BlogmyQuery – BMQ

When I write HTML code I want to check if I made any mistakes. Same thing if I use an application or a CMS that outputs HTML code. So I use validation as a tool to check the HTML code for errors. If there are any I want to find them and fix them if I can.

Even though I think it is a very important part of developing websites, validation in itself is not the goal. Validation is a tool to help you produce well-formed markup that is universally parsable and hopefully understandable and maintainable by other developers.

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Posted in (X)HTML, Web Standards.

Fashion is a cultural phenomenon. It’s so often transient, but at the same time one of the most polished mirrors of our time. Unlike other art forms and creative media, fashion is a mode of self-expression for all players involved: the designer makes clothes to express their personality, and the consumer wears them for the same purpose. Fashion also accommodates a number of other creative professions, such as photography, make-up and hair-dressing and Web design.

In this post, we’ll look at websites from the fashion industry. We spoke with two developers whose websites differed in style and implementation to find out the considerations involved in designing a website for a fashion brand. Further below, you’ll find a collection of smart websites done by clothing designers, photographers, make-up artists and other players.

With its look at trends and features in this niche, this post may come in handy for those of you working on a related project or who are simply curious to know how Web design is approached in this industry. Although we won’t discuss the clothing itself, fashionistas may find some use in it, too.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #1 is Professional Web Design, 242 pages for just $9,90.]

Some Trends On Modern Fashion Websites

Looking through the websites discussed in this post, we caught a few commonalities.

Full-Screen Photography

Photography is a powerful tool and is integral to fashion websites. Grasping how photography can impress the viewer and set the mood, many fashion brands use big high-quality pictures to dominate their websites.

Mexx
Like many other fashion websites, Mexx relies heavily on Flash and full-screen images. The design has no special features or gimmick; its uniqueness is in the content itself.

Story-Telling

The fashion industry works hard to create mental associations and set expectations on the part of its audience. The market is saturated, and companies look for new ways to grab the attention of customers. One way a brand does this is by going beyond merely presenting its clothes and instead bringing its merchandise together into a storyline and associating its product line with a certain lifestyle.

Louis Vitton Journeys
Louis Vuitton Journeys is a unique Web campaign sponsored by the famous fashion brand. It features exclusive stories about influential modern personalities. The latest journey, Encounter With Greatness, features quite a smashing get-together of three football legends: Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. Unique content and interactivity through Facebook integration make the website an exciting destination.

E-Commerce Integration

Modern Web technology enables us to showcase and sell products at once, and equally well. Today, most fashion brands no longer divide their online presence between their product line and e-commerce, preferring to combine the two under one domain or using their online store as their official website.

Tiffany
Tiffany’s official website has a distinctly e-commerce design.

Big Names Are Inconspicuous

That the icons of fashion are so old-fashioned with their website designs is rather ironic. A quick look across fashion websites reveals that the more famous a brand, the more poorly designed its website. It seems these traditionally big names prefer conventional marketing channels and minimize their Web presence because of it.

Pierre Cardin
This website is definitely worth a visit, at least to see what a good design is not. Or perhaps that’s what they call avant-garde?

Interactivity and Social Media

Another trend is the increasing use of interactive features and social-network integration. Designers are taking advantage of the latest tools and techniques to allow visitors to “touch� their products and deliver exciting experiences. Live-action previews of apparel, webcam functionality, connecting and sharing via Facebook, even 3-D viewing mode: with all of these entertaining baits, becoming an online shopaholic is easier than ever.

Zoogami Eyewear
Zoogami presents its latest eyewear collection in a fun, amusing way. You need a Facebook account and webcam to experience it.

Different Web-Building Technologies

Although Flash still leads as the tool of choice for fashion websites, more websites based on HTML and JavaScript are appearing in this niche.

Airwalk
The website for footwear brand Airwalk shows JavaScript at its best. It delivers a dynamic and interactive experience with its variety of transitions and hover effects. The branding website is seamlessly integrated with the online store, and the company style is perfectly supported by the images and typography. Legwork Studio is behind the work.

Showcase Of Beautiful Fashion Websites

Below are some more examples of fashion websites. The websites were selected not because the brands are famous, but rather because they were attractive, their approach was creative and their interface uncluttered (though not every website necessarily exhibited all three characteristics).

