Web 2.0 has stolen all the Designers and Developers minds. There is no design standard to follow for Web 2.0. Designers are trying some of the weirdest designs ever. Here are a few successful approaches towards a Web 2.0 Design.

Gradients

Gradients are very common. The basic idea of a gradient is to get the 3D feel. Decide if you will be using a strong or a smooth 3D effect.

For your convenience I have created a Photoshop Web 2.0 Gradient library which you can make use of. This is a set of very nice looking Web 2.0 gradients in .GRD format. ( to know more of how to import them, refer this article. )

Download Here

Color Scheme

Choosing the right color scheme for the site is very much important. Either you choose the color scheme and then build your Logo or You first build the Logo and then pick the colors from the logo.

But its very important to have colors of the logo as part of the color scheme. This will be followed through out the site.

Here is a list of Color Schemers I know. There are lots of them.

• Color Tools

  • Color Schemer
  • Color Lovers
  • Color Whore
  • Well Styled
  • Color Match
  • Colr
  • Easy RGB
  • Juicy Studio
  • Meyerweb
  • Strictly CSS
  • Color Brewer
  • Color Wheel

Stripes

Stripes are now getting popular. Stripes also give a very pleasing user experience. These best suits for headers and the fact even this site header is a stripe.

Here is a tutorial to create headers like the above.

There is also a Web 2.0 Stripe Generator ( online service ) which will also help you a lot.

Gloss

This is one of my favorites. Gloss has been out there for a long time. The best example would be Mac OS. Glossy elements as a part of the site will be good. Gloss is most commonly used for the Logos.

One opinion of mine under Gloss is to have colored shadows. This is because it gives an outstanding effect to your gloss element. It will look as if light passing trough your gloss element. An example for this would be my logo.

Here is a set of PNG Gloss Icons which is something people are looking for.

Reflection

Reflections best suit for Logos. Very simple to create and pleasing too. ( Simply invert the element and reduce the alpha as it goes down.)

Here are some examples.

Conclusion

My conclusion on all the above is to use all of them. Most of the Web 2.0 Service companies have used combinations of the above approaches. Like Gloss and Reflection, 3D and Stripes ….

This is what I have also been following. Combinations of the above approaches will produce a very unique and pleasing output.

Here is a wallpaper I created using all the above approaches.

I hope this article has given you a good view of today’s Web 2.0 Design Trend.

These are the most popular and successful approaches. But never limit yourself to these. We designers have to come up with innovative designs in the future. No user will like the see the same stuff all time.