When I first read Adam Greenfield's musings on website design titled The Bathing Ape, I was not blown away. For the most part, he seems to be remarkably interested in what he has to say about everything, and not a great deal of concern for how his audience is receiving it.
A poorly designed essay, if I do say so myself.
But once you get past Greenfield being self-involved, he does make some good points. His big problem with some designers is that, well, they aren't really designers. They are more what he deems stylists: people who play with the artistic merits of the website, without really considering the functionality of it.
His point was truly illustrated when I began to think back to my MySpace experiences. Stumbling across some friend of a friend's home page, only to be harassed by a blinking, falling star background in every colour of the rainbow, killing any chance I have of reading any of the text on their page. Although really, if they've opted for the falling star background, I probably don't have much of an inclination to be friends with them, anyway.
There are, however, some shining examples of web design out there. All is not lost! In fact, MySpace competitor Facebook should be commended for one reason and one reason alone: they don't let people customize their HTML. This way, someone browsing through the website always knows where to look on any other person's page for information. Want to know what school they're from? Sure! It's the same as on your home page? Listening to music on your computer already? Well no fear! It won't be interrupted by yet another clip of Save Your Scissors by City and Color! The lines are clean, the colours are neutral and appealing, and there is a definite logic to how all of their links go together.
Facebook has recognized the one very important fact that Greenfield sees, but MySpace clearly doesn't: not everyone can be a designer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment