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===<p style="font-family:helvetica;">Why do you want to make?</p>===
===<p style="font-family:helvetica;">Why do you want to make?</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;">There are numerous websites existing in the (net)world and they entail another numerous webpages embedded inside themselves. Today most of them looks identical each other so that visitors wandering here and there aren’t likely to have difficulties to adjust their brain (mode) among these overflowing channels. But then I somehow feel that pretty many websites made by professional designers and developers seem to repeat a few templates with well-organised grids and navigations.In such webpages I can easily scan through essential text and images in a few minutes, then quickly process them into commercial or research activities, which are what the creators intend. All sounds good and make sense.
<p style = "width:80%;">As someone who has been studying Graphic design and working with it, I’ve been striving to find a way to be financially independent, not leaving the design industry. I am pretty much convinced that I position myself as a graphic designer, especially a web publisher, and will be working in the mainstream design industry.<br>
But I can’t stop feeling that something in such a good and efficient web context seems to stress me out. Questioning (to my self) why I’m uncomfortable, I realised that I can’t really feel intimacy and independence there.<br><br>
It’s not hard for me to imagine most of my future tasks will be likely to embody websites with certain styles of aesthetic, formats, and functions, which are given by clients for obvious commercial purposes. From a realistic point of view, most of these works wouldn't offer me space for innovative and challenging design approaches.<br>
But then I am, and will be, one of the designers feeling sorry about the repetitions of all the identical websites. This is honestly a dilemma for me in terms of compromising my regrets about the lack of diversity in web today with the demands of the industry. <br>
On the other hand, however, I believe I can use my recognition of the dilemma to navigate my future career with balanced attitudes. Thus I would like to investigate the background of my questions: "<i>Why do most websites look so identical today?</i>", "<i>Why are they losing diversity?</i>". The exploration will mainly be accompanied by researching how websites are created in the commercial design field. (In which process through? + Under which agenda?)<br> Looking into the influential factors of the industry will help me to understand the reality and challenges of the current web context.
</p>
 
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">What and how do you want to make?</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;">I expect the outcome of my project will be <span style = "color:green;">an archival website, documenting explorations on my questions</span>:<br>
<i><b>What are potential causes of the gradual scarcity of diversity in the web context, and how do designers and developers perceive this?</b></i><br><br>
And I will explore these questions through desk and field research.<br>
<ul class=“desk" style= “color: #7787b1;”><b>Desk research: Reading</b></ul>
<li>Showcasing website examples that I've been collecting + findings + analysis (about the uniformity I've observed)</li>
<li>My experiment to analyse their layouts (, which will be mostly shown with images that I make)</li>
<li>Desk research about Template market + CMS + Material Design(Webdesign guideline by Google)</li>
<li>Analyse small graphic elements in the web: ex) Icons, the shape of profile picture, effects when clicking a menu, etc</li>
<li>How have aesthetic movements such as Flat-design and Brutalism (a counterexample to the Flat-design) been influencing the web design market?</li>
<li>Does the Flat design agenda necessarily draw a better user experience in terms of efficiency in the web and mobile context? (both agreeable and polemic examples)</li>
<li>The history of "mobile-first" approach in the industry</li>
</ul><br>
 
<ul class=“field" style= “color: #b17787;”><b>Field research: Interviewing and Making participatory workshops</b><br>
<p style = "font-family: Serif;">1) Interviewing designers and developers in the industry, asking practical process of their works (structure of the company, tools they use...), their perceptions of it, etc.</p>
<li>In which circumstances do developers and designers extract codes from frameworks such as Bootstrap and React?</li>
<li>How does it helpful/frustrative when using them?</li>
<li>How do they deal with issues when they can't find the desired codes from such libraries? (ex. Some might have approached to fit their design to the frameworks, compromising creativities.<br>In contrast, some might have approached, (over)writing or implementing codes with research embodies the result as they want.)</li>
<li>Have they ever had frustration balancing their creativity and work efficiency? or not really?</li>
<li>Have do they perceive the ‘mobile-first’ approach?</li>
<li>(Ask net artists): How do you make your web works? (Practical process) + How much do you care making your website to be responsive on all viewports?</li>
<br>
 
