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Web design trends for 2014 | Infographic + @ScentTrail Trend Predictions

Web design trends for 2014 | Infographic + @ScentTrail Trend Predictions | Must Design | Scoop.it

What do we predict will be the web design trends in 2014? Here is an infographic with our predictions

Marty Note
Here are my thoughts on web design in 2014.

1. Code Free = Disagree, not in 2014, I have tried Webydo and it is as hard to master as code so why bother, until there is a tool that is EASIER than code we will continue to code.

2. More CMS based site - Agree and this is another way of saying more blogs acting like websites. Good idea to read my Websites vs. Blog post on Curatti.com earlier in the week to know how to keep the things that matter from a "website" as your blog fills both shoes: Websites vs. Blogs Which One Is Better and Why http://curatti.com/websites-vs-blogs/ .

3. Single Page Sites - Disagree - I GUESS you could have a robust enough social presence that a single page site would be fine, but you give up a lot and you are asking a single page to accomplish a lot. Google doesn't rank websites they rank web pages, so pagespread (# of pages in Google) can help build traffic via SEO (that is left of it anyway).

A single page website is only viable for strong mobile or social players and somewhere there has to be an engine generating NEW out into the world. If you use a single page, push NEW out and then wipe it clean that is simply CRAZY with the way traffic is parsed and how we gain authority today. Oprah could have a single page site, how an average website could achieve all that is needed with a single page is beyond me.

4. Interactive Infographics - Agree with this one. The Infographic has legs, or should say the idea of visualizing content has legs. The infographic is an expression of a larger movement - our desire to understand things FAST.

Other 2014 Web Design Trends I see include:

* Lean Design - This movement plays off of #4 and the strength of the marketing visualization movement. Creating more understanding faster is a trending trend.

* Social Net Tapestry - Website designs MUST be social and agnostic about social nets. Including Facebook, Twitter, GPlus, YouTube, Scoop.it, StumbleUpon and 10 more I can't think of right now in ways that make sharing easy, rewarding and not overwhelming is a trend no one has figured out all that well yet, but we will begin to see novel ideas that build on the social media  "widget" idea in 2014 (only much better let's hope).

* Content Curation - we must build websites in 2014 that are focused on KEY CONVERSATIONS and become agnostic about where those conversations happen. Own the conversation, own the traffic.


Curating content INTO a website (or blog) is an important trend no one has quite figured out yet either. Start with traditional ORM (Online Reputation Management) tools. Use ORM to crack some APIs so when something relevant happens to your company, brands or products out there in social media's north forty you

  1. Know about it.
  2. Filter it into your content by having ways (filters) to attach curated content into existing themes. 
  3. Gamify contributors so reward is generous, immediate and competitive.


* Appification of Everything - the Mobile Revolution is not about the phone. It is about redesigning our THINKING about how information creates interaction, engagement and conversion (so a small thing lol). Thinking of everything we do online as an app we will be improving is a very "Mobile First" way to think. Those who understand the "Appification" of everything will win BIG as the rest of the world catches up in 2014.

* Gamification - If your website design doesn't find ways to profile, reward and share (curate) content from contributors you will fall hopelessly behind in 2014. The social web is here, despite few understanding the breadth of that that means, and websites need to promote an ever increasing amount of User Generated Content (UGC). Best way to do that is by using game theory to create web design.

 

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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith
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Create Conversations Not Websites: The Lean Design Movement Why Web Designers Will Design Less and Partner More

Create Conversations Not Websites: The Lean Design Movement Why Web Designers Will Design Less and Partner More | Must Design | Scoop.it

I'm involved in a very cool project right now called CureCancerStarter.org (http://www.curecancerstarter.org). This project is forcing the team at Atlantic BT to THINK about the future of web design.

We hinted at the "lean design" movement a few days ago in a Scoop (Designing for What If http://sco.lt/8nYdG5 ). Today we see how we aren't really designing websites anymore.

We are designing conversations.

The design example above embeds CureCancerStarter.org's trending campaigns inside of one of our cancer research partner's websites. Once the number of cancer research campaigns is more than 100 the best way to control and navigate to our content isn't on CureCancerStarter.org and that realization hit like a TRUCK.

We would be better served to NOT SCALE a new website but embed the campaigns back in the already scaled websites of our partners. We design the "crowdfunding cancer reserach" conversation and create the easy to plug in widget our partners can use to speak to their existing customers.

We started thinking the best approach was to create a new scaled commons (the Kickstarter or cancer research), and there can still be a "net the new fish" role for such a website, but the web is more and more about TRUST and trust doesn't come FAST or EASY.

Now we can see, given the current state of Internet marketing, why our jobs as web designers are changing. Instead of designing sites to scale we need to feed off of existing scale. When I started creating websites in 1999 no one had scale so everyone was equal.

1999 was before Google's decision to eliminate spam by elevating trusted sources. The problem is YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE. You don't have the TIME to work your way slowly up your business vertical's ladder. Instead you should be thinking about creating partnerships and widgets.

Design LESS and collaborate more will be our web design future.

Read more about my big V8 web design SLAP on G+: https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/XHXxCn5qgEb

Seth Storey's curator insight, November 11, 2013 10:59 AM

Design less and collaborate more. Interesting article about creating conversations into your web design.

Vigisys's curator insight, March 28, 2014 11:33 AM

From now on, all websites should be dynamic & collaborative. Constant work-in-progress, the same way we communicate or do things in real life. Static websites, however, are more like graveyards, some of them beautiful, but designed for tombs and dead anyway. With Dazib.com (soon to be released), we are working on an innovative solution for Web publication & "conversation"...

Rescooped by Martin (Marty) Smith from Digital Delights - Images & Design
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Lean Design: Images, Ideas and Stories | Nate Williams Creative

Lean Design: Images, Ideas and Stories | Nate Williams Creative | Must Design | Scoop.it
Images, Ideas and Stories | Nate Williams Creative

Via Ana Cristina Pratas
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

I like this approach of telling a story in a series of related images. Lean is visual and design keeps makes connections needed to move the "story" forward. Well done and a tactic worth stealing