Will Popup layers change webpage design conventions?

[jon404]

With layer popups and sound (see previous Sound post), WD6 may let us move away from multipage site design towards a new single-page paradigm -- where the user never leaves the page -- where all the information is available in different layers on a single page. Think video game -- where it all happens right there, and your attention is never distracted by page navigation.

This is where the internet began, and is still the optimum for users. I wish we could have done this back in the '90s, but instead we evolved the 'left-hand logo with navbar' design standard. But over the years I've kept hoping that someday it would be very easy to go back to a single-page design. Commercially, to 'trap' the user and reduce the opportunities to leave the page; educationally, to create instantly-fast scenarios to keep interest without the student being lost in a forest of unrelated page trees.

And art. The WD6 mouseover layers might make it much easier to create interactive art, where the background could change in subtle ways. Think Jackson Pollack on crack instead of alcohol. Or tech illustration -- easy revealing of product details.

WD6 is a designer's dream. Thoughts?

[steve.ledger]

This is where the internet began....

Actually, it's where the (WW)Web began. The internet was not a rich-text service.

Web Designer/Designer Pro will continue to evolve for certain, however quite how users of these applications build their web sites is a different matter altogether.

[awilson3rd]

I really like the idea and simplicity that everything can be accessed from a single page. Something I would like to explore more provided that popup layers can include
everything that would normally be on a page. It would be a ideal scenario for microsites. I created something similar last year using lightboxes from a single page but of course with
Web Designer Pro this would be much easier to do and could contain more actual text content.

Andrew

[mentorman]

It certainly can lead to less clutter and more info per page and a clean crisp design free from" boxes"