<p style = "font-family: Serif;">2) 0rganising workshops.</p>
<li>WORKSHOP #1. (04 Dec 2021) Opened an online workshop to discuss culture of the current commercial web design culture.<br>
I give participants a list of websites then let them explore/observe for 20 minutes. They take notes at a pad: [https://pad.xpub.nl/p/041221_workshop]<br>
Then we discuss all the observations. If time allows, participants will put their thoughts into a few Boostrap HTML layouts. <-(This HTML making didn't happen due to the time limit. But the discussion itself was super fruitful!!!)
<li>Rendering a few simple HTML page layouts (already made by css/javascript frameworks), <b>with a condition</b> that participants would use own their knowledge and research in the front-end knowledge, without using the code snippets from frameworks.<br>Target participants are both people having only a basic capacity of coding and professionals in the practice. Ideally nice to have professionals.<br>
Through the workshops I'd like to see how do the HTML pages not using the frameworks look, and in which logic did participants code. Their process and outcome will be collected and documented.</li><br>
<li>Making icons by ourselves. Doesn't have to be super quirky, but at least we could suggest slightly different visual languages to the conventional ones.</li>
</ul><br>
 
I see the archival web (a potential outcome) as a conjunctive context of my research fragments. <br>It will be a good format for me to see how each material will be making a (new) connection, being mapped out to each other, meaning they won't be merely juxtaposed in lines.<br>In addition, it will be meaningful for designers and developers to overview the circular structure in the field and contemplate their stances, and even use it as a context for further discussion.
<br>A few examples of archival websites are displayed below.
[[File:A Collective Booklet for Computational Women.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Example of archival web from Soyunparrrk.com]]
[[File:A Collective Booklet for Computational Women2.jpg|350px|thumb|none|Example of archival web from Soyunparrrk.com]]
[[File:nweb_club.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Example of archival web from nweb.club]]
[[File:studio_otto.jpg|350px|thumb|none|Example of archival web from studio-otto.com]]<br>
 
 
 
 
</p>


As for these two notions, intimacy and independence, I mean that it seems like there is limitation of user movements in most websites, because most of them tend to repeat a few linear navigating systems. For instance, scrolling down is the most common mechanism of the web navigation, especially in mobile devices, for a reason that it’s known to be the most intuitive and easy in the screen. But I see this mechanism could also easily exhaust users. All the easy and self-evident navigation systems made by professionals who are called as UI/UX designers indeed has made users’ internet activities much more convenient, easy, fast. But their continual conformity to the instructed system also depletes their will and involvement in the context.
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Timeline</p>===
There are only my ‘behaviours’ exist, but not ‘actions’ (QUOTE SILVIO LURROSO’S ARTICLE)<br>
With this observation I am curious to explore potentials of diverse and active involvements of users in terms of web navigationcontext.
(Ultimately I question user experiences in the webpages could be a bit more meaningful in a sense of autonomy. This also means that I also question about the pervasive term which is ‘UX design’, User Experience in the web design industry. )</p>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">What and how do you want to make?</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;">
<p style = "width:80%;">I imagine the end result of my project will be a website format, suggesting alternative/emancipative ways of user navigation on web.
<b>Oct 2021˜ Dec 2021</b>: <li>Investigating the connection between Flat design motto and the web industry market</li>
What my website will include as content exactly will be decided along with my research plan. <br>
<li>Collecting examples of the <i>identical</i>web design I have meant (also mobile layouts)</li>
<br>


