Business Logs

Web Design 2010 Panel Review

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005 by MR

Matto and I just got back from the Web Design 2010 Panel at SXSW, and we’ll each be writing our opinions about it.

Mike’s View

Take a look around you right now, and tell me what has changed significantly from 1998 to now. We have computers that look pretty much the same as they used to, cellphones aren’t changing radically, bad web browsers are still prevalent and relevant, and people who are on the far right side of the technological adoption curve still make up a miniscule segment of the world’s population. This panel was all about how different the web will be between now and 2010, and to be honest, I don’t think it’ll change fundamentally one bit.

Doug Bowman was definitely thinking the most realistically about the future and technology when he discussed how technology won’t matter, rather the concepts surrounding its usage are the most important. End users who aren’t technologically savvy don’t care one iota if a web app was written in PHP, ASP, or .Net as long as it just plain works. The slow move to a very content-centric web is already happening, and I believe in 2010 it’ll just be more important. Technologies like XML, RSS, and CSS aren’t going anywhere and in 2010 they’ll still just be taking off with the vast majority of the population. Fringe technologies like XForms, SVG, CSS3, and XHTML2 will still be just that, fringe technologies that nobody really uses for realistic projects. Five years isn’t that far away, but some people on the panel are already waiting for these flying cars to appear.

Jon Hicks and Dave Shea appeared to be well-versed in these technologies and the restraints surrounding them, so they were able to elaborate more about their usage and what might come of them. Eris Free seemed to talk for only about 45 seconds, but in reality it was probably closer to 4 minutes. Her very first comment on the panel started off with a long pause and ended with a “I’m sorry, I haven’t had my coffee yet” and then Doug Bowman grabbed the mic and spoke cogently about the topic she couldn’t discuss. Eris was very unprepared, and was completely out of her league. I can understand giving her a chance to speak for the first time, but sticking a mouse in a lion pit just doesn’t work.

Matto’s View

I don’t know why this panel was as bad as it was. It could have
been the format, it could have been the chemistry (or lack of) between
the panelists while on stage. It could have been the moderator. I
don’t know, but it was a waste of time. And maybe that’s why it
wasn’t very good because I felt it was a waste of the panelists time
as well. A better question to discuss, instead of where will the Web
be in 5 years is, how are people’s needs going to change in the next 5
years and how are we going to help them accomplish their goals.

Another miss on the part of the panelists, was answering no to the question, “will we
care about IE6 in 5 years.” However, we will probably still support it like we still support Netscape 4.x (to the extent that we remember to). This is a very First World-centric view. Developing countries often get hand-me-down computers from developed countries. Given that, I’d say that web developers/designers in general will still have to worry about IE6 in 5 years.

The thing is, not much has changed in the last 5 years. Some of
the technologies we use to deliver data from UI to database and back
again have changed, and I think that is likely the area where most of
the change will happen in regard to web development. We’ll still be
doing much the same we do now to create access to data for people to get their work done.

Reader Comments

10 Responses to “Web Design 2010 Panel Review”

Tim Hill Says:

Was there anything about using smaller screen devices (ie handhelds and mobile phones) to access data?
As prices drop and more of these devices become available, will we need to cater more for them in our designing?
Will media=”handheld” be more prominent?

March 15th, 2005 at 10:44 pm

Joe Clark Says:

People in developing countries will prefer free software first. Reason 1: It works in their language (as the many Unix and Mozilla localization projects attest). Reason 2: It’s free. Reason 3: It works on their old equipment, which is, at any rate, a bit of a myth. (Put it to you this way: Africans at cybercaf�s ain’t using Lynx.)

March 16th, 2005 at 12:09 pm

Britt Says:

I’m glad I skipped that panel. And I agree with Mike that not much will change in the next five years. In the past five, we’ve gone from personal websites to blogs, making it easier for more people to publish on the web.

The Does Design Matter? panel probably spoke more to the issue of what the web will be like in 2010 than it sounds like this panel did. That was an interesting coversation.

March 16th, 2005 at 2:48 pm

Britt Says:

Correction: That was in interesting converstion about design’s impact on the future of the web.

March 16th, 2005 at 3:06 pm

Mike D. Says:

Sheesh, tough crowd! I spoke at the Typography For The Screen panel opposite this one, and the ironic part is that Hicksy and I both kinda wanted to be at the other’s panel. I mean, I love typography and all, but The Web in 2010 is a very interesting subject. I could have taken up the whole fricking hour. There’s a ton to talk about.

March 17th, 2005 at 7:30 pm

Matthew Oliphant Says:

To belatedly answer Tim’s question… Yes, the panel briefly mentioned that the trend toward smaller displays would continue and we will have to consider that in our designs. Sorry I can’t elaborate, but that was pretty much the extent of the discussion on that point.

March 19th, 2005 at 2:47 pm

Zaskoda Says:

Given the topics covered, I felt the panel should have included someone who has actually worked as an applications developer. I heard a lot of mis-information during the panel. Web apps indeed…

March 19th, 2005 at 10:54 pm