Web 2.0 design

I read an article this week on BBC's site titled "Web 2.0 'neglecting good design'". The article describes web usability guru Jakob Nielsen assessment of a sloppy approach by a lot of design firms to include dynamic web 2.0 functionality without a lot of thought, the term "glossy but useless". I have tend to agree with some of his comments, but I think it all depends on the user.

As a more savvy web user I'm often frustrated by flat boring sites that don't offer a fluid interface and access to the information I want on demand. With advancements that have been made with AJAX, DHTML, Flash and mashups of those technologies I think it offers users an array of great functionality if the Information Architecture has been thought out correctly.

It's true you can create a site and load it full of crazy features no one will use and seem some developers of company's do it just for notoriety.

However their is another element to Web 2.0 that the article doesn't address which is cleaner design. Thank god the days of sites oozing of tiled backgrounds, heavily bitmapped graphics and excessive use of animated gifs and flash are over. Google, 37Signals and others have really been innovators in this space providing us a new cleaner way to approach design in their applications. On that note, here are some great articles on Web 2.0 design I reviewed recently:

• Design style guide (great overview)
• Simple clean designs
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
• Keep it Simple Stupid (more high level)

To end this blog I will leave you with a cool video on I found on Youtube that shows the evolution of the Web from 1.0 to 2.0! :)