In 2009, we will be seeing even more growth in the development of online web applications – everything from the likes of playlist management to apps than enable you to share everything about your life with the world. I stop short of calling these “rich” online web applications because companies are starting to wake up to the lessons learned from Google – Simplicity is key. These days I visit so many new start-up sites that throw a bank full of features at their users, all hidden under a rich Ajax or Flash powered UI. Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-polished interface as much as the next geek, but if your if I can’t figure out how to use your app in under 2 minutes, the chances are I’ll be going elsewhere.

Sites that fall under this problem do not lack power or the ability to be successful or memorable, but what they do lack is an understanding of what their users are really after. In 2009, I believe that those things are easy, quick access to data and in terms of user-interfaces, apps that can present this data elegantly. These days it really doesn’t matter what technology you’re using – many if most popular languages today have evolved to the point where there are few real differences in how powerful they can be. What is more important is how those technologies are used to bring users an experience that they can truly engage in time and time again. If you can make someone feel at home with what you’re offering, I can almost guarantee you they’ll return for a second look.

I recently read an article over at Smashing Magazine about the top 10 useful web application techniques and I would recommend it to any interested front-end developers. I’ll be keeping them in mind for any of the new work we’ll be doing over at Pixsta.

Below are a few other links to articles you might find very useful. I did :)

• 5 Useful Coding Solutions For Designers and Developers
• 10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs
• 10 Principles Of Effective Design
• Five More Principle Of Effective Design
• Getting Creative With Transparency In Web Design

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