Adidas Y-3
The website for this Y-3 spring and summer 2010 collection is hosted on Adidas’ corporate domain. The website features an innovative and sophisticated presentation of the products, implemented with the “live photosâ€� effect. Designed by Sid Lee.

Burberry
Every item in Burberry’s apparel and accessories collections is presented in a unique way on the company’s website. Here, you can see the “live photoâ€� effect, similar to the one implemented on Adidas’ website; Burberry does a twist on it, though, by adding 3-D rendering. The design agency, KOKOKAKA, aimed for interactivity and hit the target, wouldn’t you agree? The website also includes an HTML-based e-commerce platform, so it’s a good example of how HTML and Flash can be effectively combined.

Amanda Wakeley
A simple yet elegant website that serves as both an online store and a branding home for Amanda Wakeley. Design by Pod1.

Anja Gockel
The website of German fashion designer Anja Gockel has a clean and contemporary look. This is achieved mostly through high-quality photography, an uncluttered layout and clean typography. A special treat for fans: three desktop wallpapers available for free downloading, something rarely seen on fashion websites. Website design made by Macologne.

Jay Jays Dance/Off
Dance/Off is an online catalogue for the new line by youth fashion brand Jay Jays. Its highlight is the interactive video available for viewing in 3-D. Visitors can enjoy a dynamic dance show and then just click to freeze the action and explore the outfits. Creative agency Visual Jazz did a great job of creating the fun and engaging product presentation.

Diesel
This website looks quite normal for a company that has developed a habit lately of inviting everyone to “be stupid.” Perhaps taking up a good half of the main with a large cloud of images and adding some Italian content here and there might seem strange, but given its habit, Diesel can probably get away with being a bit… well, cuckoo in its design.

24 Teeth by Lacoste
This minimal and light design splendidly matches the style of the 24 Teeth footwear line by Lacoste.

Reserved
The website of Polish clothing brand Reserved has an atmospheric Flash-based design. The full-screen slideshow on the main page works great at inviting visitors to check out the latest collection. “Live photos� are used here, too, officially making this a trend. Some content is available only in Polish, even after you switch the language selector to English, similar to the Diesel website. Another trend? Hopefully not.

Walter Van Beirendonck
Now here’s a Belgian approach to fashion websites. The design relies heavily on boxed tables and red. The timeline section has some bugs; still, the website is worth checking out, if only for the illustrations. Designed by Emmy Mees.

Werkstette
Werkestette’s website is based on content. The simple and intuitive navigation enhances the impact of the large photos. The website was created by Pelle Martin and Felix Nielsen.

You
Simplicity and an intelligent use of colors make the website of Italian creative studio You a beauty.

Anti Sweden
Anti Sweden is the tribute of Norwegian design collective Anti to black metal, jeans and Norwegian identity. Remarkable graphic design and typography earned the Anti Sweden website a spot in this showcase.

Faith
The Faith clothing line is the brainchild of the Italian fashion designer Federica Sasella. Large photographs and cloth textures give the Faith website a pleasant look and feel. Designed by Effective Studio.

Daffy’s
Daffy operates a network of low-price clothing stores geared to varied consumers. Bright colors, big eye-catching pictures, transitions and easy navigation make for a comfortable experience of browsing for bargains.

Prada
This website focuses on imagery; the latest Prada collection is presented as an original mix of photos and illustrations. One nice feature is that most pages open in their own pop-up windows that can be moved around the screen, allowing visitors to compare products.

Josh Goot
On the website of Australian fashion designer Josh Goot, visitors can play with the fuzzy surreal background, which creates a nice visual effect as the mouse moves around the screen. The interactive full-screen mode for images lets you examine the outfits in details. Tick off the checkboxes for aesthetics and functionality.

Lasse Pedersen
This website is for hair and make-up artist Lasse Pedersen. The big pictures and typography are best viewed at full screen. Developed by Pelle Martin and Felix Nielsen.

Lisa Shahno
Moscow-based designer Lisa Shahno puts herself on the fashion map with these geometry-inspired designs. Her website accords with the style, too: the sparseness of the design complements the photographs and geometric logo well. Website designed by Kostya Sasquatch.

