Webdesign 2009 / trends

With 2009 just around the corner it is time to talk about the next big trends, with this post will start on the web design trends. The biggest thing for 2009 at the moment are all the activities around touch screens and gesture controls. Both are great new development, while touch screens have been around for years but never ever entered the consumer world, next year we will finally have allot of them for affordable prices. And gesture control being uncertain when released however they have said to be very affordable like the range of high end web cams.

With finally getting some new controllers to the computers and leaving the tablets and mice's, our interface of the computer are changing for these technologies however our websites need to be prepared for these changes too. I have tested out the most latest touchscreen computer the HP Touch Smart which actually works fairly well, however it does not have the multi-touch software, but the main thing the Touch Smart uses fairly big icons and buttons which is really needed for people with thick fingers. And I have a tablet PC my self for several years and is bit the same as touch screen but I need to touch the screen by using a pen.

So for 2009 your website need to be prepared for either touch or gesture controls. But here is a list of what you need to prepare your website for 2009 or if you are about to start a website you need to look at these things.

1. Make sure your buttons are big enough
Our fingers are bigger then arrows or pointers that are on the screen. And this would be the main problem on allot of sites. Especially with small short text links which are close on top of each other inside a list are going to be major problem. In 2009 we will see more button and icons to be used to make it easier to navigate around.

2. Ergonomic controls
With our hands moving more around we need to look at what movement you actually are using when you are navigating around your website. This is mainly about how your layout is made. Actually you want the hands to be moving less and be concentrated on certain area's. The best thins is also to place the buttons on the sides then having them somewhere on the top or bottom.

3. Horizontal scrolls
With more normal controls we want to have a more normal feeling with moving things. However the normal on computers are vertical wise but more human feeling I think books will be a different

4. Layout like a iPhone
Actually will be expecting allot of website with layouts that looks allot like the iPhone. This is because this iPhone has allot of things well designed for touch interfaces, so it would be easy to use the interface of the iPhone as a base for you web layout.

5. Unforeseen future
Some things we just can't predict what will happen, because some human or hidden factor can happen in the mean time. Also people can suddenly design somethings that nobody ever saw before. So the Last tip is to go outside of the box instead of inspiring from other computer interface look back into the past and look at machines where we used to use our hand to control. But also play around and see what could else you could thinks of for easier controls.

Extra info

Gesture control

EEE top

HP touchsmart