phil herborn

I was kicking back in the sun yesterday thinking… what are the high level web design considerations that I would lead clients through this year? These were the most prominent in my mind (perhaps you can help me out? what have I missed?).

1. How to make it Social: 2008 will be the year where we work out how to use social media better, we’ll be experimenting still with how it works (and here and here) and what it is (and here and check this map). So any project team is going to be asking itself… Is it relevant to use social media for this project? What forms of social media are we confident will work for this project? and What forms are worth experimenting with?

2. Make it simple and easy to use: Rather than bloating a website with as many features as the budget can possibly stand project teams should be pushing back on clients who want more features for the buck by selling the virtues of something that is simple and easy to use. It’s the less is more thing… throw out the 80% of features that are just clutter and spend the budget on the 20% that is going to make a difference and that make it 10x better for the end customer.

3. Can I justify a mobile site: The big companies are into it, medium and small size companies will dabble more. Project teams will ask is there some piece of content that would be great to access from anywhere? Perhaps posting a wine review from the dinner table or checking my new car order status from the bus stop. Web development teams will start testing their websites on mobile phone browsers, initially out of curiosity, then out of necessity as clients start to demand that their sites work on mobile too.

What do think? What have I missed?