Moschino
On the splash page of Moschino’s website, you can choose between the main website, the official online store or the page for the current campaign. At first sight, the three sub-sites aren’t very visually consistent. But it doesn’t feel like a serious problem, maybe because the funny goose mascot creates a link between the sections. Made by Netway Italia.

Miss Sixty
The design for Miss Sixty’s website is bold and provocative, in no small part because of the abundance of red on the black background. The online store is slightly calmer.

Keds
“The Original Sneaker” celebrates its over 90-year history. The website is a treat for the typophile.

Cheap Monday
This well-known producer of street-style jeans, Cheap Monday, has an interesting history. You can learn all about it on the company’s website, which has a simple “bloggy� design that matches the underground values of the brand.

Under The Hood: Interviews With Two Developers

To get a better idea of what characterizes the process of designing a fashion website, I spoke with people at two design agencies that have relevant portfolios. One of them is the Swedish digital agency Nute, which developed a website for the fashion and art project Uniforms for the Dedicated. The other team is the Indian agency BC Web Wise, which designed a website for apparel creator Allen Solly.

I thank both teams for taking the time to do interviews for this article.

Uniforms for the Dedicated

Uniforms for the Dedicated (UftD) shows an innovative approach to fashion branding by combining men’s fashion, music, art and film. All of these and an online store are skillfully presented on UftD’s website, which was designed and developed by Nute Digital Agency. Like the fashion brand itself, the website is diverse and successfully combines HTML, Flash, JavaScript and an e-commerce platform into an enjoyable browsing experience.

Daniel Ruuth, creative Web developer at Nute, was kind enough to share details of the creation process for UftD’s website.

Question: What is involved in designing a website for a fashion brand?

Daniel: I think designing a website for a fashion brand is like designing a website for any other lifestyle product. The main thing is to display the products—the clothes in this case—well and in a context in which the viewer gets an overall feel for the product. A piece of clothing is so much more than a textile and a color: it’s a mood, a statement and an expression of the person wearing it.

We have a great connection with our client, and because of this we know how important the context, the feeling and the underlying story of each garment are. This is what we need to communicate to visitors. They need to be able to see themselves in the clothes. Besides this, of course, users want to be able to “get” the material, so close-ups and/or photographs that help you understand the motion of the garment are important.

Question: What goals did the client set for you?

Daniel: The website was combined with an art installation. The goal was to launch the website to keep the rings on the water moving. Along with that, we had the goal to increase website traffic by 40%, which we did.

Question: Could you give us a brief overview of the stages of creating the website?

Daniel: We had a start-up meeting with the clients to discuss this year’s campaign. At the meeting, we gathered key concepts and any ideas they had. After that, we start working on a presentation of our suggested approach; this is where we showed them the initial hand-drawn sketches (which were poorly detailed on purpose to keep the client from locking in on the details).

Some sketches from the original hand-drawn story board.

Daniel: That idea and those sketches got tossed around for a while before we got to the next point: the mock-up. Here, we did a simple mock-up (watch this concept test movie for the UftD website). Once that was completed, we did the final sketches, got them approved and then went about starting the actual production.

Question: What tools did you use? Particularly, what were your reasons for not using pure Flash, which seems to be the most popular platform for fashion websites?

Daniel: We put the idea first. The technique is not what’s important. If the idea must be realized with Flash, we’ll use Flash. If it can be solved with plain HTML, we’ll use HTML. If we need to work with Web cameras and streaming services, well, then we’ll use that. We try not to think of “how” right from the start, but rather of “what.” We have a great team here at Nute, so whatever idea we come up with, we usually have someone who can make it happen.

The tools we used in this production were AfterEffects, Photoshop, Flash and Coda. The online store implementation was built on the Magento e-commerce software.

The UftD online store is clean and elegant, creating a comfortable shopping experience.

The biggest part of the production was creating the movie/environment (see a screen dump of our AfterEffects project; quite a few layers).

Some of the frames from the movie for UftD’s latest campaign, 1020 Trickery Lane.

Question: What do you think makes this website a win?

Daniel: We strive to tell the user a story. Whether it’s a huge CMS-based company website or a campaign website like the one for UftD, there’s always a story to tell. In this case, it’s easier to see what I mean by “story,” because the website could actually be interpreted as a film, going from point A to point B. Our first concept was like a script for a movie.

