Web 2.0 Design Principles and Elements for Development

Web 2.0 Design is great buzz word that has caught developers. Web 2.0 is a buzz word, but it has meaning behind it. If you have a site with a Web 2.0 Design, then you probably have round corners, gradients, reflections, clean layout and white space. These elements are not a must for Web 2.0 Design or is required to have a Web 2.0 Design.

Simple means Simple

Simplicity is the key goal for Web 2.0 Design. You want to keep your navigation, layout and content as simple as you can. Your features should only be what is necessary and what is required for the user. Keep plenty of whitespace and a blance of images and text. Keeping your site simple will help your usability and lower your bounce rate.

Navigation

Your navigation is one of the most important features on your site. Keep this as simple as possible. Try to make is large, bold and clean. With text the is easy to read and the user knows exactly what they are going to find. Also make some type of motion or mouseover with your hyperlinks. So users can differenionalate what is text and what is a hyperlink.

Bold Colors

Web 2.0 Designs have more color and are very bold. Dull and softer colors are in style at the time this article was written. Developers are using a lot of blues and greens. For backgrounds Soft, Pastels and Neutral Colors are a great choice. Your colors are what attacts your user to your site. Also you can use your colors to focus your users to a specific place on your site.

Gradients

Gradients colors also fall into this category. Gradients are a great way to blend colors are have a soft fade into your whitespace or your background. Gradients are also used for navigation backgrounds, text boxes and icons. The reflection effect has been used using the same concept. Useing a gradients white or black to transparent.

Graphical Icons

Icons are being more and more popular by day. But note that this doesn't mean we are using more. Developers are using bigger and stronger icons. These icons have been used with text to help make a clear and visual response. Users are very visual people. An icon with a picture of a shopping cart for example will qucikly tell your vistor that this icon is where you can access the shopping cart. This idea has also been used on navigation.

Big Text, Badges and Stars

Bigger text has now a role in development. Develepers are dropping their small paragraph sales pitch. Now they are making it a couple of words long and making it bigger. This is not only drawing attention to your text, but also making more room on your page for other things. Maybe a badge?

Badges have been around marketing for a long time. But has never been really used for development. These are the sticker that are round circles or stars that are filled with bright colors. These serve one purpose and that is to draw attention to the user. These badges and stars do work.

Lots of Whitespace

Busy sites are slowing being redesigned. A lot of the big ecommerce stores are even sliming down their homepages and giving them more whitespace. This is great for the user and your useability. Giving your page plenty of whitespace will give you a more cleaner and professional look. It will make your site easier to use and easier for your user to find what they are looking for.