Open Thread: Design Trends
Posted February 20th, 2009 by Cody Foss
Thank you for all that participated in last week’s Open Thread. It was a great success. Sounds like most of you use commercial CMSes and like the flexibility of it, but sometimes get frustrated with the workflow.
This week we’re gonna switch gears to a topic more dear to you designers. Design Trends!
Looking back at the last 12 months…
- What do you see as the biggest trend in higher-ed? Is it good or bad and why?
- Any trends you are happy to see going?
- What trends should others follow/ignore?
About the Author
Posts by Cody Foss:
5 Lessons from the eduStyle Awards
01 Sep 2009 in Uncategorized
Interview: Susan T. Evans of William & Mary
22 May 2009 in Uncategorized
Follow-up Interview: Elizabeth Houle of University of St. Thomas
15 May 2009 in Uncategorized
Open Thread: Homepage Goals
27 Feb 2009 in Uncategorized
Open Thread: Design Trends
20 Feb 2009 in Design& Open Thread
Open Thread: Content Management Systems
13 Feb 2009 in Open Thread
Update on the Book, Win an iPod Touch
12 Feb 2009 in Books& Reviews& Usability
How to Become a Noteworthy
19 Jun 2008 in Articles& Buzz& Noteworthy
Top 5 sites on eduStyle with zero votes
12 Jun 2008 in Features
February 20th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Although the definition of trend is:
Trend: The general direction in which something tends to move. A general tendency or inclination.
I would like to differentiate between trends that are base on a proven successful reason to be, and those that are base on either lack of creativity (so copying other sites easier) or pure web-hip (it looks cool so no matter if it is what I need, I want it!!!).
As today we suffer from good and bad trends and everything is part of our learning process.
Give me a bit of time and I will point out examples for both. Let’s start the thread.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:54 am
We won’t discriminate.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:23 am
How about… BIG FOOTERS.
I’ve used them, I like them when used properly.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Ok, so I will break the ice. Big footers:
We all work on institutions where most of the time big part of our sites are design by committee. We receive constant pressure from directors, deans, head departments as well as faculty to include at least a link from the homepage to some content they consider extremely relevant.
I’ve found a well organize footer as a good solution for some of these problems.
DO NOT confuse the footer with the lost and found trunk in our grandma basement, but in the worst of the cases you can use it as a political weapon to a peace trolls and run for your life.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:44 am
1. What do you see as the biggest trend in higher-ed? Is it good or bad and why?
Those slide down trays of links in the header of a page seem to be getting more popular. see:
http://www.edustyle.net/site.php?site=488
http://www.edustyle.net/site.php?site=440
It is a good way to present a lot of links or information without the clutter of having them directly available on the homepage. Although @rommil tells me they make older users dizzy:
http://twitter.com/rommil/statuses/1102301371
2. Any trends you are happy to see going?
Tiny unreadable text.
3. What trends should others follow/ignore?
I’ll have to think about this one and come back.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:44 am
3. What trends should others follow/ignore?
Please ignore MFS – Mirrored Floor Syndrome
When done well it is a nice SUBTLE touch, but very few are done well…
February 20th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Did someone say footer?
I definitely rejoice whenever a site utilizes this oft overlooked area. As Luis said, it holds considerable potential.
As far as other trends, I do perceive a definite shift toward rich multimedia content on higher ed homepages. Large, compelling images have been a mainstay for some time, but we’re also seeing a lot more video being pushed to the forefront. This is mostly great. I say “mostly” because, as with any trend, there is some tendency to implement this thoughtlessly, without understanding what specific value the multimedia brings. Here, I’m referring to enormous images that take us nowhere, etc.
As far as fading trends – the obsession with fitting everything above the fold has definitely subsided, and I’m thrilled, because it means we’re going to be saying goodbye to boxed in design with tiny, illegible text shoved together to fit above some arbitrary line.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Maggie, you are right on with rich multimedia. My biggest concern; at least for what I see in my institution, is placing videos with poor quality, bad executed and totally boring or irrelevant content.
A bad video on a site doesn’t say: “ey look we are so high tech, we use video”, but mostly “ey look how crappy we do things… and next is a Facebook account!!!”
We are fighting here, advising people we just don’t want to put old, outdated, bad quality videos because we have them, but it is being a challenge.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I’m gonna throw my 2 cents in here:
1. What do you see as the biggest trend in higher-ed? Is it good or bad and why?
The biggest thing I’ve noticed is moving to a Cornell inspired layout. Good? I believe so, though I think schools should make an effort to inject their personality into it. That and integrating social networking. Good? The jury is still out on this one at the institution level.
2. Any trends you are happy to see going?
Elastic or variable width designs! Never was a fan of these. Shout me down if you will, but I think they are much less usable than fixed width designs.
3. What trends should others follow/ignore?
Follow – Bold positioning statements, high quality photos, mobile friendly sites, clear and concise text
Don’t follow – Large images that serve no purpose, designing for 800px wide, large blocks of marketing speak, MFS, etc
February 20th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll chime in on trends: Video.
We’ve been talking about online video for 15 years, heralding it as the next big thing… but only in the last few (3-5?) has it been really viable due to better connection speeds and capture devices. A cell phone or a Flip camera can document events or experiences and have the video online in minutes. Still, it’s not as easy as we wish.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
@Cody Foss Yes!, no liquid. There are already so many things we have to let go that users can can control for the worse. I think there are some decent liquid layouts or variable width ones, but again few and fair between.
On the massive image note: Showing off great photography that intrigues and inspires interest in the institution can be a use, but I agree, large photos that are poor, hence serve no purpose other than damage the image of the university. A picture can tell 1000 words, either good or bad words.
Text/Copy: Be Bright, Be Brief. Be Done. Bold statements that mean something – not cutting edge research – who does dull research? ; )
February 20th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
@designologist Agreed. It can be a fine line between a photo that adds interest and one that fills space. If you are going to use photos, make sure they either make or reinforce a point.
February 22nd, 2009 at 10:43 am
One area that I wonder if it will become a trend is video as the focal point. I’ve seen a lot of institutions that have video either as a small player box off to the side or a button that says ‘view our virtual tour’ or something like that?
One of the items that I’m considering is bring rich video that engages the visitor to the forefront of the homepage. With broadband becoming more and more accessible, isn’t time to bring engaging content to the surface and not have buried behind a links or below the fold?
What are your thoughts about video as a focal point becoming a trend? Many higher education institutions have video but still have still images as the focal point to draw people in. Is this as effective of video? Thoughts? Thanks.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:03 am
@Michael McCready – I would say tread carefully. There are a few schools that have pulled it off, many more who haven’t.
If you’re gonna add video, here are a few guideline (feel free to add your own):
- Don’t auto-play anything. It’s bad manners. It’s like walking up to someone and starting into a big story without even saying ‘hi’.
- Make it relevant (i.e., not promotional stuff like your campus tour video or tv commercials)
- Keep them concise. Save the longer stuff for the deeper pages.
- Make them accessible. Provide download links, transcripts, etc to allow people to consume them on their own terms.