I was just buzzing through my usual morning trawl of social media when I came upon this article which actually references this article on Smashing Magazine. Both articles have gained a large amount of exposure because of the rather histrionic idea that Web Design as we know it, is well on the way to extinction. The main reason for this is aggregation. The number of users choosing to remain updated on the web through things like RSS feeds or even more prevalently, through apps on their smart-phone’s.
For the uninitiated: This means that all the time you spend on creating a stunning a beautiful website could potentially be a complete waste, because no-one is ever going to see it. Instead they’ll all be reading your site content through the streamlined and simple confines of their favourite iPhone app, or chosen RSS feed reader.
It’s an interesting and initially scary thought to communities of designers and developers like Crowd. Much of what we do involves striking that perfect balance between form and function and at heart we’re control freaks. We’ve always maintained that good design is nothing without amazing content – content is most definitely king– but we still want to be able to present your content in the most effective way we can, not surrender control to any number of faceless technologies. So it’s a reason to be nervous? Or is it?
The liberation of the web from the monitor screen
Yes, we’re all making far more use of smart-phones & tablets; and the liberation of the web from the monitor screen cannot ever be labelled a negative thing, but there are aspects of computer (‘real’ computer with mouse, keyboard, screen & browser) interaction that are likely to be with us for a very long time, and most of them are directly related to employment. How many of you are sat reading this on a monitor, connected to a desktop tower, or network box, provided to you by your employer? I would hazard a guess that it’s a large proportion. In fact – the prevalence of people who now do the vast majority of their web surfing in a work environment (on their allocated breaks of course) would suggest that the internet as we know it is here to stay. As long as we are using these large, heat emitting boxes as an essential part of almost every non-manual job in the modern world, there will be a need for beautifully styled websites that work in the latest web browsing technologies.
The workplace has a massive influence on web development technologies
If further proof were ever needed that the workplace has a massive influence on web development technologies, you only have to go back to the Internet Explorer 6 debate… Why, even now, are we forced to ensure that a ‘new’ website is functional in a technology that pre dates the first iPod? The reason is that IE6 ships with every copy of windows XP and a huge number of companies uses still that operating system. Were it not for work-based web browsing we could have buried the aberration that is IE6 five years ago when it reached the undisputed end of its useful lifespan.
I guess it’s possible that the future of tertiary industry might lie in apps too. That companies will see the light and realise that if they allow us all to work remotely from mobile devices, their overheads would reduce massively. But the kind of investment needed to make that happen would be vast, and the relinquished control over an entirely remote workforce is not going to be to the tastes of anyone but the most liberal company heads.
Until that time Crowd remain confident that a carefully created, beautifully presented vehicle for your company’s message is a not just priceless asset, but a necessity.