Firstly I’d like to see if my critical point of view that linear navigation rules in web design seem to draw ‘the limited behaviours, the feeling of passiveness of users’ is <b>a sharable matter</b> with others as well.<br>Thus I’d like to conduct a survey about user experiences in existing websites such as webzine/news platforms like The New York Times(informative purpose), booking service platforms like Expedia and Hotels.com (having a commercial purpose), and portal searching engines like Google and DuckDuckGo.
<b>Nov 2021 - Dec 2021</b>
<li>E-mailing to designers and developers that I'd like to interview</li>
<li>Start interviewing them! (At least three people!)<br>
So far my interviewees list : Francesco from XPUB1, Thomas Waalskaar (XPUB alumni, media researcher, graphic designer),Julia Luteijn (A net artist), Sander Sturing (a developer in Studio Dumbar)</li>
<li>Testing out my workshop idea (<i>Clumsy code</i>) in collective XPUB2 workshop</li>
<br>


<p style = "font-family:times">The survey will ask questions below : (Questions about passiveness)</p>
<b>Nov 2021 - Mar 2021</b>
<li style = "font-family:times">What kind of movement do you often take when you enter a webpage?</li>
<li>Keep e-mailing to designers and developers that I'd like to interview</li>
<li style = "font-family:times">in which sense you’re able to enjoy in the webpage?</li>
<li style = "font-family:times">In which sense you’re exhausted in webpages? </li>
<li style = "font-family:times">What makes you stay in a webpage? Which elements?</li>
<li style = "font-family:times">What makes you exit in a webpage? Which elements?</li>
<li style = "font-family:times">(show what i made then ask) In this page, where and how would you navigate yourself?<br>
(e.g. to the right/ top, scrolling down, clicking?)</li>  


And I will experiment with re-designing navigation systems of those webpages, using the method of hacking (e.g. transforming/modifying/breaking).
<b>Dec 2021</b>
Downloading their HTML sources will enable me to analyse their agenda and functions, and even modify the compositions of elements.<br>
<li>Experiment how I can document my research materials on web context<br>(How photos, voice records, films, will be placed in the web context in a meaningful way? need some advice)</li>
These experiments will be tested out by users in workshops, which will be held by XPUB2 students. <br>
<li>A second test of the workshop (<i>Clumsy code</i>) with implementation</li>
Also this test will be accompanied by currently working UI/UX designers to get feedback of professional level. It will help me to see in which sense my experimental are valid and not. <br><br>
<br>


As a result, I aim to create a webpage on my own, suggesting alternative systems of navigation on web. My concern(?) at the moment is that I'm not sure what the webpage will exactly contain as content, and will speak about. It will come along with many experiments and tests targeted to users and designers. (I know I haven't articulated who are considered as users. It will be also coming along the study. my brain is about to be exploding now.)
<b>Nov 2021 ~ April 2022</b>
For this process, training front-end developing skills will be a key technical goal.</p>
<li>Interviewing and recording</li>
<br>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Relation to my previous practice and a larger context?</p>===
<b>Jan 2022</b>
<p style = "width:80%;">My trajectory in Experimental Publishing can explain why I am particularly interested in experience in the web context. The first year in the course is composed of making a collective publication each semester. This project is called ‘special issue’. The main part of the project is working, learning together then communicating with audiences a group. The special issues were created by the collage of each student's individual interpret on subject matters.<be>  
<li>Orgnanising the first workshop (not a test. A significant part of my research+thesis) (<i>Clumsy code</i>)</li>
<br>


In the process of presenting my interpret in publishing, I particularly enjoyed spreading my narratives into the ‘webpage’ format. Although I didn’t have advanced technical knowledge in HTML, CSS and Javascript, which are key languages for making a webpage, I’ve been very charmed by potentials of webpage, because it can be an enjoyable and accessible stage to convey my own voice as I design. This discovery of charms in HTML has inspired me to create my personal essay website called ‘TEXTYOURS (textyours.world)’ in March 2020. 
<b>Feb 2022 ˜</b>
In the platform I’ve been experimenting to create hand-made webpages with stories I want to talk about. On top of that, the stories are displayed in visual languages that I personally find relevant with the contents.<br>  
<li>Start building up the archive (sketching the potential outcome)</li>
<br>


