Posts Tagged ‘webpage design’

Limitations of the new medium: disguise them or embrace them?

April 30, 2011 in Uncategorized
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In his article, Alan Lui compares designs of websites to that of more traditional media forms. He argues that using visual metaphors like this naturalizes “the limitations of the new medium by disguising them within those of older media” (228). It is easy to see where Lui is coming from. By designing web pages with influences from old media the limitations of the web page can be explained or covered.

For example, web sites designed like a jukebox console with different buttons corresponding with different functions of the site can work to hide or de-emphasize the fact that there has to be a fixed number of selections (Lui, 228). This is because the novelty or even the familiar form of the representation can distract users from the fact that the site is limited.

If you look at this site (skip the intro), you can see that it is designed to play music through a representation of a jukebox, an old media form. If you click on a playlist you can choose any song from that playlist to play. You also have the option of turning lights and bubbles on and off. The design of the site, and the songs, have a retro feel, which further emphasizes the traditional media form of a jukebox.
Another example of a site using old media representations on web pages is WordPress. This theme can be applied to anyone’s blog, and it likens blog posts to entries in a diary, with links represented on sticky notes. This creates a facade that disguises the limitations and workings of the site by creating the illusion that it’s ok that there is a fixed number of ‘pages’, as everybody knows that a notebook only has a limited amount of pages.

Lui says that pages like these, that “recognise the spatio-temporal disturbances” of the medium but disguise those through visual metaphors to create a “facade” are “cool pages” (Lui, 227). However, the “really cool pages”, according to Lui (228) are those that don’t try to disguise the disturbances; “they make the disturbance their medium”.

References

Lui, A.  (2004) Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press