context of this thread, but if you have a hot rod site, it won't have the same style as a cooking site.
"Interface design will survive but the designers will need to know the way the user works as well as the sytem. Hopefully capitalism will die out and that will put an end to styling."
Designers have always had to know the way the user works. If not they suck and won't have a job. Designers don't have to know how to do everything, but they have to know what can be done.
Isn't this common knowledge by now?