The idea of Web 2.0 was first introduced by Darcy DiNucci in 1999 when she argued in her article for the necessity of new web design standards to be universally compatible with ever-growing number of web-ready devices and to ensure more interactivity. It was the first step towards the today’s notion of Web 2.0. The term was further developed and got popularity after the first Web 2.0 conference held by John Batelle and Tim O'Reilly in 2003. O'Reilly and his colleagues pointed out some differences of “Web 2.0” in comparison with “Web 1.0”. It was said that the main contrast between the “old” and the “new” web versions was in much more interactivity that “Web 2.0” offered in comparison with those mostly static websites typical for “Web 1.0”. This conference announced a new era of websites based on the constantly updated user generated content, although such sites existed before this announcement, however in scarce number compared to what we are having today. Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia are good examples of the best known Web 2.0 platforms which allow users not only to retrieve information but also to create their own content and share information with other users. Thus social networking and blogging websites can obviously be said to have all characteristics and principle to pertain to Web 2.0, in fact, such websites are pure models of Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 sites involve users in participation in creation of content and that is why they demand scalability and certain design and development standards in order to improve user experience and ensure easy information sharing. Therefore Web 2.0 requires using of tags (a kind of keywords necessary for the content to be found by users) and syndication tools such as RSS and Atom feeds used for rapid transmission of the updated content to the users who are subscribed to a feed.
The idea of 2.0 caused a real craziness and a lot of 2.0s emerged from this Web 2.0 trend since 2003 including Business 2.0, Medicine 2.0, Government 2.0 etc. And, of course, Web 2.0 Design and Web 2.0 Logo were also coined on the tide of this popularity.
Web 2.0 Design is a relatively new approach to the web design style. It is characterized by more simplicity and elegancy of website design. The main principle of the Web 2.0 Design is conveying more information by less design elements. Just like Web 2.0 “Web 2.0 Design” has no exact definition, however it has a number of characteristic features which are easily recognizable:
- Simple layout, mostly made with CSS or DIV sections;
- A lot of white spaces (newspaper-like layout) and tendency of putting less on a web page in order to focus visitors’ attention on the most important things and make the text easy to read;
- Using large fonts in short but informative headings;
- Usage of gradients in order to create an esthetic and elegant looking design;
- Accenting the most important web page elements by means of the color contrast (very often bright and neon colors are applied), e.g. navigation elements may have quite contrasting colors if compared to these used for the areas where the main content is placed;
- Big buttons with attractive colors, glassy and plastic effects intended to draw visitors attention;
- Cute and eye candy Web 2.0 logos are used for website branding purposes. Such logos typically have bright colors, gradients, drop-shadows and reflections;
- Reflection of some graphics creating a mirroring effect as on a shiny polished floor (often used for logos, fancy headers, product images etc.).
Since this is a very fashionable web design tendency, a lot of website owners and also those who only intend having their website built want to keep abreast of this trendy wave of web design “fashion”. If you are one of them, please, feel free to contact our creative team to discuss your Web 2.0 design project. We employ the whole range of highly experienced web designers and developers whose skills allow us handle graphic/web design and development project of any complexity including Web 2.0 design.
