An insightful look at villains and heroes of web trends by Tom Osborne of Viget. Hosted by AddThis.

1. Winter 2016
Tom Osborne, Design Director at Viget

3. ● Three villains–what to beware of
● Hero trends–what to focus on instead
IllustrationbyJosephLe

4. Templates and automated design tools help
us get online but they don’t help us get
noticed.
Villain #1
IllustrationbyJosephLe

5. “In the act of creativity, being careful
guarantees sameness and mediocrity, which means
your work will be invisible.”
George Lois, author of “Damn Good Advice”
Source: Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential

6. Extensive template galleries
offer designs for many different
platforms. They offer good
structure and elegantly
designed frameworks.
However, if not customized
they won’t differentiate enough
to help us stand out.

7. Platforms like The Grid promise
to automate and curate designs
based on your content. This is
progress in an interesting
direction but will it be enough
to get noticed?

8. Brands that use relevant
imagery through illustration,
photography, video, or
infographics will create more
memorability within their
market sector.

9. Brands that we visit often will
offer more content custom
tailored to our likes and interest
as they get to know us better.

10. Spend valuable time on your
narrative through well
articulated text and supporting
visuals.
Low End: DIY
Middle: Find a freelancer High End: Hire a designer or
agency.

11. The demand for online video and interactive
entertainment is on the rise as is the use of
mobile devices. Cost prohibitive data plans
mean that it will still be important for the
web to be fast, light, and snappy.
Villain #2
IllustrationbyJosephLe

12. Syndacast predicts
74% of all internet traffic
in 2017 will be video.
Source: Syndacast.com

13. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu,
YouTube, HBO, ESPN, and so
many more are fighting for our
screen time. In the music biz,
Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music
and more are doing the same.

14. The rise in streaming content
comes after recent pushes by
Microsoft, Apple, Google, and
more to “flatten” design to help
speed up delivery of graphical
elements.
Source: flatvsrealism.com

15. As consumers, we want to find
what we’re looking for quickly
and easily. Then once we find
something we watch, listen,
play, read, learn, and
experience deeply.
Source: Apple.com

16. Don’t overwhelm your
audience with too many
choices.
Be cautious and wise with use
of data-sapping content.
Quickly get users to useful,
immersive, and enjoyable
destinations.

17. As we age, more of us will encounter
disabilities — visual, hearing, mobility, or
cognitive. Our tolerance for prohibitive
access will decrease.
Villain #3
IllustrationbyJosephLe

18. “In the US, about
75 million people
have some type of
physical disability.”
Source: Disabled-world.com

19. “Of today's 20 year-olds, just
over 1 in 4 will become disabled
before they retire.”
Source: Disabled-world.com

20. Most families have or will have
a loved one with some form of
impairment. The more we
embrace the idea that
technology is designed to help
us all, the more we’ll see
beneficial business
opportunities.

21. Well-formatted, machine-
readable text benefits both
search engine optimization and
screen reading technology for
visual impairments.

22. Font style, text size, and color
contrast all contribute to better
readability.
Source: Viget.com

23. Studies have shown that
imagery paired with text leads
to faster comprehension.

24. Be a good web citizen. Educate
yourself on barriers to
comprehension and access.
Hire an expert, if you need to.Be inclusive, to those of us with
disabilities and impairments by
implementing good
accessibility practices.

25. Sameness Bloat Exclusion

26. At the end of the day, it’s
unique, interesting, and useful
content that draws us in and
keeps us coming back for more.
When wayfinding works in
understandable, sensible, and
predictable ways, we find
better destinations more
quickly and consume them
deeply.
Inclusive and accessible
content is best for humanity
and a tremendous business
opportunity for anyone looking
to gain an edge on competition.
The web is meant for us all.
Sameness Bloat Exclusion

27. I’m a designer that leads a team of designers at
Viget. We design and build extraordinary web-
based software for a variety of clients from many
different industries. Learn more at Viget.com.
Twitter: _@troz or @viget
Thanks for listening.
Villain #4

28. ● Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com/
● The Grid: https://thegrid.io/
● Freelancer.com: https://www.freelancer.com/
● Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/
● Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/
● Flat vs. Realism: http://www.flatvsrealism.com/
● Disabled World: http://www.disabled-world.com/
● WebAIM: http://webaim.org/
● Color Contrast: https://viget.com/inspire/color-contrast
● 2015 Design Trends: https://2015.avocode.com/

29. ● Designing with banner advertising: https://viget.com/work/wral
● Designing for accessibility: https://viget.com/inspire/designing-for-accessibility-what-to-watch-for
● Accessibility in projects: https://viget.com/inspire/how-to-implement-accessibility-in-agency-projects-part-1
● Accessibility costs: https://viget.com/advance/accessibilitys-costs-are-lower-than-you-think
● How to work with designers: https://abookapart.com/products/youre-my-favorite-client

30. ● Xerox: http://www.office.xerox.com/latest/COLFS-02UA.PDF
● Syndacast: http://syndacast.com/video-marketing-statistics-trends-2015/
● Ooyala: http://go.ooyala.com/rs/447-EQK-225/images/Ooyala-Global-Video-Index-Q2-2015.pdf
● DisabledWorld: http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/
● Viget: https://viget.com/inspire/color-contrast
● NeoMam: http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/
● A List Apart: http://alistapart.com/article/accessibilityseo

31. This presentation is available on Slideshare.net at: http://www.slideshare.net/trozbo/web-trends-2016