5 ms·

Website of the future: what does it look like?

10 points by mbriyo 18y ago

I am looking for examples that illustrate cutting edge innovation in the following areas: website navigation content community customization commerce support thanks!

petercooper 18y ago
Be aware of a problem here. If you go back several years and look at sites people defined as "cutting edge" or "futuristic", they were mostly gawdy Flash-ridden wastes of space that were certainly unique, but ultimately unusable and hard on the eyes. Even if you go back just a year, Adobe's Flex was being touted by many as a way of the future - especially in e-commerce - yet take a look at Amazon now. It's evolved, but not in that way. Looking at the high-end fashion catwalks to predict consumer fashions for the next decade doesn't work. So it goes with Web design. Remember that the future is made of lots of tiny changes compounded - not large sweeping innovations.
- mbriyo 18y ago
  so true. But still, I feel that with a big enough sample you can make some assumptions about what people feel is emerging. And I trust that the audience of this blog are more likely to have an interesting point of view...
  - mixmax 18y ago
    The problem is that if you take a sample of people (even smart ones) and ask them what they think the future holds they will almost certainly be wrong.
    - dgabriel 18y ago
      Which is exactly why paleo-futurism can be quite funny.
- mlLK 18y ago
  2advanced.com; when I was a young chap I'd spend hours just mulling over Eric Jordan's stuff.
  - lunaru 18y ago
    So I'm not the only one! Ah to be 16 again... everything flashy was good.
mtw 18y ago
apple.com (navigation, commerce) amazon (especially for nagivation, also commerce) facebook (for community) nytimes (for content) backpack
mmohan 18y ago
the website of the future will be a wiki. Simple navigation, lots of content, but based on real impressions of your company by customers, partners etc. instead of propaganda from the company.
- hugh 18y ago
  Do you honestly think that's not a terrible idea? Replacing your company website with a wiki? Maybe there's a tiny minority of companies for which that would work -- they'd be small, obscure, have a loyal fanbase, and almost never piss anyone off. For anyone else it's a disaster -- all you need is one disgruntled customer (or fanboy for the competition) with too much time on his hands.
  - tdavidson 18y ago
    It's not just the "control content from one bad seed" issue. Wikis are great to solve some problems, deliver some content, etc, but they're not the answer for everyone. There are different levels of transparency for us to explore...
mbuchanan 18y ago
I've got some innovation going at http://www.nestedguis.com http://www.nestedguis.com. (update: previous link was wrong) Louis Gray blogged about it.. http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/09/will-future-information-consumption-be.html http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/09/will-future-informatio...
raheemm 18y ago
With mobile devices growing - I think the website of the future will have a strong component on accessibility from various screen sizes. Another feature that will become important is having offline mode/app to enable data access, synchronization, etc.
dmose 18y ago
I'm a big fan of the 'grunge' trend we're starting to see http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/29/grunge-style-in-modern-web-design/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/29/grunge-style-in-m...
bouncingsoul 18y ago
A short while back, the folks at Adaptive Path invited me and the gang at Unit to contribute to a cool project they had in the works for Mozilla Labs. Our part would be to design how The New York Times sports page would look a few years into the future. http://www.andyrutledge.com/times-new-omen.php http://www.andyrutledge.com/times-new-omen.php
beaudeal 18y ago
Aza Raskin is developing some really cool technology over at Mozilla, dealing with things such as user interface and intuitive design. I expect that some of what he is producing now will be standard within the next couple of years, for example Geode, which was discussed yesterday (http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/10/introducing-geode/ http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/10/introducing-geode/).
timcederman 18y ago
My top sites of the moment that to be are trend leaders: http://www.mint.com/ http://www.mint.com/ http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.yelp.com/ http://www.yelp.com/

10 points by mbriyo 18y ago

I am looking for examples that illustrate cutting edge innovation in the following areas: website navigation content community customization commerce support thanks!

petercooper 18y ago

Be aware of a problem here. If you go back several years and look at sites people defined as "cutting edge" or "futuristic", they were mostly gawdy Flash-ridden wastes of space that were certainly unique, but ultimately unusable and hard on the eyes. Even if you go back just a year, Adobe's Flex was being touted by many as a way of the future - especially in e-commerce - yet take a look at Amazon now. It's evolved, but not in that way. Looking at the high-end fashion catwalks to predict consumer fashions for the next decade doesn't work. So it goes with Web design. Remember that the future is made of lots of tiny changes compounded - not large sweeping innovations.

mbriyo 18y ago
so true. But still, I feel that with a big enough sample you can make some assumptions about what people feel is emerging. And I trust that the audience of this blog are more likely to have an interesting point of view...
- mixmax 18y ago
  The problem is that if you take a sample of people (even smart ones) and ask them what they think the future holds they will almost certainly be wrong.
  - dgabriel 18y ago
    Which is exactly why paleo-futurism can be quite funny.
mlLK 18y ago
2advanced.com; when I was a young chap I'd spend hours just mulling over Eric Jordan's stuff.
- lunaru 18y ago
  So I'm not the only one! Ah to be 16 again... everything flashy was good.

mtw 18y ago

apple.com (navigation, commerce) amazon (especially for nagivation, also commerce) facebook (for community) nytimes (for content) backpack

mmohan 18y ago

the website of the future will be a wiki. Simple navigation, lots of content, but based on real impressions of your company by customers, partners etc. instead of propaganda from the company.

hugh 18y ago
Do you honestly think that's not a terrible idea? Replacing your company website with a wiki? Maybe there's a tiny minority of companies for which that would work -- they'd be small, obscure, have a loyal fanbase, and almost never piss anyone off. For anyone else it's a disaster -- all you need is one disgruntled customer (or fanboy for the competition) with too much time on his hands.
- tdavidson 18y ago
  It's not just the "control content from one bad seed" issue. Wikis are great to solve some problems, deliver some content, etc, but they're not the answer for everyone. There are different levels of transparency for us to explore...

mbuchanan 18y ago

I've got some innovation going at http://www.nestedguis.com http://www.nestedguis.com. (update: previous link was wrong) Louis Gray blogged about it.. http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/09/will-future-information-consumption-be.html http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/09/will-future-informatio...

raheemm 18y ago

With mobile devices growing - I think the website of the future will have a strong component on accessibility from various screen sizes. Another feature that will become important is having offline mode/app to enable data access, synchronization, etc.

dmose 18y ago

I'm a big fan of the 'grunge' trend we're starting to see http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/29/grunge-style-in-modern-web-design/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/29/grunge-style-in-m...

bouncingsoul 18y ago

A short while back, the folks at Adaptive Path invited me and the gang at Unit to contribute to a cool project they had in the works for Mozilla Labs. Our part would be to design how The New York Times sports page would look a few years into the future. http://www.andyrutledge.com/times-new-omen.php http://www.andyrutledge.com/times-new-omen.php

beaudeal 18y ago

Aza Raskin is developing some really cool technology over at Mozilla, dealing with things such as user interface and intuitive design. I expect that some of what he is producing now will be standard within the next couple of years, for example Geode, which was discussed yesterday (http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/10/introducing-geode/ http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/10/introducing-geode/).

timcederman 18y ago

My top sites of the moment that to be are trend leaders: http://www.mint.com/ http://www.mint.com/ http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.yelp.com/ http://www.yelp.com/