What makes this website a win? Well, perhaps it’s a win because we are able to entertain users while they view all of these awesome garments by UftD in an exciting environment. But more importantly, I think this website is a win because it’s right where the audience is. This would not be a good website for a Donna Karen collection, but it’s a great website for a brand like UftD.

Question: What feedback have you gotten from the client and users about the website?

Daniel: The client is more than happy, and the online buzz for the website speaks for itself.

Allen Solly

Allen Solly is an apparel brand from India that offers mostly semi-formal and casual wear for men and women. The brand’s official website is based on Flash; eye-catching illustrations and an interactive 3-D environment convey well the spirit of the 2010 collection and engage the target audience. Unlike most fashion brand websites, Allen Solly’s has a contemporary and uncluttered design.

To learn more about the process of creating a website for Allen Solly, I got in touch with the agency responsible for the design, BC Web Wise. The founder, Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer, and the studio’s leading designer, Naim Shaikh, kindly agreed to answer my questions.

Question: What is involved in designing a website for a fashion brand?

Chhaya: Imagery is critical. The design has to showcase the fashion statement. It has been commonly implemented in print and on TV before. The idea is to extend this fashion statement to the Web, taking advantage of its interactive capabilities. I think we did it with the use of Papervision3D and bringing alive a 3-D rendition of the print campaign.

Question: What goals did the client set for you?

Chhaya: The message of Allen Solly’s latest release was as follows: “We’re bringing modern art to modern fashion, doing summer style like nobody else. Our new range of youthful work and casual wear lets you live life 3-D in a 2-D world.” Our goal was to create a Web presence that reflected this idea in the best way.

Naim: In short, the client’s brief sounded like this: “This is our new collection. Do your best with this.â€� We then got full freedom to do our creative work.

Question: What tools did you use? Particularly, why did you choose Flash, which seems to be the most popular platform for fashion websites?

Naim: Flash and Photoshop were used to make this website. Usability is very important to us. I feel that many fashion websites are too cluttered, with weak usability, and we tried to avoid this. For Allen Solly, along with the main Flash version, an alternative HTML website is available, which helps with search engine optimization and gives choice to visitors who don’t have Flash enabled.

The creative artwork done by Ogilvy for Allen Solly’s print campaign was very cool, with a 3-D effect and illustration style. We adapted it for online.

The illustrations on the Allen Solly website were initially designed for the print campaign of the same name, designed by Ogilvy & Mather Bangalore.

Question: What, in your opinion, makes this website a win? What feedback have you gotten from clients and the audience?

Chhaya: An intuitive front end and sleek execution. Honestly, everyone has simply loved it.

Naim: It was a very big project for us. It is very big for me on a personal level, too. The website has received the most positive response and has been featured in various design communities.

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It’s wonderful to see how many new gadgets and bizarre products have been released recently and we see more and more creativity in product design popping up daily. In this post, we have collected some bizarre and unusual products; all of them have weird and unordinary look. What do you think? Which ones do you like?We are looking forward to your feedback!

Bizarre and Unusual Products

Chicken Burger USB Hub
This tasty looking thing is the latest addition to the never ending stream of weird computer accessories. It’s a 4-port USB 2.0 compliant hub designed to look like a chicken burger.

Ghost Chair
Are you ready to step into Harry Potter’s world again? Then how about some magic around an otherwise inconspicuous chair? The shape of the Ghost Chair is pretty interesting too and it will certainly play tricks with your mind especially when some lighting is involved. The Ghost Chair would definitely be a great addition to your modern home.

USB Typewriter
There is something very magical about typing on those old-school manual typewriters. The weighty feel of the springloaded keys, the motor-car styling, and the beautiful marks they print on the page all make for a rich writing experience that can make writer’s block melt away.

iRetrofone Steampunk – Black/Gold
The iRetrofone Base is a fully-functional, stationary iPhone dock with working handset and complete compatibility with USB cable. Each individual iRetrofone is hand-sculpted and hand-cast in urethane resin. The iRetrofone base is made of heavy-duty, half-inch thick urethane resin creating a stable, functional work station that routes voice communications through the included handset.

