Top 10 Predictable Events in the Web Design World in 2007There are some things in the Web design industry that we can count on. They happen every year to every Web designer. And I'm willing to bet that all of these predictions will come true in 2007. Many Web designers use older tools that don't write valid XHTML. Or they are convinced that it's too hard to write valid XHTML. But it's not. You can use a tool like Dreamweaver to write valid XHTML, or you can use an HTML validator to verify that your code is correct. It's fascinating to me how many people absolutely refuse to use CSS for layout. I've been told "tables are positioning elements" and that CSS layouts are " too boxy". But CSS layouts are more accessible than table layouts, and I will continue to advocate them. IE 7 and Firefox 2 came out in 2006, but there are still a large number of people using IE 6 or 5 and Firefox 1. Web designers will still need to do multiple forms of browser testing to get their pages ready. And you'll still have to jump through a lot of hoops to install two versions of IE on one computer. No matter what benefits and features software like Dreamweaver or FrontPage offer, if you have to pay for them, many designers won't want them. Lucikly there are some really good free editors for both Windows and Macintosh. While there are some CSS 3 selectors that work right now, all of CSS 3 won't be widely supported or fully implemented even by the end of 2007. I wish it weren't so, but CSS 2 is barely supported right now. Security will get more and more important in 2007, but customers will still be terrified of HTTP cookies. This is sad, because they'll eagerly click on phishing schemes and use insecure passwords, but if anything bad happens, the poor cookies will be the first to be blamed. I have been told by many people that I am stupid for paying too much for my DNS. Never mind that I find value in it. Just like the free software, many Web designers will still be on the lookout for the best price for everything regarding their work. No matter how many people tell them that they're ugly or illegible, designers will continue to feel that black backgrounds are cool. Ugly pages will still be widespread on the Internet. And Web designers will have to do more and more to protect themselves from it. Form spam will only get worse in 2007 as well, as spammers figure out ways to defeat the spam blockers. There are lots of other things that are sure to happen to Web designers in 2007. What are your predictions?
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