A “digital shift” — that is, an intentional move among web users from the internet’s primary use from news, information, and content to entertainment — has been occurring over a period of years, though many might be unaware of their own deliberate contribution. A major influential factor involves participatory, user-submitted content websites and application — better known as Web 2.0 — rapidly gaining an even greater prominent footing in the casual browsing of thousands of users. Due to Web 2.0’s rise to becoming a popular standard, even the usual website is now being faced with the need to accommodate evolving user expectations surrounding this paradigm more than ever before.
With the usage of broadband in U.S. households continuing to rise by the year, the thought arises of how exactly the Internet is being utilized on an average basis. ClickZ offers statistics delineating a shift in how broadband users portion of their free time on the Internet.
“Entertainment and communications are the top activities for broadband users, accounting for 54 percent of online discretionary time…The shift to faster Internet service is due to high-bandwidth applications such as video and rich media applications.” — ClickZ
As more media-rich online environments continue to bring more than just “flashy” features, a greater need for households to have high-speed Internet would be the obvious response as stated above. Additionally, these Web 2.0 media-rich environments (e.g. YouTube, Picnik, etc.) are typically geared towards entertainment and recreation. There is no surprise that the Web is headed away from “news and information being the previously dominant content categories on the Internet.”
How should we, as users, designers, and developers, respond to this shift? Digging a little deeper into the crux of the matter, how will the growing expectation of entertainment and communications being interwoven into present websites ultimately affect how people browse the internet in the future? Four possible ideas come to mind.
- 1) A web site will require an interactive element of some sort (Flash, unique social networking, user-generated content, etc.) that can enhance their browsing experience. Back in 2006, Emily Chang acknowledged that an agile approach to web design had been since expanded upon as a mutable technique to strongly take into account as the Web continues to evolve. She explained this growing trend in further concise detail that supports the idea of entertainment and communications melding into the everyday web user experience: “Web users have grown to expect a more mature internet – one that lets them explore social spaces, connect via instant, real-time communications, control privacy and sharing with one-click controls, stay up to date with instant, live news feeds, personalize a design, or discover new people or patterns.”
2) A more dynamic type of website design that allows for both self-expression and a sensory experience that outdoes the bland, static web page type will become a necessity if a company aims to better appeal to the upcoming generation. In this ever-expanding Web 2.0 era, the bar is already set high for designers and developers, and only becoming slightly more difficult to reach every few months. To again quote Emily Chang: “Making design a priority and a core part of your philosophy can mean the difference between success or failure.”
3) Unique users is where it’s at, and will probably be for a long time coming. Having a constant flow of traffic that clearly distinguishes growth, widespread need, and customer/user satisfaction will speak highly of the intrinsic value in the brand and/or service offered. An article written by Online Journalism Review states that “…a Web publisher must first be able to demonstrate that it is reaching the audience that its publication is designed to reach. What good is advertising on a site where readers will spend an hour, if none of those readers care about what you sell? Audience composition is, and always will be, the metric of primary importance to advertisers.”
4) Users will demand four key philosophies that will affect their overall experience and decide how much time they invest: Fun. Fast. Simple. Receptive. According to a list of snippets taken from eHub interviews, these philosophies are the most striven for intents and purposes among referenced Web 2.0 creators.
Though choice philosophies are directly proportionate to whatever the site’s overall mission is and will vary from person to person, today’s children are growing up saturated in digital media, and will be tomorrow’s business leaders and consumers. They will expect and demand a more robust and more entertaining user experience from web sites that seek their attention. Executing key philosophies such as those aforementioned, and taking time out to evaluate the genuine effectiveness of your company’s image and site design to acclimate to the progressive “digital shift” towards entertainment and communication will serve as a firmer foundation for your company in this generation and into the next.
“If a design allows for the dual pathways of experiencing and expressing, we’ll keep coming back for more.” — Emily Chang
Tags: design philosophy, digital media, digital shift, internet, media, online, user experience, Web, Web 2.0
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