Bladefish Underwater Scooter
Dive like a secret agent, colourful shoals of fish swim past, corals shimmer in the distance, while you enjoy the endless tranquility and discover the whimsical beauty of an unknown underwater world. Glide through the water, gently pulled along by the Bladefish.

iSleep Laptop Pillow
i-sleep, a comfortable soft pillow which can be attached on the top of each leptop and functiones like a rescue west in an airplane – with the difference…it really saves us. If we tend to fall asleep, we just close our laptop, a pillow gets filled with warm air, music is being played and after 10 minutes the alarm clock rings. Bonne nuit!

Steampunk Headset
Chris from Chicago, is the creator behind this fun and cool looking piece of art named “mechanical aural communication device�. He created this prop from sculpey, rubber, and a various pocket watch parts. The prop is fully adjustable and flexible and he lined the inside part with suede leather for comfort.

iTree iPhone & iPod Speaker Dock By KMKG Studio
iPod docks come in all shapes, sizes and styles but the iTree by KMKG Studio really ups the bizarre ante. However audiophiles will come out of the woodworks (pun intended) since Austrian speaker builders Lenz have lend their sound engineering expertise to KMKG.

Solar-Breeze Robot Cleans Your Pool When It’s Sunny Outside
The Solar-Breeze is such a gadget but it has been conceived for the outdoors, your pool to be more precise. The Solar-Breeze is actually a solar robot that cleans your pool all day long as long as there’s enough light to power it.

Fun Bedding Design
The material used to produce it was aluminum and the feltyou see on top is completely recyclable. The fact that the exterior of the bed is made out of movable components make it a fun furniture item. It is also a practical bed, because you can use the unusual design to store certain objects, such as an alarm clock or a book. Right now the bed is available in black and white, but the price is not listed on the company’s web page.

iPod Touch Themed Bedding
If you are a true Apple fanboy/girl here is a piece of bedding design that should be ideal for you. These iPod Touch themed bedding come complete with duvet and pillow cases which have a really unique and cool design. The Ipod Touch themed bedding is perfect for those of you who want to sleep on a giant iPod Touch!

Alarming ‘Ring’ concept vibrates finger to wake you up
Ring is a special alaram clock designed for couples and deaf people. Different from the commong products, this Ring wakes up people via the vibration other than noise. It consists of a base and two ring type devices which can be worn onto the finger pad which is the most sensitive part of the finger. The base can be use to set the timer and charge the Ring. Thi innovative alaram clock is composed by a micro vibration device and a micro-chip.

‘Lethal Weapon’ Espresso Machine
The cover of Etienne Louis is a ball made of polished stainless steel from cast aluminum – is worn feet and occupied the surface of aluminum tips. All aluminum parts are polished. The upper half of the ball is removable, is under your tank to be removed also.

USB Hub Monster
A six-legged creature with the ability to hook up to USB devices through any and all of its highly adjustable limbs.

Tumbleweed Chandelier
Did you know chandeliers occur in nature? Thanks to the Fibonacci sequence you can easily find dead twigs and tumbleweeds with graduated tiers resembling a chandelier. With a little love and some tweaking you can easily have a sexy centerpiece to grace your dining room. Layer on some string LEDs and you’ve got a low energy light source as well!

Dell Inspiron DUO flipping tablet
The 10-inch screens serves as both the display for the typical notebook setup as well as a detachable tablet (via a swiveling hinge).

Gun Shoes

Creepy Baby Products
That’s right folks — the Zaky baby pillow, which claims that “it’s like leaving a part of you with your baby.” Um … yes, if the piece you want to leave with your sleeping child is a disembodied forearm with sausage-like fingers and felt for skin.

Fairytale Sheets
How cool is this? You can sleep UNDER your bed time story! These blankets from the Bedtime Stories Project have a cute story on them and consist of layers that you can peel off to reveal more layers of the tale.

Blood Bag Energy Drink
Blood Caffeinated Energy Potion is the same color and consistency of real blood. It has many of the same nutrients of the rubicund liquid we love to consume (iron, protein, electrolytes, and caffeine) and has a delectable fruit punch flavor.

Why Ride a Bike When You Can Ride a Horse Bike
horsey’ is an attachable bicycle ornament/accessory which makes one’s bicycle look horsey! the ‘horsey’ package includes wooden ornaments (horsey shape body), metal parts, and screws. the manual is very simple so that anyone can easily arrange it according to one’s needs.

