Trends Past and Present

Posted by Andrew Faulkner on October 31st, 2005.

Andrew Faulkner is the admin at fadtastic. Andrew prides himself on standards-based, accessible web design in the city of Nottingham, UK. He believes in aesthetically pleasing accessible design and that 'standards compliant does not equal boring.'

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A short and sweet one:

With CSS Reboot just around the corner (we rebooted too), a whole host of trends are bound to arise in the run up to Christmas.

At this time of year I like to take a look back at what trends I miss seeing on websites as well as having a wild stab at what’s the next big fad. So my thoughts are as follows:

I believe that we will see a rise in sites using more intricate background tiles - trendy ones not tacky ones. This combined with the now famous outer shadow should make for a good effect. I’d love to see any examples you have spotted.

I also expect to see more focus on innovative display of content. Exciting headers and brilliantly readable text. ‘Content is king’ is such a cliché but I think designers are catching on to this fact and really making their copy look good enough to eat.

Looking back now, I’d like to see the rejuvenation of sites using just plain colour backgrounds. So many sites use gradient backgrounds that a solid colour now looks different and fresh.

My questions to you, my readers, are:

- What do you expect to be trendy post CSS Reboot?
- What trend would you bring back into fashion?

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( 79 so far )

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Do you find it ironic that you think a solid color background is now fresh and different yet you have a gradient?

Dan
October 31st, 2005
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Dan,

fadtastic has adopted many of the fads and trends we comment on (starburst/sticker logo etc) hopefully to create something which doesn’t look a mess! ;) The gradient background was put in as another fad example.

It’s the nature of the journal. When solid colour becomes trendy again we’ll adopt. I promise.

(P.S. Nice Halloween design)

Andrew Faulkner
October 31st, 2005
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I think dark & colorful, with all these sites in white, pink and green colorshemes and so on, it takes away the charm and uniqueness of those color combinations, maybe some experiments with blue? ( I miss well-designed blue sites )

Benjamin
October 31st, 2005
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I expect to see a surge in the “footer.” Seems more and more people are adding information below the main posts.

Tanya
October 31st, 2005
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Simpler, more basic designs in the spirit of A List Apart.

Fewer ads, less overwhelming images, and more straightforward content.

Mark Daoust
November 1st, 2005
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Tanya,

I agree that footers will be used to offer more information than the usual legal bumph.

Mark,

Fewer ads would be great! I agree with content changing, although it may not get simpler - just more refined.

Andrew Faulkner
November 1st, 2005
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I like the old trend for images like old paper, books tickets stuck on the screen. I started to build one at http://www.livejournal/users/cj_sunshine but was called away to other things and never got it finished. The CSS gallery sites are facinating. I hope this reboot starts a lot of new ideas rolling. I only found it a few days ago, but the next one I’ll spend time over.

Tia
November 1st, 2005
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A long while back I did an intricate background site for my wife…

Check it out here…

Lee
November 1st, 2005
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“I’d like to see the rejuvenation of sites using just plain colour backgrounds”
..well, I must admit I’ve started using solid backgrounds again on some of my websites!

I just wanted to pass on my compliments for a great CSS Reboot. I particularly love the colours. Bravo!

Jem
November 1st, 2005
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Well, I haven’t really given careful thought to what I would like to see trend-wise from the Reboot. However, I was surprised finding a couple of sites using animated GIFs pretty well with their Reboot. That was awesome =)

Meanwhile, I would like to thank you guys on a nice Reboot. Oh yah, great thoughts as well.

Sherwin Techico
November 2nd, 2005
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While it may not be new, I noticed that a lot of rebooters are drawing inspiration from nature - there were scores of sites featuring flowers, butterflies, trees and other flora/fauna this year (mine included). So that’s my prediction for 2006 - more wildlife!

Matthew Pennell
November 2nd, 2005
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I used a solid color background on my website. For some reason I thought it would look better without being “contained” and surrounded by a background image.

Still, I also used some current fads, such as black with light colors, and a beefy footer. I think they are good fads.

C Montoya
November 3rd, 2005
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Green is the new blue.

Brian
November 3rd, 2005
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I definitely think the juxtaposition of “clashing” mediums will continue to be popular. Emotions of warmth and sophistication, or old-world charm seem out of place in a technological setting as browsers, operating systems, and network connections. But, the contrast is what makes them so appealing. In my limited experience, www.onlineclassical.com really was one of the first sites to effectively demonstrate an old-world feel in a new-age medium.

This may not be a trend, but I think the next challege for many web designers will entail learning how to design for a post-800×600 era. Wider layouts, maximizing the real estate of larger flat panel displays, will require us to think differently in terms of content presentation. And with more pixels allowing for a possibility of more content, the decision also will include what content should be provided, and how much.

Will Clark
November 3rd, 2005
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Faux ripple java applets are the new black!*

*I jest of course.

pixeldiva
November 4th, 2005
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Thanks for all your views so far. I think it’s interesting that we’ve all come from different angles (colour/type/theme/etc). Keep the suggestions coming!

Andrew Faulkner
November 4th, 2005
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I vote for the “wet floor” look, as recently seen in iTunes and Apple’s Front Row app.

You know when Apple release a new look it’ll be copied across the web.

Tauquil
November 9th, 2005
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I like the new wallpaper tiles around. Especially the manor house styles. Does anyone have a good resource site that I can reference?

I see a lot of diagonal line borders and more nature these days. My site uses a mix of gradients and solid colours.

I think sIFR and AJAX (Prototype) effects will become mainstream in the near future…

Seeing that I have been in this web game for less than 4 months my opinion is purely a stab in the dark!

Steven Hambleton
November 18th, 2005
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Not specifically a design trend, but the URLs of a lot of websites have been played around with lately: del.icio.us, shauninman.com/plete. Apart from looking clever, this is presumably to help users remember a website’s URL. I think this will become a lot more popular once more combinations are thought up.

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