Category: Web
-
Why I Blog About Politics
WWBFD? Benjamin Franklin took for granted that part of his role as a technologist with access to mass media (he was, after all, a printer and publisher) was to make public arguments about his own political views. If he were around today, and I know that this isn’t an original thought, he’d almost certainly be…
-
Class and Web Design, Part 6: Breaking The Class Barrier
(This is Part 6, the final part of this series. Please check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 3a, Part 4, and Part 5.) Despite my calls for increased class consciousness, I actually think that class may be less and less important as American culture evolves and as class exploration becomes more fluid…
-
Design = Interior Design
Here’s some news for web designers, interaction designers, graphic designers, information designers, user experience designers, and whatever else you might think of yourself as: New York Magazine defines “design” as “interior design”. And of course the fashion world uses the word “design” to mean “fashion design”. I’d guess that if you asked a hundred people…
-
Class and Web Design, Part 5: The Politics of Class
(This is Part 5. Please check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 3a, and Part 4) Go get ’em Mom: patiencemerriman.com I recently designed a web site for my mother, who is running for the Vermont state legislature (I’m so proud of her!). Vermont is a small, largely rural state, and there are…
-
Class and Web Design, Part 4: The Vicious Circle of Desire
(This is Part 4. Please check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 3a) Earlier, I talked about the markers of class that surround us every day. A person’s cultural immersion in a narrow range of class markers can create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, a vicious circle of desire: Poor people can’t…
-
Behavior Profiled by Design Interact
Behavior is the featured studio in the latest edition of Design Interact. It’s a nice short-and-sweet introduction to Behavior, showing the diversity of our work and providing a little of the feel of how we work on projects. The profile includes some mini-interviews with me and my partners about some of the sites we’ve launched…
-
Class and Web Design Part 3a: Tabloid vs. Broadsheet
What’s wrong with this picture? (This is Part 3a. Please check out Part 1 , Part 2, and Part 3) There’s a fascinating debate at Subtraction about the design of the new New York Post web site, between the AIGA’s Liz Danzico and the New York Times‘ (and Subtraction’s) Khoi Vinh. The discussion, I think,…
-
Class and Web Design, Part 3: As Seen on TV!
(This is Part 3. Please check out Part 1 and Part 2) Does the “AS SEEN ON TV” badge tell you that a product is good? Or does it have the opposite effect on you? My guess is that, if you’re anything like me, the little red badge indicates “cheap crap” to you. But to…
-
Class and Web Design, Part 2: What Class are You?
As I discussed in my previous post, class is one of the few things Americans simply don’t like to talk about. Paul Fussell discusses this reluctance in the introduction to his excellent Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (a classic book I read many years ago and just picked up again to help…
-
Class and Web Design, Part 1: The Class Struggle
Three ugly ducklings by zefrank. In the last year or so, hundreds of articles, blog posts, and conversations in the web design world have revolved around the question of “Why does bad design succeed?” MySpace, eBay, Google, and craigslist are usually cited as examples of “bad design” (or even “ugly design”) that works. And everyone…