I'm currently down in London at the Future of Web Design conference. The conference is looking at topics around current and future trends within the web design realm. There's a whole host of speakers at the event and after the fold I'll be sharing some thoughts on what I’ve heard.

11.00am: We’re just at first break so I thought I’d take time out and pass on a few thoughts about the last talk given — ‘Designing For Web Apps’ — a talk with Ryan Singer from 37 Signals, George Oates from Flickr and Denise Wiltno from Moo.

It was an interesting talk about adding character and personality into web apps and forms. The main message was to make your apps as friendly simple to use. Not rocket science, but small details like splitting forms up by placing the easier questions (like name, email etc) before more difficult questions (like choosing a password etc) makes the user feel obliged to continue the form filling process since they have already spent time processing part of it (the easy part). Another useful tip was to gently let the user know when their form isn't filled in correctly. Rather then RED CAPS to denote the mistake, hold the user’s hand and highlight the mistakes. A real life analogy would be helping someone fill in a form in real life.

1.00pm: Just listened to Nat Hunter from Airside who quickly ran the audience through some of their work. I’ve always been a fan of Airside so was nice to hear about some projects I’ve never seen (like making a tee shirt the ticket for a Lemon Jelly concert and forcing the public to wear the tee to see the gig. At a point in the evening a black light illuminated hidden patterns on the shirts to create a see of texture. Nice.) Nat got cut off a bit early (it’s a very punctual event) and was replaced by Joshua Hirsch from Big Spaceship who’s presentation wasn't as interesting. He spent the 1st half explaining how their company was structured (yawn!) and how cool they are. I started thinking about lunch. He kind of made up a little bit by showing the Nike Air work they did which is kind of cool. Forgiven.

3.15pm: Earlier today there was an interesting talk by William Rosen from Leo Burnett who explained this project — a very forward thinking idea. Reminds me of the 1000 Journals project from a few years back. Just sat through a couple of talks – one from Andy Clarke from Stuff and Nonsense and the other from Rei Inamoto from AKQA. Andy’s talk presented the concept of building web designs in XHTML and CSS instead of Photoshop / Fireworks. Not sure if I agree entirely with this approach as I'm sure the process would end up dictating the design, but I can see the benefits of using this method. Rei’s talk focussed on branding and identity. It was a good talk and he made 5  interesting points when working on any project…

• Have a point of view
  
• Be who you are
• Let the audience engage with you
• Be relevant
  
• Simplify, simplify, simplify

There’s a talk by Florian Schmitt from Hi-ReS! after the break followed by a discussion chaired by Jason Arber from Pixelsurgeon. Up to this point I wouldn’t say there has been great deal covering the ‘future of web design’ as it says on the tin so maybe this will be covered here. However the presentation’s have touched upon new trends, processes and viewpoints. What is apparent is that websites are starting to be viewed as applications or brand experience pieces. Looking to the future, Adobe’s Apollo which was showcased this morning looks very interesting.





(above old collegues, Martijn and Leigh)

6.00pm: The final session in the conference featured a great short 15 point talk by Steve Pearce from Poke and an interesting ‘battle’ between Florian Schmitt from Hi-ReS! and Jeff Croft. The former championed Flash and the latter HTML & web standards. An interesting point was made that Flash should be considered a standard these days as it  is installed on approximately 98% of web browsers.

The final part of the conference was a round table hosted by Jason Arber from PixelSurgeon. I decided to listen to this downstairs where there were speakers and live feeds of the conference… and free Wi-Fi. The words Web 3.0 were uttered during this debate and I started to wonder why as an industry we have to label the web in such a way. To me, the web is more than a ‘software release’.



After the conference there were drinks courtesy of Adobe and everyone chatted about the days events. Overall, my impression was the conference was interesting and I'm really glad I attended. Assuming there will be a 2nd next year I will bring the rest of the TAK! team as the discussions were valid for all of us. The event covered a variety of topics and there seemed a fair balance between visual design and web development without getting too nerdy in both areas. However I felt there wasn’t a great deal of discussion on information layout design which to me is a key process within web design and graphic design as a whole. The focus seemed more on the ideas and experience or the detailing of applications. I also have to say, the event was very well planned and is one of the better conferences I’ve attended. Recommended for next year — and I’m sure there will be another.

Good work to Carson Systems who I’d also like to thank for finding me a ticket at the last minute. Appreciated.