Movement is the key these days. Allow me to illustrate how design has evolved over the years by using something I like to call the ‘designers just ripping off Adobe’s CS packaging’ effect:
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2005: Adobe Photoshop CS2 introduces designers to feathers for the first time. Every design between 2005 and 2007 incorporated a feather, or bird, or some sort of nature-esq theme. We quickly abandoned this approach once we became so isolated by technology that we forgot what nature was. |
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2007: Adobe Photoshop CS3 a.k.a the birth of the swirly graphic. If you were savy with Illustrator or could sensibly navigate Shutterstock, you could turn a thoughtless, mediocre design into a thoughtless, mediocre design with a swirly graphic. It was the shortest distance between a blank screen and beauty…an empty, ‘America’s Next Top Model’ sort of beauty. |
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2008: Adobe Photoshop CS4 when layers of curvy lines became too much of a burden, Adobe introduced us to the idea of simplicity. Blocks of related color became the design standard of 2008. No gradients, no drop shadows…it was a developer’s dream. 30 hours to figure out what two colors to use for the design, and then a cool 45 seconds to throw the finished product onto the web. |
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2010: Adobe Photoshop CS5 is a warning to everyone essentially declaring the death of static design. Look at how the CS5 packaging conveys an uneasy sense of instability and motion. I will no longer think a design to be of any worth unless it looks like it’s about to topple over and crush me. |
With CSS3, HTML5, webkit transitions, jQuery and all that other stuff I don’t have the knowledge base to speak eloquently enough about, there is no reason that a website should load and then site there idly and wait to be fondled by your cursor. Even fades should be banished at this point. Effective and interesting movement is the key. If your design feels like it’s about to jump off the screen and stab you in the chest, you’re on the right track.
…check out how Spritely is using movement to effectively bludgeon that Flash product out of more of it’s usefulness: http://www.spritely.net/
