" We live in a global world that has an overflow of information. The Internet has given us access to very different cultures and allowed us to share much more information than ever before. But do different regions have their own specific Web design trends?
Design usually has to do with creating a product or service that targets a specific, local audience. However, thanks to the Internet, some design characteristics that are specific to local regions have become global, while other characteristics remain regional. Moreover, the laws of usability, at least for the Web, are universal, or at least based on common principles. This makes the process of learning about and designing for the Web quite similar throughout the world.
In this article, we’ll showcase a bit of what we’ve been doing here in South America, identifying trends within the region, if any exist.
Web Design In South America
Brazil is the biggest country in South America. It’s known for Carnival, soccer and beautiful beaches. So it’s unfortunate that a country that produces such creative and happy people also has so many barriers to becoming a great Web designer (the main ones being a lack of design culture, slow Internet connections and almost no good courses or schools). The ones who succeed in the profession have a remarkable skill at solving problems in innovative ways, as Vitor Lourenco points out in our interview below.The profession of Web Designer is very new here in Brazil and still a bit unknown to some people and business professionals. Some very interesting progress has been made with regard to regulation of the industry, most notably the establishment of regional associations and the recent creation of the ABRADI, the Brazilian Association of Digital Agencies, which focuses on education and public awareness about what makes for good and bad Web design and development.
Even though professionals are getting more organized and agencies are taking shape, there’s still a lack of good schools, books and events about Web design and about design in general.
All of these problems force us to look for references, books and information from other parts of the world. But because Brazil is very big and the only Portuguese-speaking country in South America, we face a big language barrier. This scarcity of information forces designers to rely more on their creativity and intelligence, which in turn opens them up to points of views that are different than what is shown in books, magazines and on the Internet. Again, as Vitor Lourenco points out, the ones who succeed have a remarkable skill at solving problems in innovative ways.
Another big problem that designers face here is the lack of understanding among entrepreneurs of the importance of having a well-designed and well-developed website. A lot of kids working from home offer Web design services for prices much lower than what should be the industry standard, thus creating serious problems when it comes to businesses allocating budgets for Web design projects.
You could say we operate in a somewhat hostile environment, then. But incredibly, the market is very promising, and some really talented designers and studios are doing incredible work, from totally Flash-based websites to big portals of information. And the industry will only evolve from here, and we look forward to that.
Stats
- 128,652,435 Internet users as of December 2008. 33.0% penetration rate;
- 3.3% penetration, according to Internet World Stats;
- A resolution of 1024×768 and fixed layout are most common;
- CSS vs. Flash: it used to be very Flash-focused, but we notice that SEO concerns have changed the game in favor of CSS/XHTML-compatible websites.
Web Design Trends
In order to see whether specific Web design trends exist in South America, nothing could be better than showcasing a ton of websites! One noticeable trend that does seem to be emerging is a shift towards simplicity and SEO. So, take a look at some popular websites from our region in the showcase below.News Websites
Social Websites
Associations and Conferences
Design Studios
Type Foundries
Popular Designers and Their Porfolios
Blogs and Learning Websites
Web Apps and Online Services
Flash Websites
Online Stores
Podcasts
- Webinsider
- BraincastTV
- Hora do Mac
- FalaFreela
- Nerdcast
- Podcast da Info
- Eupodo.com.br
- PodBrasil
- Argentina Podcasts
- Chile Podcasts
- Podcasts from Peru
- Jumpcast
- Interactivia – Colombia
