[simonruk1]

Your thoughts on where web design is heading in the next 5 years. Do you think so called web 2 sites (utube) have a life or will the web 2 bubble pop?

[asterix]

Web 2.0 (which is just really a buzz word) allows the easiest way for the average joe to place and source credible content and information online.

Plus it means rather than a company bulletin or info page, an employee can give thier opinion without the company being held liable (manufacturers like toyota have been encouraging thier employees to blog for years).

Over the coming years the web will evolve into portable media more an more - magazines will be downloaded onto rollup touch sensitive screens especially in population dense cities. Web 2.0 will allow them to interact in the subway, in cafes or in the park on thier lunchbreak. More intimate niche sites will thrive and become an important part of social interaction. Web 2.0 allows anyone and every to create these environments.

[simonruk1]

I have herd about these interactive newspaper in one of the Scandinavian counties. Sorry don't know the name of the newspaper

Also where do you see the role of the website designer for such sites

'More intimate niche sites will thrive and become an important part of social interaction. Web 2.0 allows anyone and every to create these environments.'

Do you think as soon as the websites become interactive and inter-responsive it is the users that become the web designer?

[SMILEdotCROSS]

A quick sca of google found this - http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/20...-06_epaper.htm

[funkyprem]

south by south west at a steady speed of 2.8 knots

[freelancr]

Probably next step will see the internet used more with the TV and mobile devices, so lets hope internet explorer doesn't get on them!

[cam]

the gutter

[SMILEdotCROSS]

probably still in the same place ... where ever that is

Originally Posted by freelancr

Probably next step will see the internet used more with the TV and mobile devices, so lets hope internet explorer doesn't get on them!

ala iPhone

[pgo]

I like surfing the web on my Wii.

Originally Posted by SMILEdotCROSS

ala iPhone

Or any of the devices currently using Opera Mobile.

[Peter Costello]

Aside from the increased social interaction spawned from web 2 type application, I think we will see more and more ad spend in the web, more extremely high quality campaign websites, agencies deciding to use entire media spends online rather than above the line. More video, more mobile, more devices, more internet TV through consoles and sky and tivo type devices.

Then the web2.0 bubble will burst and we'll all be out of work again.

[herkalees]

The 'semantic web' is (hopefully) the next big transition/phase.

[Zaoris]

Where is web design heading? Evolving till it's gonna die probably. Let's just focus on enjoying it, shall we?

[another™]

i smell a dissertation plan

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by simonruk1

Do you think as soon as the websites become interactive and inter-responsive it is the users that become the web designer?

I think myspace is pretty clear evidence that most users possess little in the way of web design skills.

Depends what you mean by "become the web designer" though. Users just supply content. They rarely contribute much in the way of design.

[pgo]

Originally Posted by herkalees

The 'semantic web' is (hopefully) the next big transition/phase.

Idealistically, I agree. But my cynical pragmatist doesn't see it happening anytime soon. Not without a major overhaul of how we (and I don't mean web designers/developers - I mean everyone) see and use the web. New, smarter authoring tools, for example.

[simonruk1]

So do you see a future where your computer/ the internet and TV all come through the same device.

With the move over to digital by 2012 do you see the interaction of TV and web becoming one in the same.

At present it is not possible to receive HD at the size and speed we require. A major overhaul of the BT exchange would be needed. At a great cost to the consumer

Or do you think the providers should move straight over to it all streaming down to us via satellite or cable?

[simonruk1]

Originally Posted by Snowshiro

I think myspace is pretty clear evidence that most users possess little in the way of web design skills.

Depends what you mean by "become the web designer" though. Users just supply content. They rarely contribute much in the way of design.

That is true. You just have to look at some of business cards and flyers that have been self designed by the user. However the web is a different space. When someone just uploads their images and provides text into such mediums as myspace it is just as you said 'Users jut supply content'. But when the user defines their space with font/colour/shape/ music and self art, do they not in a become designers.

I am not saying they could design and build a beautiful and streamlined website but in the same way that we design in the basic forms. Are they not designing?

[simonruk1]

Originally Posted by herkalees

The 'semantic web' is (hopefully) the next big transition/phase.

Herkalees

Please define for us your view of the 'semantic web'

[steveb]

I hope it means the internet becomes something with relevance and meaning. Semantic web replaces Web 2.0 in late 2008.

I can imagine a phase in the next decade when having your own website is as corny as walking around everywhere with the latest King Crimson LP under your arm. The internet will continue to exist, based on the network of otherwise useless phone lines, but its utility will be limited to information retrieval (Wikipedia), clunky old email and software downloads. It'll be as chic as Yellow Pages are now.

HTML, CSS and all the other current hip initials will join the rest of them, BASIC, Fortran, APL, BBS.

The next technology will resemble tv in that it will be available anywhere without the need for cables or blue teeth. Content will resemble current reality shows because no-one will want to study or read anything, they'll simply want to be shown something. Needless to say, it will be even more illiterate and mind-numbingly lowest-common-denominator crap than the net is now, but I can't imagine standards rising as technology becomes ever more widely accessible and producible.

Technological progress coupled with societal degradation will ensure that a thin virtual layer of ignorace, bigotry and hostility will cover the planet and be available to everyone everywhere. Not forgetting live vidfeeds of cute kittens.

[freelancr]