The style and the level of completion of my webpages are admittedly amateuristic from a professional perspective, but for me this creation process was a big part of my artistic statement as I feel the great freedom and intimacy, unlike in other websites having all the similar identities and moving systems under the name of professionalism. This enjoyment has triggered me a question like : why so many times do I feel uncomfortable and tired in web context. And it has naturally motivated me to explore and analys web navigation systems, known to be main tasks by UI/UX designers in the industry. <br>  
<b>Feb 2022 ~ Mar 2022</b>
<li>Another test of the workshop idea with implementation. (It might even be a different format of experiment) </li>
<br>


Olia Lialina , a Net artist, theorist, experimental film and video critic and curator, is well known of expression her regrets on the gradual disappearance of amateur personal webpage, which was used to be active in the past.
<b>Apr 2022</b>
[QUOTE HER ESSAY HERE]
<li>Organising second workshop (not a test. A significant part of my research+thesis) </li>
[QUOTE SILVIO LORRUSO'S ESSAY(The User Condition) HERE]
<li>Polishing thesis</li>
<br>


<i>Capacity to break the conditions…..
<b>May 2022˜</b>
An action is basically a choice, and agency measures the capacity of making choices. No choice, on the contrary, is behavior. The addict has little agency because their choice to interrupt their toxic behavior exists, but is tremendously difficult. In short, I propose to define agency as the capacity for action, which is in turn the ability to interrupt behavior.</i></p>
<li>Finalising thesis</li>
<li>Finalising the website build up</li>
</p>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Relation to my previous practice and a larger context</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;"> My trajectory in XPUB can explain why I am particularly interested in the web context. The first year in the course was composed of making a collective publication each semester, called ‘Special Issue’. The mechanism of it was working, learning together then communicating with audiences as a group. The projects were created by collages of each student's interpret of subject matters. In the process of documenting my interpretation, I particularly enjoyed spreading my narratives into the ‘web’ format. Although I didn’t have advanced technical knowledge in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, I’ve been very charmed by various possibilities of aesthetics and tools.<br>
This attraction in HTML world has inspired me to create my personal essay website called ‘TEXTYOURS[[http://textyours.world/|TEXTYOURS]]’ in March 2020. <br>
[[File:textyours_main.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Textyours]]
[[File:textyours_content.jpg|370px|thumb|none|A project 'SAVIOR' in Textyours]]
<br>
In the platform, I’ve been experimenting to create hand-made web pages with stories I wanted to talk about. Also, the stories are displayed in visual languages that I personally found relevant to the contents. 
The level of completion of the works is admittedly amateuristic from a professional perspective. Yet, for me this process has been a big part of my artistic statement as I feel great freedom and intimacy, unlike in other websites having similar aesthetics and moving systems under the name of professionalism.<br>
And this enjoyment has gradually triggered me critical questions: <li>'Why am I bored in the web context today?' </li>
<li>‘How could I balance myself between efficiency-orient approach and fun + creative desire, when working as a commercial designer in the future?’</li>
These have naturally motivated me to look into the structure of the web design industry.</p>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Timeline</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;">And while doing pre-research for writing this proposal, I realised some professional designers(UI/UX, Graphic) have been also making some critical voices about the status quo. For instance, Boris Müller, a UI/UX designer and professor, keeps writing about the scarcity of diversity and creativity in the web design market. <br><br>


<p style = "width:80%;"><b>Sep 2021 -May 2022</b> : Reading to deepen my insight about the topic
<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">Web design today seems to be driven by technical and ideological constraints rather than creativity and ideas. Every page consists of containers in containers in containers; sometimes text, sometimes images. Nothing is truly designed, it’s simply assumed.</i><br><br>


