Trends in Website Design

Gili Golander, Noam Tractinsky, Ilanit Kabessa-Cohen
2012 AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction  
Lorne Olfman We suggest that diversity and changes in the visual design of web pages exhibit trend-like characteristics. We begin with a survey of the fashion and trends literature to clarify these terms and to relate them to the domain of web design. Based on freely available online archival data we assembled a website design trend library that includes 42 trends encompassing the period from the mid-1990s to the year 2010. The trends were classified into three general groups, from oldest to
more » ... t recent: Faded, Past-Peak, and Current. A second study tested hypotheses that stemmed from the premise that web design trends exist. Data from 262 designers and non-designers indicate that designers are more accurate than non-designers in evaluating the up-to-dateness of web design trends, and that people tend to like trends that they perceive as up-to-date. We discuss research and practical implications of these findings for the design process of websites and for interactive systems in general, for the role of designers in this process, and for the education of IS students. is the co-founder and Chief Fashion Officer at the startup company Bazaart (www.bazaart.me), working on a personal fashion catalog for tablets. Formerly Gili was a fashion editor and journalist at an online magazine, a UX professional, and a software developer and team leader. This research was part of her Masters' thesis on fashion and trends in Web Design, conducted within the Human Factors Engineering department, Industrial Engineering Faculty of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Gili lives in Tel-Aviv, Israel and loves fashion, styling and how they mix with UX. Noam Tractinsky is an Associate Professor of Information Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to studying the aesthetic aspects of interactive systems he has been involved recently in various research projects, such as consumer behavior in e-commerce; the effects of cell-phone usage on drivers and pedestrians; designing services for the incidental user; and developing a personalized reminiscence therapy system for Alzheimer's disease patients. Ilanit Kabessa-Cohen is a market trend analyst and forecaster, specializing in strategic innovation and in socio-cultural trends. She holds an M.A.degree in Fashion Design / Design Direction from Domus Academy, Milan, Italy. She is affiliated with the M.Des program, Bezalel Academy for art and design, Jerusalem.
doi:10.17705/1thci.00045 fatcat:2nz4b3igkfgqzkfyqaitwcihdi