Blue underlined links and large font types reminiscent of early Jakob Nielsen combined with very little text and minimal navigation. What are we looking at. Probably a web 2.0 site!
Web 2.0 seems to have found it's own distinct minimalistic style under the credo: Less is more. Interestingly the design often contrasts the complex and thoroughly interactive functionality of most web 2.0 sites (a task that must have cost more than a few headaches for the web designers involved).
But why minimalism in an age where Flash-plug-ins are widespread and DSL-connections keep getting faster. Shouldn't we be using a lot more graphics?
Well, aside from the obvious usability benefits of simplistic design, I think web 2.0 site owners also need to communicate that their sites are different from web 1.0 where the Internet is primarily seen as just another marketing channel, sites are graphically bloated and heavily remediate print media.
In other words version 1 of the web has an undesirable aura of "bursting bubble" that web 2.0 is trying to distance itself from both functionality- and design-wise.
The funny thing is that traditional web 1.0 sites have now seen where things are going. Thus more sites have started copying the minimalistic style - but with no real web 2.0 functionality under the hood! My guess is that this will happen more and more. And then web 3.0 enters the court with a need to distance itself from web 2.0...
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