<b>Oct 2021˜</b>: Conceptualising the travel agency, Analysing navigation rules in existing websites such as Expedia ,which I personally feel uncomfortable, and visualise a few hacked(modified) versions of sketches through applications such as Figma and Illustration (not necessarily coding sketches)


<b>Nov 2021</b>:
Another relevant example is arguments made by Olia Lialina, a Net artist, theorist, experimental film and video critic, and curator. Through many writings and projects, she has expressed her regrets on the gradual disappearance of the personal webpage, which was used to be active in the past.<br><br>
<li>Read relevant sources about navigation in web context and user experience.</li>
<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">
<li>Survey about user experience with navigation structures in the chosen existing websites (It will take place at a workshop held by XPUB2 and tutors.)</li>
Nor was there some sort of evolution or natural development that would make people stop building their personal websites. Professionalisation or faster Internet, which you could hear as reasons for amateur pages dying out, could have become the reasons for the opposite, for a brighter, rich and long tradition of people building their cyberhomes themselves. </i><br><br>
<li>Keep prototyping alternative navigation systems upon the survey, but entail the method of coding by hands. </li>
<li>Arrange meetings with currently working UI/UX designers to show my sketch and get their (critical) opinions.</li>


<b>Dec 2021</b>:
They have been making some critical voices about iterations of certain mechanisms in the practice. Thus my personal question can resonate with social context.</p>
- Approach to relevant academics who have been exploring this topic.<br>(e.g. Silvio Lorruso (designer & academic), Boris Müller (Designer, Professor for Interaction Design at FH Postam))
<br>
<b>Jan - May 2022</b>: I’ll run a small scale of workshop to test out my design prototypes.</p>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Who can help you and how?(Roughly written at the moment)
</p>===
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Who can help you and how?</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;">
<p style = "width:80%;">
<li>Silvio Lorruso (https://theusercondition.computer/)</li>
<li style = "width: 80%;">Boris Müller (Professor for Interaction Design at FH Postam, Graphic designer)</li>
<li>Boris Müller (Professor for Interaction Design at FH Postam, Co-director of Urban Complexity Lab) (https://esono.com/ , https://borism.medium.com/) <- Since one of my biggest inspiration for this project is one of his essays(projects), called ‘The User Condition’, I’d like to bring him some questions about how the autonomy of user can be gained in computer and the web context. </li>
<li>Many potential interviewees</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors : Manetta Berends, Michael Murtaugh, Aymeric Mansoux (for conceptual feedback and programming skills)</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors: Manetta Berends and Michael Murtaugh (As for technical inputs and discourses)</li>
<li>Aymeric Mansoux</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors: Marloes de Valk and Aymeric Mansoux (As for direction and structure of my research)</li>
<li>XPUB almuni: Silvio Lorruso, Thomas Karlberg Walskaar, Avital, etc</li>
<li style = "width: 80%;">Bruno Setola (He is a teacher in an art academy and was a director at a studio where I did an internship. He is not a web designer, but has abundant working experiences in commercial field. He used to work in Studio Dumbar. He can connect me with some designers for my research.)</li>
</p>
 
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">References / Bibliography</p>===