Wedding Bands for Gearheads
Would you be nuts to buy this wedding ring set? If you saw it would you bolt? It would be a very clever way to express love of each other and things mechanical. Bronze plated with gold and a smallish diamond. Are there other possible combinations? Hook and eye? Hammer and nail?

Bizarre Floating Phone Helmet
The Isophone – an underwater telephone system designed by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. The space-age device means you can communicate with other swimmers while splashing around in the pool.

Dream House Rings
The ‘Dream House’ Rings are miniatures rings of actual buildings rendered in 18-karat gold and platinum. Cool rings.

80′s Retro Mix Cassette Tape Gadget Case
A great way to keep scratches and marks off your electronics igadgets and cell phones. A full color image is printed and bonded creating a vinyl like exterior, soft scratch free gray felt inside. Hand cut and machine stitched. Hand washable with warm water and mild soap.

Flexible Illuminated Full Sized Keyboard
Flexible Illuminated Full Sized Keyboard is strong, silent and indestructible. It is made of a high quality silicone material. Flexible keyboard is storable and portable so that users can bring it everywhere. The illuminated design makes it more cyber and useful, you can use it in a low-light environment.

Influx LED Watch Looks Very Tokyoflash-ish
Featuring a playful, yet majestic array of red, orange, and green, the Influx LED Watch emanates an aura of sophistication and is made for those who can appreciate the finer things in life.

Dragon Backpack
Bob Basset from Ukraine has created a cool looking dragon bag out of leather.

Bathroom Sink Aquarium
Many people enjoy keeping an aquarium. There is something calming about watching tropical fish swimming and the tank is a great focal piece. You usually see the tank in living and family rooms but what about the bathroom? Intalbrass’ Moody Aquarium Sink will liven up boring routines like washing hands and brushing teeth.

iHat – MP3 Headphone Hat
The iHat…an innovative little must-have gadget for all those on the go, listen to the music, keep warm and be cool all at the same time. Simply plug the iHat, which has an built-in speaker, in your iPod, iPhone or MP3 player with 3.5mm audio plug and bop along as you do your thing! Ideal for travel journeys, beach, park or just in your bedroom allowing you to hear your favourite tunes!

Moustache Mugs
Enjoy effortlessly masquerading behind a character moustache while drinking your favourite tea or coffee, explore your favourite masculine expression! choose between feisty fu-magnum, ambigues mustafa-chaplin and cheeky maurice-poirot!

Milk Packaging
Experiment in cardboard packaging as well as in communication. It represents the content of the product int he simplest way, both through word and image. The packaging is the same dimension as a 2 liter milk caron.

Wall-E Cake
Display cake

The Light Bulb Lamp
Here’s a cool design concept from product Design Company 100%: a deliberately bare light bulb lamp that celebrates the smooth curves of Edison’s greatest invention. If you unscrew it, it actually looks like a Siamese twin bulb, with two bases and one head.

Earphone Transforms Into A Robot
These awesome earphones from Takara Tomy can be transformed into a robot! Here it is, on a woman’s ear, in the midst of its transformation. It’s called the Transformers Music Label Frenzy & Rumble. Pretty nifty huh? Comes out in July and will be on sale for about $35.

GOOGLE Egg Refrigerator
Google has launched promotional fridge. This one looks a lot like the spaceship.

MIDbot the Internet Monitored Robot
MIDbot is an ultra low cost tele-present and an easy to use Internet Remote Monitoring Robot with interactive robot arm, allows one to control the robot remotely and globally, with real time video through the common video chatting software Skype or others. Users can see the video, control the movement and robot arm by another computer in network/internet.

Digital Alarm Clock Made of Paper
How could be a valuable object in age of mass production? We were researching to find alternative possibilities. The paper has a lot meaning from history to environmental issue. This product is made from collected paper. The shape is carved with delicacy when the initial shape came out from a mold. It brings you cozy feeling with soft tactile.

Human Skull USB MP3 Player with Speaker
It has built-in rechargeable battery and looks cool, light weight, small and compact – it weighs only 90g. It is easy for you to bring along and enjoy music all the time.

Little heart Glass
French designer etienne meneau has submitted the latest glass carafe design. the designer has built a reputation for his unusually shaped carafes. this latest model is smaller than previous because it is a drinking glass. the ‘little heart’ glass is 7.9� and features four tubes which are all interconnected to the mouth.

