The following summarizes the changing nature of the web, and then projects new design needs for the web's future. The Printed Page Becomes Multimedia The specifications for early web page production originated with the printed page mindset with the printed word being viewed as the primary content. What we have seen in the last few years is an explosion in the extensions to basic web production. Still graphics have already become a bottom line necessity in conveying one's message. Animated graphics in the form of animated gif's and JAVA applets are now beginning to flood the web, as well as sophisticated sound productions. The multimedia experience of today's web is rich in options ... rich in interactivity. This has changed the user from a mostly passive user of information to an active user of information; one who expects to change and manipulate information content. This feeling of the user being in control has changed his view of what the web is. This change in immediate experience changes not only the user's expectations, but creates a conceptual shift in his understanding of the web relative to his life experience. From Page to Place With the emerging 3-D technology of VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) the web will soon become a place where the user exercises even greater control over his experience. He will be able to move through 3-D worlds of information determining his own viewpoint. With increasing bandwidth breakthroughs the web will soon be an encompassing experience which reacts in sight and sound to the user's every move. Experiencing a "Virtual Reality" changes the user's perception of what the web is, moving from getting information, to being inside and exploring a new world. Each web site will be a different virtual world, with it's own rules of interaction. The user will come to expect, and demand more and more novel creations, thus pushing the demand for a unique kind of dimensional creativity. So immersion in the 3-D experience dramatically changes the rules for web design. Web Designers of the Future As is already becoming apparent to those web designers that work within the printed page mindset, today's web production is now requiring a whole different set of skills. Skills that are not only time tested in working with animation and sound, but more specifically, skills in creating 3-D environments. Future web design will need people with the spatial and technical skills to create 3-D environments, as well as the psychological understanding of the interactive experience. There is a shakeout of web design firms, as the print oriented designers are not able to create web design that is compelling in today's rapidly rising expectations of the web experience. Some of the successful new web designers are coming from video production backgrounds since they are already proficient in working with moving images and sound. But the really successful new web designers are coming from 3-D animation backgrounds. These are the people who have already demonstrated their ability to create worlds, and move through them. What they need to understand is the interactivity. of it, but most of the already successful 3-D animators, who use more of their creative rather than technical side, already have an intuitive sense of how an interactive environment works because they've been interacting with them on each 3-D animation project that they produce. This is an opportunity for their imaginations to break the current boundaries and really fly into the richness of their creativity. We are beginning to see a new breed of web designer, and we will all be enriched by moving within new worlds created with their hearts and minds.

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