It takes a keen mind to fully grasp the aspects of web design, and implement them in fruitful ways. After all, one can have a creative mind but not know anything about the technical inclinations needed to produce a quality site. And by the same token, someone who knows technology doesn’t necessarily have an eye for design. The marriage of both concepts is needed to be a great designer. Then you have to be able to adapt quickly to the changes in technology.

A perfect example of adapting to tech is the evolution of plug-in based content (Flash, Silverlight) into the HTML5 update. As the current markup language stands, whenever video or any other interactive content is present, a plug-in must assist in loading it. This is how Flash has been so successful with the web, along with their software.

HTML5 is the next update of the core markup language, which makes up the internet as we know it. The update will allow for direct implementation of dynamic media, without the reliance of plug-ins.

You’d think Adobe would fear HTML5, and be in panic mode trying to find its relevance in the changing times. However, they seem to be embracing it and changing with the dynamics. As proven by their latest blog, “Design and Web”.

Paul Gubbay writes in the blog, “Recently, we attended technology demos across our design and web products. We saw a range of prototypes, many of which were focused on new services, multi-screen authoring leveraging html5 and css3. We have been spending a lot of time internally thinking about how our tools can best support and take advantage of some of the new functionality in HTML 5, and we wanted to share a couple of early ideas with you.”

There’s a lesson to be found here, and is one many designers face on a constant basis: Adapting to and adopting new technologies. The familiar is safe, and actually is more efficient than learning something new. In the long run though, relying on old technologies can be a massive mistake. Where you’re left with stale sites with little-to-no content worth accessing. Just ask GeoCities, which was once a massive service on the internet.

In terms of markup language, HTML5 is the wave of the future. Which is incredibly important to understand if you’re a designer/owner. Here are a few places to check out further details of HTML5, and what changes are coming:

Differences in HTML4 and HTML5
Dive into HTML5
HTML5 Gallery