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">References / Bibilography</p>===
<li>Joyce, C, and Blomley, H. (2020), nweb, nweb (http://nweb.club/)</li>
<li>User Experience: Interface Culture by Steven Johnson(1997)</li>
<li>Kim, N. (2020), SAVIOR, TEXTYOURS (http://textyours.world)</li>
<li>The Interface Effect by Alexander R. Galloway</li>
<li>Lialina, O. (2020), From Me to My, Berlin, DE, Critical Interface (https://interfacecritique.net/book/olia-lialina-from-my-to-me/)</li>
<li>https://theusercondition.computer/ (By Silvio Lurroso)</li>
<li>Lurroso, S. (Feb, 2021), The User Condition, the Lectorate Design of KABK (https://theusercondition.computer/)</li>
<li>https://esono.com/ , https://borism.medium.com/ (By Boris Müller)</li>
<li>Müller, B. (Sep, 2018a), Why Do All Websites Look the Same?, Modus (https://modus.medium.com/on-the-visual-weariness-of-the-web-8af1c969ce73)</li>  
<li>Alan Kay : Alan Kay’s pioneering work on interfaces was guided by the idea that the computer should be a medium rather than a vehicle, its function not pre-established (like that of the car or the television) but reformulable by the user (like in the case of paper and clay). For Kay, the computer had to be a general-purpose device. He also elaborated a notion of computer literacy which would include the ability to read the content of a medium (the tools and materials generated by others) but also the ability to write in a medium.</li>
<li>Müller, B. (Nov, 2018b), Balancing Creativity and Usability, Medium (https://borism.medium.com/balancing-creativity-and-usability-9bb2cd0fe929)</li>
<li>Olia Lialina - She regularly writes and publishes about new media, digital folklore, amateur or vernacular web design, the early history of home pages and the early conventions of the web.[24] Her essays, projects and publications include:
<li>Park, S. (2020), A Collective Booklet for Computational Women, SoyunPark (https://soyunparrrk.com/projects/computational_women)</li>
<p style="font-size:11px;">A Vernacular Web</p>
<p style="font-size:11px;">One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age (2011-),[27] a project with Dragan Espenschied. Lialina and Espenschied downloaded the entire Geocities archive (Geocities was shut down in 2009) and regularly and automatically publish screenshots of GeoCities websites on a Tumblr blog.</p>
<p style="font-size:11px;">Digital Folklore</p>
<p style="font-size:11px;">(http://art.teleportacia.org/#CenterOfTheUniverse)</p></li>
</p>

Latest revision as of 11:50, 7 December 2021

Why do you want to make?

As someone who has been studying Graphic design and working with it, I’ve been striving to find a way to be financially independent, not leaving the design industry. I am pretty much convinced that I position myself as a graphic designer, especially a web publisher, and will be working in the mainstream design industry.
It’s not hard for me to imagine most of my future tasks will be likely to embody websites with certain styles of aesthetic, formats, and functions, which are given by clients for obvious commercial purposes. From a realistic point of view, most of these works wouldn't offer me space for innovative and challenging design approaches.
But then I am, and will be, one of the designers feeling sorry about the repetitions of all the identical websites. This is honestly a dilemma for me in terms of compromising my regrets about the lack of diversity in web today with the demands of the industry.
On the other hand, however, I believe I can use my recognition of the dilemma to navigate my future career with balanced attitudes. Thus I would like to investigate the background of my questions: "Why do most websites look so identical today?", "Why are they losing diversity?". The exploration will mainly be accompanied by researching how websites are created in the commercial design field. (In which process through? + Under which agenda?)
Looking into the influential factors of the industry will help me to understand the reality and challenges of the current web context.

What and how do you want to make?

I expect the outcome of my project will be an archival website, documenting explorations on my questions:
What are potential causes of the gradual scarcity of diversity in the web context, and how do designers and developers perceive this?

And I will explore these questions through desk and field research.

    Desk research: Reading
  • Showcasing website examples that I've been collecting + findings + analysis (about the uniformity I've observed)
  • My experiment to analyse their layouts (, which will be mostly shown with images that I make)
  • Desk research about Template market + CMS + Material Design(Webdesign guideline by Google)
  • Analyse small graphic elements in the web: ex) Icons, the shape of profile picture, effects when clicking a menu, etc
  • How have aesthetic movements such as Flat-design and Brutalism (a counterexample to the Flat-design) been influencing the web design market?
  • Does the Flat design agenda necessarily draw a better user experience in terms of efficiency in the web and mobile context? (both agreeable and polemic examples)
  • The history of "mobile-first" approach in the industry


      • Field research: Interviewing and Making participatory workshops

      1) Interviewing designers and developers in the industry, asking practical process of their works (structure of the company, tools they use...), their perceptions of it, etc.

    • In which circumstances do developers and designers extract codes from frameworks such as Bootstrap and React?
    • How does it helpful/frustrative when using them?
    • How do they deal with issues when they can't find the desired codes from such libraries? (ex. Some might have approached to fit their design to the frameworks, compromising creativities.
      In contrast, some might have approached, (over)writing or implementing codes with research embodies the result as they want.)
    • Have they ever had frustration balancing their creativity and work efficiency? or not really?
    • Have do they perceive the ‘mobile-first’ approach?
    • (Ask net artists): How do you make your web works? (Practical process) + How much do you care making your website to be responsive on all viewports?

      • 2) 0rganising workshops.

    • WORKSHOP #1. (04 Dec 2021) Opened an online workshop to discuss culture of the current commercial web design culture.
      I give participants a list of websites then let them explore/observe for 20 minutes. They take notes at a pad: [1]
      Then we discuss all the observations. If time allows, participants will put their thoughts into a few Boostrap HTML layouts. <-(This HTML making didn't happen due to the time limit. But the discussion itself was super fruitful!!!)
    • Rendering a few simple HTML page layouts (already made by css/javascript frameworks), with a condition that participants would use own their knowledge and research in the front-end knowledge, without using the code snippets from frameworks.
      Target participants are both people having only a basic capacity of coding and professionals in the practice. Ideally nice to have professionals.
      Through the workshops I'd like to see how do the HTML pages not using the frameworks look, and in which logic did participants code. Their process and outcome will be collected and documented.

    • Making icons by ourselves. Doesn't have to be super quirky, but at least we could suggest slightly different visual languages to the conventional ones.


    I see the archival web (a potential outcome) as a conjunctive context of my research fragments.
    It will be a good format for me to see how each material will be making a (new) connection, being mapped out to each other, meaning they won't be merely juxtaposed in lines.
    In addition, it will be meaningful for designers and developers to overview the circular structure in the field and contemplate their stances, and even use it as a context for further discussion.
    A few examples of archival websites are displayed below.

    Example of archival web from Soyunparrrk.com
    Example of archival web from Soyunparrrk.com
    Example of archival web from nweb.club
    Example of archival web from studio-otto.com




    Timeline

    Oct 2021˜ Dec 2021:

  • Investigating the connection between Flat design motto and the web industry market
  • Collecting examples of the identicalweb design I have meant (also mobile layouts)


    • Nov 2021 - Dec 2021

  • E-mailing to designers and developers that I'd like to interview
  • Start interviewing them! (At least three people!)
    So far my interviewees list : Francesco from XPUB1, Thomas Waalskaar (XPUB alumni, media researcher, graphic designer),Julia Luteijn (A net artist), Sander Sturing (a developer in Studio Dumbar)
  • Testing out my workshop idea (Clumsy code) in collective XPUB2 workshop


    • Nov 2021 - Mar 2021

  • Keep e-mailing to designers and developers that I'd like to interview

    • Dec 2021

  • Experiment how I can document my research materials on web context
    (How photos, voice records, films, will be placed in the web context in a meaningful way? need some advice)
  • A second test of the workshop (Clumsy code) with implementation


    • Nov 2021 ~ April 2022

  • Interviewing and recording


    • Jan 2022

  • Orgnanising the first workshop (not a test. A significant part of my research+thesis) (Clumsy code)


    • Feb 2022 ˜

  • Start building up the archive (sketching the potential outcome)


    • Feb 2022 ~ Mar 2022

  • Another test of the workshop idea with implementation. (It might even be a different format of experiment)


    • Apr 2022

  • Organising second workshop (not a test. A significant part of my research+thesis)
  • Polishing thesis


    • May 2022˜

  • Finalising thesis
  • Finalising the website build up

    • Relation to my previous practice and a larger context

    My trajectory in XPUB can explain why I am particularly interested in the web context. The first year in the course was composed of making a collective publication each semester, called ‘Special Issue’. The mechanism of it was working, learning together then communicating with audiences as a group. The projects were created by collages of each student's interpret of subject matters. In the process of documenting my interpretation, I particularly enjoyed spreading my narratives into the ‘web’ format. Although I didn’t have advanced technical knowledge in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, I’ve been very charmed by various possibilities of aesthetics and tools.
    
