The Business Of Web Design

The Business ofWeb Design

Latest Trends in Web Designand Web-based Applications

19th February 2009

Erskine DesignSimon Collison

www.erskinedesign.com

In the olden days...

Web standards

• Separation of content, style and behaviour

• Faster and easier workflow

• Embrace current methods and principles

• Accessibility by default

• Leaner code uses less bandwidth, and serves pages faster

HTML, CSS & the DOM

www.csszengarden.com/

Accessibility

• If a website is not accessible to everyone, it fails

• Accessibility is not just about disability

• Content repurposed for any viewing device

• No compromises. Every user gets every bit of content

• Microformats (what?)

Usability

• An accessible site is not necessarily a usable site

• Be aware that each user will have different needs

• Common sense approaches to user interfaces

• Don’t make them think!

The Rules

• Responsibility to all users

• Scalable, long-term approaches

• Methodical and inclusive processes

• Keep things simple

• Accountability

Microformatswww.microformats.org/

Grids

Rhythm & Type

Wireframes

Blogs

www.kottke.org/

RSS

www.feedburner.com/

NetNewsWire

Music, Podcasts, Video and

other Downloads

www.beatport.com/ www.youtube.com/

www.daytrotter.com/ www.hypem.com/

Web Applications &Social Networks

www.last.fm/

www.myspace.com/

http://twitter.com/

37 Signalswww.37signals.com/

Carsonifiedwww.carsonified.com/

Happy Cogwww.happycog.com/

Oh... and Google

and Yahoo!and Microsoft

and Appleand the gambling industry

...and then there’s the porn industry,which I know nothing about.

APIs and Mashups

Acquisitions & Value

• Feedburner bought by Google for $100m

• Photobucket bought by Fox for $250m

• Last.fm bought by CBS for $280m

• Treehugger bought by Discovery for $10m

• StumbleUpon bought by Ebay for $45m

http://www.seoconsultants.com/google/acquisitions/http://startup.partnerup.com/2008/01/02/2007-acquisitions-web-internet-technology//

• Launched in February 2004

• Turned down a $10 million offer months later

• Now has over 450 employees

• Turned down $1 billion from Yahoo!

• Microsoft bought a $240 million stake in it

• Over 70,000,000 users

• Annual revenue is only $150m, yet estimated value is $15 billion

The Mobile Web

www.apple.com/

Survey

www.alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

www.alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

www.alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

www.alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults

The Unexpected

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Summary

• Specialise: choose one path and stick to it

• The web is about the users, not the designer

• Be responsible and accountable

• Keep it simple

• Beware of the teenager!

Any questions?

Please be aware that the internet is a vast landscape that changes every five minutes, and I

don’t know everything about all of it...

ThanksSimon Collison

erskinedesign.com