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Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

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Web 2.0 dominates. Everywhere and all the time. The new design trends are there, in front of you and me, on the blog you’ve come from and on the blog you are going to visit next. Every now and again we find new design elements which somehow manage to become essential for every hip, trendy, glossy, stylish web-site which will be developed in the era of its majesty Web 2.0.

Remember those web-sites with old gray Javascript buttons, huge Comic Sans headers and visible eXtreme counters we used to visit few years ago? Looking at them, and looking at recent developments, one realizes how much actually has changed. But what has changed really – ok, we don’t see those buttons, those headers and those counters. In fact, we see something else.

With this article we start a series of articles about the latest design trends and patterns a web-developer should keep in mind, designing his new web-site.

1,2,3… Start!

Presenting services and end-products to potential customers, web-designers tend to stick to simplicity. The information provided by clients has to be explained in an understandable way. A web-developers should make sure the user understands instantly, what the company is offering, what are users’ adventages and what is actually required for using the service.

What is interesting is the fact that one can see the same familiar form of process visualization over and over again. You don’t see a huge list with requirements (in fact, usually you’ll find them on the bottom of the page, written in font size 7px or even smaller) or detailed .pdf-manuals on a front page. What you usually see are three-steps- and easy-to-go-badges in the center of the pages – they describe exactly what has to be done to use the service in few clicks. The use of graphics is essential and obligatory. Also Flash is often used to attract the attention of the users.

Examples:

123-1 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

friendster.com

123-3 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

fon.com

123-4 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

communitywalk.com

123-2 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

blish.com

123-5 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

dpolls.com

Badges and Flowers

Probably one of the most popular trends in the era of Web 2.0 are “Badges” with various round and square corners and modified flowers, we used to find on milk packages in the 90s.

Examples:

Mode-butt3 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

sixapart.com/comet

Mode-butt4 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

goowy.com

Beta in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

ajaxload.info

Mode-10 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts
haveamint.com

Mode-rund3 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

conversate.org

Mode-butt2 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

sidejobtrack.com

Sonne-2 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

zerohex.org

Sonne-1 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

secondsite.biz

Beta

Have you tried to find at least one released Web 2.0 service? Browsing through the swarm of Web 2.0-sites you are more likely to find a beta-version than a released one. Ironically, just like few years ago, new ideas are born every day. But today they are realized instantly – and presented to the public as a beta-version.

Of course, “Beta”-stage delivers many advantages for developers. Being “Beta” means being incomplete and therefore – being allowed to offer the functionality which will – and probably – should be improved in the near future – just the way user would like it to be. In this way it is easier to prevent complaints, gain the attention of curious users and win some time for further development.

The label “Beta” has become some kind of trademark for something new and exciting. Over the last year it has almost become a standard for new projects and is often presented in bright and eye-catching colours together with the logotype of the site – intentionally, of course.

Examples:

Mode-2 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts
clickcaster.com

Mode-4 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts
bubbleshare.com

Mode-5 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

shozu.com

Mode-6 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

riya.com

Mode-7 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

picpix.com

Mode-8 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

redtoucan.com

Beta in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

mabber.com

Tag Clouds

Tag Clouds can simplify the navigation or confuse the visitors. Used effectively, they can provide help and emphasize the main topics and themes being tackled in a blog. However, sometimes they simply don’t fit and make both readability and usability more difficult: mainly, if web-typography isn’t used properly or basic rules are breached (i.e. line-height hasn’t been defined in em’s, but in px’s).

Examples:

Tags-1 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

shadows.com

Tags-2 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

connotea.org

Tags-3 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

blogmarks.net

Tags-5 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

imeem.com

Tags-4 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

browsr.com

Large Input Fields

Not a single web-developer would dare to do it few years ago, especially because not every browser would present input fields properly. In the meanwhile, it isn’t a problem any more and web-developers make use of it. Web forms are changing, legends and fieldsets become more and more popular, and large input fields appear like mushrooms after a rainy day – here some examples of them.