This attraction in HTML world has inspired me to create my personal essay website called ‘TEXTYOURS[[2]]’ in March 2020.

    Textyours
    A project 'SAVIOR' in Textyours


    In the platform, I’ve been experimenting to create hand-made web pages with stories I wanted to talk about. Also, the stories are displayed in visual languages that I personally found relevant to the contents. 
The level of completion of the works is admittedly amateuristic from a professional perspective. Yet, for me this process has been a big part of my artistic statement as I feel great freedom and intimacy, unlike in other websites having similar aesthetics and moving systems under the name of professionalism.

    And this enjoyment has gradually triggered me critical questions:

  • 'Why am I bored in the web context today?'
  • ‘How could I balance myself between efficiency-orient approach and fun + creative desire, when working as a commercial designer in the future?’

    • These have naturally motivated me to look into the structure of the web design industry.

    And while doing pre-research for writing this proposal, I realised some professional designers(UI/UX, Graphic) have been also making some critical voices about the status quo. For instance, Boris Müller, a UI/UX designer and professor, keeps writing about the scarcity of diversity and creativity in the web design market.

    Web design today seems to be driven by technical and ideological constraints rather than creativity and ideas. Every page consists of containers in containers in containers; sometimes text, sometimes images. Nothing is truly designed, it’s simply assumed.

    Another relevant example is arguments made by Olia Lialina, a Net artist, theorist, experimental film and video critic, and curator. Through many writings and projects, she has expressed her regrets on the gradual disappearance of the personal webpage, which was used to be active in the past.

    Nor was there some sort of evolution or natural development that would make people stop building their personal websites. Professionalisation or faster Internet, which you could hear as reasons for amateur pages dying out, could have become the reasons for the opposite, for a brighter, rich and long tradition of people building their cyberhomes themselves.

    They have been making some critical voices about iterations of certain mechanisms in the practice. Thus my personal question can resonate with social context.

    Who can help you and how?

  • Boris Müller (Professor for Interaction Design at FH Postam, Graphic designer)
  • Many potential interviewees
  • XPUB Tutors: Manetta Berends and Michael Murtaugh (As for technical inputs and discourses)
  • XPUB Tutors: Marloes de Valk and Aymeric Mansoux (As for direction and structure of my research)
  • XPUB almuni: Silvio Lorruso, Thomas Karlberg Walskaar, Avital, etc
  • Bruno Setola (He is a teacher in an art academy and was a director at a studio where I did an internship. He is not a web designer, but has abundant working experiences in commercial field. He used to work in Studio Dumbar. He can connect me with some designers for my research.)

    • References / Bibliography

  • Joyce, C, and Blomley, H. (2020), nweb, nweb (http://nweb.club/)
  • Kim, N. (2020), SAVIOR, TEXTYOURS (http://textyours.world)
  • Lialina, O. (2020), From Me to My, Berlin, DE, Critical Interface (https://interfacecritique.net/book/olia-lialina-from-my-to-me/)
  • Lurroso, S. (Feb, 2021), The User Condition, the Lectorate Design of KABK (https://theusercondition.computer/)
  • Müller, B. (Sep, 2018a), Why Do All Websites Look the Same?, Modus (https://modus.medium.com/on-the-visual-weariness-of-the-web-8af1c969ce73)
  • Müller, B. (Nov, 2018b), Balancing Creativity and Usability, Medium (https://borism.medium.com/balancing-creativity-and-usability-9bb2cd0fe929)
  • Park, S. (2020), A Collective Booklet for Computational Women, SoyunPark (https://soyunparrrk.com/projects/computational_women)
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