The year 2010 is more than halfway through, and while there are amazing new website designs being launched regularly, the trend for the year has been established. Before the end of 2009, there were already predictions on what the 2010 top website designs would be. One of the predictions, if it could be called that, was that websites would turn minimalist.

And it did. We see the top website design for 2010 consistently across the board as having one or two main focuses on its main page, and not a lot of text. In fact, some of the hottest minimalist website designs have but a couple of words, some of them just the name of the product coupled with an amazing product shot.  Nothing over the top, stark simple, but it gets your attention in a snap.

Another website design that has been capturing the imagination of internet users and web designers is the use of the magazine-style layout. This kind website design recognizes the fact that eventually magazines will be overshadowed by magazine websites, mainly because of the paperless drive to save the environment from further abuse. This type of website design looks like your typical stylish print magazine with a lot of catchy headings and subheadings, links, and content previews – just like what you can expect from the front cover of your favorite magazine.

Looking at this website design, you notice it tries to re-create that magazine feel that most avid magazine readers have gotten used to. As a website, it appears to be overcrowded, but not for its target audience who prefers to get all the information and teasers it needs in one page.

Most hand-drawn website designs belong to artists or website design companies, and they use the first page of their website to dramatically emphasize their skills and creativity. The website below is a restaurant which means that artistry is starting to spill over to the mainstream websites. You can tell that a lot of thought has been put into creating this restaurant’s website, and it looks a little like a menu. You will also notice that it appears to be crowded, but really isn’t. Because of the dark background, there is a mystic that surrounds the website, as if beckoning one to call in for a reservation.

You will notice that the top websites of 2010 are more than just a business website. It  combines aesthetics with the personalized touch, before merging with the online business perfectly. This is a website trend that was not visible at all a few years ago.

The next top website design for 2010 is the retro look.  You may also call it vintage, but it basically refers to an understatement in web design, almost like an unfinished work of art.  Retro web designs can date back as early as 20 years ago, or go even further back to the days of black and white TV. In the example below, the product is a beer from Portland, Oregon, and one would assume from its web design that the company has been brewing since the 1960s. Except, this original brew from Oregon began selling beer only 24 years ago, in 1986.

The website is a testimony to their marketing angle that they have been brewing the best Portland beer for a long time. And it works superbly.  If you notice, this design also tries to be minimalist by not putting too much information on its top page. The graphics zeroes in on the product, and not much else. By all accounts, it appears that from now on, retro is making a strong comeback in design, this time evident in many website designs all across the globe.

Other 2010 top website designs veer towards the use of large graphics, large fonts, oversized footers and headers, and bold typeface and fonts. For 2010, and into 2011, the attitude towards website design has gone from trying to squeeze everything in one page to a more relaxed and subtle approach. Although, there is still the in-your-face design that can make anyone stop and stare. Generally speaking though, the approach remains minimalist and artsy.

For now, there are many websites that carry more than just website design. One example would be the Von Dutch website that incorporates the hand painted top border, large graphics, and textured background.  It also has the retro look, as well as an interesting black and white image, which is something you might see in a magazine-style website.

For web designers and business owners, the spectrum of design has gone explosive. There are no more barriers or inhibitions in creating a unique impression that could help drive traffic to the website simply on the basis of its extraordinary design. And therein lies the reason why it is called a trendy website design for 2010, and one to watch out for in the coming months.

A massive question was posted recently on Answers, asking what exactly DESIGN is. We know it is such a broad question with no clear and defined answer, but it would be interesting to hear from our readers and find out from them what they think design is?

Here is Wikipedias definition of DESIGN:

No generally-accepted definition of “design� exists, and the term has different connotations in different fields. Informally, “a design� refers to a plan for the construction of an object and “to design� refers to making this plan. However, one can also design by directly constructing an object.

You can leave your answer in the comment section below, or you can leave your answer on the original question on Answers here: Fill in the Blank: Design is _____?

This question was originally asked by David Baker.

Here are some of the Answers we have received so far:

So, what is DESIGN to you?

Thanks to everyone who asked a question, but most importantly thanks to everyone that took the time and effort to offer helpful and useful answers.