Examples:

Mode-butt5 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

Quite unusual design decision. Actually, it is an input field of a search engine seekum.com.

Mode-1 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

podbop.org

Mode-eingabe in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

feedpile.com

Huge Fonts

The presentation of headers has become an important style element of every web-page. Image headers tend to be replaced by text-based headers – CSS does its work perfectly. The time of mini-headers is over, the opposite becomes more and more apparent – and sometimes extremely exaggerated. Enormous fonts can be found not only in headers, but also in navigation menus and brief texts.

Examples:

Mode-sch in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

krugle.com

Mode-sch-2 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

clearleft.com

Mode-sch-3 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

blog.qype.com

Rove in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

rrove.com

Rounded Corners

Actually, there is a reason why we love rounded corners. This elements simplifies the readability and makes the understanding of presented information easier. In fact, rounded corners are used by emerging web-sites and young projects. All page elements become more round – navigation menus, buttons, input fields, tables and text columns.

Spring in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

Typical examples are web-sites like Ioutliner, Netsquared and Springdoo, which use rounded corners to its fullest effect.

Rund-3 in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

Rounded corners with sharp shadows: cluckoo.com

Ning in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

ning.com

Zimba in Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

Rounded corners everywhere: zimbra.com

The Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.

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  1. 1
    Alexander Kinnunen
    September 15th, 2006 12:50 am

    A really nice article, with great examples!

  2. 2
    Deborah
    October 10th, 2006 2:07 pm

    What a coincidence. We are both writing about web stuff and we have chosen the same theme. Good taste I guess. Your site is very informative. I found it whilst doing a Google search.
    I see by your profile you are involved with the ‘Web Developer’s Handbook’, which is a site I used at one point for resources. Very extensive.

  3. 3
    milo
    October 22nd, 2006 4:32 pm

    Pretty good article, all new stuff in one hand, thanks.

  4. 4
    rajendran
    January 17th, 2007 8:55 pm

    Very good article and a very useful one for designers like me as well. I have bookmarked your site so that I can learn more about the latest happenings. Thanks!

  5. 5
    SvT
    January 25th, 2007 5:53 pm

    good article!) tnx..

  6. 6
    Özcan
    January 29th, 2007 12:16 am

    Pretty good article, all new stuff in one hand, thanks.

  7. 7
    Matt
    January 31st, 2007 10:42 pm

    A good article but how long will it be before badges, huge input fields and tag coulds be a thing of the past? In other words another web “trend”.

  8. 8
    Matt Davies
    February 16th, 2007 9:07 pm

    Bring on web 3.0! Great article. Cheers!

  9. 9
    Web Designer
    March 5th, 2007 9:49 pm

    what a cool article! Thanx for such a useful information.

  10. 10
    Piyal Kundu
    March 6th, 2007 1:43 am

    Very nice article. Need more. Thanks

  11. 11
    klein
    March 14th, 2007 4:56 pm

    nice information,i will surely use this info in my site designersyard.com, i like this.

  12. 12
    navi
    March 22nd, 2007 6:53 am

    nice lists….
    It gives me some inspiration,keep on moving forward!!

  13. 13
    Güneş
    April 13th, 2007 11:24 pm

    Your site is very informative. I found it whilst doing a Google search.

  14. 14
    Direccion cuboCMS
    May 5th, 2007 3:59 am

    You give programmers the guidelines to enrich application development. Since I read your articles I become aware of all the things involved in web development, not just tables, dbs and server side code. I trying to quit on tables, but as you can imagine it’s a little hard because I’ve been doing everything with tables since 1997!

    Thanks, this is an unvaluable resource, not just to designers, but also to server side programmers!
    CYA!

  15. 15
    Harry
    June 5th, 2007 5:28 am

    These design trends have very little to do with Web 2.0 (other than tag clouds maybe). Mostly these trends have to do with recent “design” ideas that are popular. Everyone is getting on the bandwagon and copying everyone else. That’s not really new either. Rounded corners certainly aren’t new.

