Must Design

Future Tools
This is a great web design post. Don't worry if you don't know or understand only about half of it. Importance is in the tools suggested to test, design and pivot toward a future of more flexible web design.

But there's a problem.

I created my first highly static website in 1999. Not static in the sense we didn't update it since we updated it all the time. Static in the servers and code we used. Today and especially true tomorrow your websites will need to fly around the web curating information from the 4 corners of the web.

The more "flying around" your website does the greater the stress on your backend serving architecture and the more the need for the cool web design tools outlined in this Smashing Magzine post.  

Web 3.0's Whaam!
Just as Roy Lichtenstein’s Whaam! 1963 seemed to blow abstract painting off the walls web 3.0 will change everything we call "website design". After creating The Future of Web Design #1 (http://sco.lt/7r6zkf) Haiku Deck I realized some shots were fired but not enough.

Web 3.0 powered by a ubiquitous web for people and things with semantic intelligence changes how we create websites and Internet marketing. Math will be a future web designer’s friend. 

Websites will float based on predictive analytics and real time behavior. Behavior responded to with tested creative designed for personas and segments to CONVERT is more Google-like than anything web designers create now.

David Merrill's siftables are the best demonstration of how content will become intelligently self aware AND agnostic to the kind of hubificaiton web designers practice now.

http://youtu.be/JP0w9lZoLwU Siftables

Hubificaiton is about bringing THEM to US. APP-ificaiton is about creating agnostic widgets. Widgets easily placed anywhere (as Amazon's mini-cart widget demonstrates here: http://sco.lt/4iahNZ).

Web 3.0's mobile ubiquitous web will reverse hubification's emphasis on traffic density (bring visitors into a hub). Distinctions will change too. THEM and US will fade in favor of relevant experience in a commons. 

In this context CONVERSION becomes an extension of an experience instead of the other way around. We rarely shop / search for things merely for the pleasure of the search.

We may start with one goal in mind and end up achieving a different set of goals, goals created on the fly in real time based on how the web responds to our journey, but our process feels like US.

Predictive analytics, personas, segments and an increasing amount of tested creative controlled by math means our unique feeling of US or ME may continue to exist, but THEIR sense of our next behavior make this feeling a distinction without a difference. 

If you fit a persona that persona predicts what relevant content you need and content wraps around you like a blanket. The feeling of having Big Brother on your shoulder could be overwhelming. Mutual benefit is why consumers won't revolt. Relevance is good since it saves our most valuable commodity - TIME. 

When websites convert 40% of their traffic, as Schwan's does now, their efficiency trumps density. Efficiency trumping density describes Web 3.0 perfectly.  

Pageless design frees websites from the outdated conventions of print design and fully utilizes the digital platform they’re built on. 

8 Compelling Reasons Why "Pageless' Web Design Wins (in the end):

* Tells a better story.

* Easier to "digest" or understand what to do.

* Emotionally more powerful.

* Higher Conversion Rates!!!
* Makes updating faster & easier.

* Lowers BOUNCE & encourages sharing.

* Looks great on all devices (mobile included).

* Lower cost to develop.

Marty Note
I confess to not being in love with the "infinite scroll" just yet. One modification we worked out for @Curagami, our Startup Factory funded startup, is to include a Call-To-Action at the top & Bottom.

CTAs help prepare the scroll. Remember "open book" tests? Putting a CTA on top of a waterfall of content helps prep a visitors mind. It "opens the book" for them. With this many impressive benefits I'm going to have to figure out how to start loving "pageless" design (lol).

I bet there are 5 (or so) similar modifications we can make to help us know how to create the paths and conversion we want by going "pageless".  

I've discussed web design's "What If" future before. Friends challenged me to explain what I see in pictures instead of words. The Google presentation here explains the cross functional team we will need to create great websites soon. 

Tomorrow's websites will be crated by:

  * Graphic Designers.
  * Quants.
  * Content / Social / Video Marketers.
  * Financial support so creative costs don’t drain profits.  

And probably 5 other skill sets I'm forgetting. There is no going back. Our What If web design future is sure and coming soon to a website near you. BTW, you don't want to be 4th or 5th to this party :).  

Public Google Doc is here
http://bit.ly/1guotqW