A decade in the past, the web was a really completely different place. The celebration of Wpget’s 10th birthday has us feeling nostalgic, and so we’re looking on the 2006-2016 period of design.
From MySpace and the iPhone, to minimalism and materials design, quite a bit has occurred in ten years. We gained’t try to suit each design pattern and know-how innovation into one article, however we wished to focus on some key moments in design. Put in your favourite early 2000’s playlist and examine a few of our favourite net developments from the previous decade:
2006: The 12 months of Making Buddies on the Web
In 2006, YouTube and Fb had barely launched, and MySpace was rising in reputation; we browsed these websites by way of Web Explorer 6, on our Home windows XP and Mac OS X Tiger working techniques. The phrase net 2.zero is commonly used to explain this era, which was defined within the early 2000’s as a turning level on the web: from publishing to participation, and static pages to wikis.
A decade in the past, MySpace was arguably probably the most visited web site within the U.S., and websites like Fb and YouTube rising in reputation. AOL’s prompt messenger system, AIM, had been created nearly a decade prior (to place it within the phrases of a latest (!) AIM brand, “OMG since 1997”), but it surely hit the height of its success round this yr.
The recognition of those web sites indicated a shift; MySpace’s tagline, a spot for pals, illustrates this concept. The web: the place you go to speak with folks.
2007: The 12 months of the iPhone
In January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the discharge of the primary iPhone, which he referred to as “a product that modifications every thing”. In his talk, he unveils three Apple merchandise: a wider, touch-screen iPod, a revolutionary cell phone, and a breakthrough web communication system – however JUST KIDDING, they’re all the identical product (and the gang goes wild!). With the discharge of the iPhone got here the rise of native apps and cellular design.
2008: The 12 months of Skeuomorphic Design
Skeumorphism is a design idea the place the digital model of things mirror their precise, bodily counterpart. These lined-paper notes in your Macbook, the analog show in your date & time app, the trash can stuffed with outdated information – it’s a designer’s approach of claiming, hey, that is acquainted, right here’s some context clues, you already know what this does!. There’s loads of divided opinions on this pattern – it’s hated, it’s dead, it should never go away – and it’s an integral a part of the latest Apple Watch design.
Different issues that occurred in 2008: the primary launch of Android; Google Chrome turns into accessible for obtain (and the announcement leaked through a comic book e book).
2009: The 12 months of the Grids
The rise of grid-based layouts might be traced again to 2007 – see this 150-page SXSW presentation, Grids are good – and with the discharge of the 960 Grid System in 2009, it’s a method that dominated net design. The fundamentals of grid design are impressed by arithmetic (symmetry), print journalism (magazines/newspapers), and images (rule of thirds), and grids proceed to be a place to begin for a lot of web site layouts.
2010: The 12 months of the Weblog (form of)
The phrase weblog emerged from the diary-style ‘net logs’ of the 1990s, and by 2004, the concept of blogs was so mainstream that weblog was named the 2004 Merriam-Webster Phrase of the 12 months. With new definitions of running a blog, resembling Twitter’s ‘micro-blogging’ and Tumblr’s ‘tumblog’, and improvements in know-how, like RSS feeds (R.I.P., Google Reader), corporations started considering exterior of the journal-like format of running a blog. It quickly developed right into a major technique of communication, and continued to evolve.
Does its author work for an enormous web site like BuzzFeed, crafting listicles, quizzes, reporting, and private essays? Do they write a e-newsletter? Or have they absolutely deserted HTML, and now they’re making an attempt their luck with a podcast?
The Atlantic, What Blogging Has Become, 2015
With the discharge of WordPress 3.0 in 2010, and the altering face of the journalism trade, the ‘weblog’ was repurposed over and over. At present, ‘running a blog’ means a unique factor than it did ten (and even twenty) years in the past, though ‘weblog’ nonetheless stays a well-liked time period – probably as a result of we’ve but to discover a higher time period for the state of net writing immediately.
2011: The 12 months of Parallax
Parallax scrolling web sites had been a high pattern in 2011. Eye-catching, fashionable, and visually pleasing, parallax designed popped up in all places from company web sites to non-public portfolios. Whether or not you suppose parallax designs are complicated and annoying, or mind-blowing and delightful, it’s a pattern that’s nonetheless woven by way of immediately’s net design.
2012: The 12 months of Responsive Design
The idea of responsive net design kicked off in 2010. As an alternative of making particular web site variations for various browsers – an ‘iPhone web site’, for instance – designers centered on making a person expertise that labored on all platforms.
That is mirrored in Wpget’s high searches on Themeforest: in 2012, Wpget’s high free-text search time period on ThemeForest was ‘responsive’, and it hovered within the high three for the following few years. It dropped away in reputation as a search time period in 2015 (maybe as a result of the responsiveness of internet sites turned an assumption, as an alternative of a standout function).
This was additionally a banner yr for flat design. Home windows Metro (Home windows eight) was released – the primary really flat UI – and Apple’s design made a full swing in the direction of a flat aesthetic .
2013: 12 months of the Freelancers
A research in 2014 declared freelancing ‘the new normal’, with greater than 53 million Individuals (a 3rd of the workforce!) partaking in freelance work of some form. UpWork, a well-liked freelance web site, was created in an Elance-oDesk merger in 2013; Microlancer was created in April 2013, and was become Wpget Studio a yr later. The freelance financial system continues to develop immediately, as extra employees embrace versatile schedules, and co-working areas like WeWork rise in reputation.
2014: The 12 months of Materials Design
Materials design (Google code-named ‘Quantum Paper’) is Google’s try at making lovely, constant UI easy. It’s an almost-flat look, with mild and shadows that add depth to an simple idea. It additionally has a complete part devoted to ‘materials movement’, which lends itself properly to subtle animations and intuitive navigation.
2015: The 12 months of Minimalism
Okay, I do know – any graphic designer will inform you that the idea of minimalism has been round for ages, and that this isn’t a brand new pattern. Nonetheless, I’d argue that the minimalist aesthetic is again in an enormous approach, on the internet and in actual life. From web sites and apps, to bodily storefronts and inside designs, some even argue that the so-called ‘hipster aesthetic’ is taking over the world (and from the seems of the most recent espresso outlets in Melbourne, they may be proper.)
2016: A New Definition of Design
How is ‘design’ outlined in 2016, in any case? It’s a time period that has been expanded and repurposed: net design, graphic design, organizational design, UX design, design considering.
When somebody introduces themselves as a ‘designer’, what does that convey? ‘Designer’ is a job title – maybe much like my position as ‘editor’, or a software program developer’s declare on the phrase ‘architect’ – that has shifted in that means over time.
At Wpget, we’re exploring the way forward for design (in all of it’s meanings and new definitions).
