Ratings

Rating the Trends

While there is no such thing as unimportant development trend, they do have to have some form of order as far as importance. The following is my views on importance in the categories I have listed. The views here are solely those of the author and are no reflection on the instructor or institution in general.

How They Rank:

1) Wireless Devices:
With the amazing growth in the wireless industry, designers need to be aware and be able to design pages that a handheld device can read. While most will simply ignore rich content, which include graphics and photos, the day will soon come that all handheld devices will be able to access a web page and see what they would see on a regular computer screen. Keeping up with current trends and keeping yourself educated will ensure that you are ready for the game in regards to designing for all venues. This trend will become standard.

2) CMS:
While designing and adding content comes second nature to IT-Web Developers, the use of CMS will become an everyday task in may large businesses around the globe. The IT personal simply don't have the resources or the time, depending on daily duties, to update the amount of content that some companies will produce. By enabling different departments to update the content relevant to them, this frees the IT department to continue their quest for working, compliant pages. It just makes sense to spread out the tasks as much as possible without allowing the type of access that could, in reality, destroy a site. This trend may become standard.

3) Security:
Lets face it, no website is secure. However as a designer, you need to do your part to make certain what you are uploading is as virus free as possible. Keeping programs current with the latest definitions and patches is essential for a designer. Keeping the computer you work on virus free is also essential. Doing your part now keeps you from explaining later how "Erec the Turk" hacked into the company mainframe via a page or site you designed. This trend IS standard.

4) Blogs:
Blogs are a popular and hot trend these days. Regular people, families, employees, companies, even news sites blog. I see a trend that engages sales staff and different departments to routinely blog daily events and company news. Whether they intend to make them public or keep them on an Intranet remains to be seen. This trend could become a standard.

5) RSS and Streaming Media:
Yes, I am combining these into one category for ranking. Both use similar technology for development. Both are popular with news feeds. Both will become standard! It make take a few years but the growth in this area is steaming away!