  16. 16
    Randolph Valencia
    June 6th, 2007 12:22 am

    Very informative post! Good job!

  17. 17
    albert
    June 20th, 2007 10:59 pm

    Thanks for all inspirations, smashingmagazine is one of my favorite site…

    greetings

    Albert from cuba

  18. 18
    Freelance Rotterdam
    July 16th, 2007 11:16 am

    good post, this design trends are true =)

  19. 19
    Freelance Rotterdam
    July 16th, 2007 11:17 am

    ow, i think you forgot the “reflections” :))

  20. 20
    arun bhatia
    July 24th, 2007 7:01 am

    really nice articles with example. I m realy impressed with the way it was explained.

  21. 21
    NIshanthe
    August 5th, 2007 1:02 pm

    Good list with nice examples.
    -Nish

  22. 22
    TN
    August 16th, 2007 9:21 am

    I think Web 2.0 has a lot to do with web dev catching on to design, layout and information hierarchy – the theory has been around forever, and the things Web 2 is addressing is quite basic, but the basics are good and I can only say it’s about time.

    The fact that everything is shinny, or has rounded corners means nothing. It’s like saying bell-bottoms on trousers are integral to the trousers – obviously they aren’t, it’s just a fad. And the same can be said about the current penchant for slick buttons, reflections etc. However the underlying theory behind making information easy to access and comprehend has started seriously on the web, which is good to see.

  23. 23
    bincom
    October 8th, 2007 9:55 pm

    Here is a lovely list. Our company website is currently being redesigned and this list is serving as inspiration. Cheers.

  24. 24
    Ivy Clark
    November 4th, 2007 11:14 am

    Great observations! I’ll definitely check back for more. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

  25. 25
    John Smith
    November 27th, 2007 11:15 pm

    why not go straight to web4.0

  26. 26
    Rajiv
    December 27th, 2007 3:08 pm

    Hi this is cool Article. those who are learning Web 2.0 this is very best article to understand Web 2.0

  27. 27
    thangaraj
    January 11th, 2008 5:02 am

    I like to see all these good concepts.

  28. 28
    john feller
    January 18th, 2008 12:28 pm

    I was under the impression that web 2.0 was about functinality, not fancy-schmancy stripy glossy graphics. And what happened to vowels?!
    Seriously, facebook is a good example of web 2.0 (apparently) – being able to rearrange items on the page at will makes the site (or any site that utilizes such a feature) engaging and feels more personal to the user. Modular…ness.
    or am i thinking of Web 3.0?

  29. 29
    waqas zahoor
    January 25th, 2008 9:40 am

    Nice, vary nice

  30. 30
    Dean
    February 15th, 2008 6:40 am

    Great post.
    Ive noticed an emerging trend not mentioned here, and one which i believe we will be seeing a lot of in ‘08.
    Pattern fills. Mostly subtle, ornamental florals, or sometime retro graphic, used in clean flat vector shapes in logos and other graphics.
    I’m led to believe its crossed over from interior design and last years trend for using wallpaper as opposed to paint.
    One to watch….

  31. 31
    Loky
    February 27th, 2008 4:24 pm

    There is another nice LARGE input field at: PriceGrabber.com

  32. 32
    Kishore Blog
    March 12th, 2008 11:42 am

    Useful stuff for everyone. Somany informations. Thanks
    Ofcourse im a regular visitor here.

  33. 33
    Mike
    July 17th, 2008 7:35 am

    Plaza101.com is also a good web2.o example.

  34. 34
    Gonzalo
    August 3rd, 2008 8:38 am

    Muy buenos tips!

    El articulos es muy completo, muy gráfico!
    Para my gusto, excelete a la hora de tomar ideas para algún proyecto.

  35. 35
    Adam
    August 13th, 2009 5:01 am

    Excellent article. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

  1. 00

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