Much has been said about Adobe’s new look site, mostly in the hate it camp. Personally I do not mind it that much, it’s not like I really spend enough time on the site to really care, for the most part I only go there to dive into the support sections.People have commented on whether on the retro left hug page design they used and after thinking about this for a day I have started to wonder if this is actually a clever idea by Adobe’s designers to make sure the site is compatible with as many of the mobile computing devices out there as possible. After all it is obvious that Adobe’s big push these days is to mobile devices with the new Flash lite and the wonderful device central in the CS3 suite so it would be only natural to expect the tool developers site to be as device’able as possible. And certainly the left hugging page layout gets around many of the annoying CSS and layers layout issues with the various browsers out there.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Pete's Blog 
I like Adobe’s new site myself. I agree with you about the mobile market influence.
I have deliberately avoided any forum discussions on it. I just wouldn’t want to get in to any long-winded debate as you will always get a polarity of views on more-or-less any design issue. Some of the arguments can often be style-driven, lacking context, ignoring function—and, sadly, presented as fact. If there was only one good design solution to a problem, then we would all be producing absolutely identical solutions. In fact, that being the case, most of us would then be unemployed. We should absorb, digest and discuss each others ideas and views.
Different responses can still fulfil the same brief. Having said that, the Web 2.0 approach has led to the development of a lot of similar looking sites. Good design should really have nothing to do with fashion. People might think the Adobe site a little retro, but that is arguably a symptom of the youth of the internet. As someone who has been around for a while now, I have witnessed new blood continually re-inventing the past once they discover it. The 80’s child often re-floats the graphic styles of the 60s and 70s in their work as if we haven’t been there before—and that’s fine. There is nothing wrong with looking backwards as well as forward. I’ve been around in the design business long enough to get over the ‘slagging-off’ of fellow professionals work. You simply learn to appreciate a different view and let it inform your own approach.