The Web offers a rich medium for visual communications. In the pre-Web 2.0 days, we saw a lot of “flaming logo’s” on websites, the rotating mail box, hit counters and other, well, ugly design elements. There seemed to be two classes of design on pages; the cheap “my cousin is a coder” done in the basement for under $1,000 and then the high-end sites where many thousands were spent.

With Web 2.0 came the ability of users to generate their own content quickly and for little or no cost. A company building its online presence must still invest in good design, and design must also incorporate ever more complex levels of Information Architecture. But with the Web being so much more participatory, there is an element of design consideration around all the attendant “buttons” and items that can be added to a page.

A designer needs to take into account how these elements will integrate into an overall site design. There are “digg” buttons, LinkedIn, Call Me, del.ic.ous. and others that can be used to help promote the content on a site and extend an organizations presence online. Before considering placement and what buttons to use however, the organization must first determine what their strategy is in terms of making content accessible and what their online presence strategy is.

Once the presence strategy is known, then the right buttons/icons can be selected. A good designer will be able to work the buttons into the overall design while making them accessible to the participant that will use them. The challenge is to find the right amount of buttons, and the ones that work within the design framework.