Web 2.0 for Designers

During the times of Web 1.0 just a limited number of authors were created web pages for a big amount of readers. As a result, people got the information by visiting the source directly. However in the course of time more and more people started not just reading but also writing by themselves on the Net. The effect turned out to be quite interesting – too much information for examination has been produced suddenly. It became physically impossible to visit numerous sites even if they are worth of attention. And since then it became obvious that the paradigm of Web 1.0 should be changed.

Welcome to Web 2.0 – Net vision here all the information is divided into micro parts which can be distributed to dozens domains. The Net of the documents was transformed to the Net of data. We no longer look for old sources of information, now we are trying to find tools for classifying micro parts of information to the convenient look.

These tools-interfaces Web 2.0 would become the first line of designers’ innovations.

Existence of RSS- aggregators, search systems, portals, various API and web services (XML-RPC, SOAP and others) serve as a confirmation of it. Web 2.0 is often described as “Net as a platform” and we think of it as it is a platform for information interaction, we see as it influences the design. Just imagine that the information was given by the various participants of the process – by the companies, individuals, government – and which might be combined by the single interface under one roof. For example, Amazon gives an access to its data base for all comers. One can create its own interface which may satisfy your requirements greatly. It is important that information delivery might be built to the different needs.

One can count up to 6 tendencies which characterize Web 2.0 for designers. We will try to summarize all these tendencies with short examples.

JUMP TO THE SEMANTIC MARKIP AND XML

One of the most important peculiarities at Web 2.0 understanding is the jump to the semantic markup which describes information accurately which it is related to. The most popular languages of markup HTML and XHTML are generally used for the information reflection. Tags which can be used with CSS styles are developed for it. However tags are not enough for the description of different information: we have only the simplest paragraphs, headings, lists and roughly speaking this is all. And as for Web 2.0 these descriptions are not just possible but are also extremely important! 

As an example we can give RSS/XML format for information combining at the convenient form. It is an easy way to inform readers about new materials on the site. You have just sign up for RSS at the program for the work with similar data.

GRANT OF THE WEB SERVICES

On the initial stage of Net developing when no one even thought about semantic markup all sites represented simple collection of pages. The pages were either static or in some way animated for making them interactive. The common way for site advertisement was its positioning as special “places” – Net as a virtual world with its own stores and portals.

At the end of 90s and especially at the beginning of the 21st century rising of XML technologies and web services started gradual changing of site design and its structure. XML technologies allowed information became public and available for various systems and web services have provided interfaces to the insides of the web sites. Thus the visual interface for data access turned into programming (AIP).

Good examples of web services are eBay and Amazon. Their data bases are available to every programmer who is able to build his own interface for work with API.

INFORMATION CONVERSION FROM “WHAT AND WHEN” TO “WHO AND WHY”

Web design of Web 1.0 presented site building as “a thing in itself”. But information can not be left in the single place, if not going against the nature of the social network and not locking it. Web 2.0 design should create not just sites but a somewhat of an environment controlled by the events. And it’s not occasional that RSS became dominant. It allows getting information in the aggregator any time without outside design. Search systems can also present search results in this format.

As information flows freely now at RSS channels, designers should think about how to give the information itself but not the sites.