Nami-project proposal: Difference between revisions

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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%;">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 dismissing/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 design industry, expectedly mainstream/ major-tech industry.<br>
<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>
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>
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 repetitive births 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 pages today with the demands of the industry. <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 structure under my question: "<i>Why do most websites look so identical today?</i>", "<i>Why don't they have more diversity?</i>". The exploration will mainly be accompanied by researching how websites are created in the commercial design field. (In which practical process through?, Under which agenda?)<br> Looking into the influential factors of the industry will help me to understand the current challenges of the web context.
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>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">What and how do you want to make?</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 an archival website, documenting the exploratory questions:<br>  
<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 is the background of the gradual absence of diversity in the web design industry, and how do designers and developers perceive this?</b></i><br><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 two methods below.<br>
And I will explore these questions through desk and field research.<br>
1) Interviewing designers and developers in the industry, asking practical process of their works (structure of the company, tools they're using...), their perceptions of it, and demands of their clients, etc. <br>
<ul class=“desk" style= “color: #7787b1;”><b>Desk research: Reading</b></ul>
2) 0rganising a few coding workshops. A tentative title of it is <i>Clumsy code</i>.<br>
<li>Showcasing website examples that I've been collecting + findings + analysis (about the uniformity I've observed)</li>
Activities will be mainly making a few simple HTML page layouts (already made by css/javascript frameworks such as Bootstrap) together, <b>but</b> under a condition that they don't see and use the code snippets from frameworks. Target participants will be people having only a basic capacity of front-end coding and professionals having great knowledge in the practice. <br>
<li>My experiment to analyse their layouts (, which will be mostly shown with images that I make)</li>
With the participatory workshops, I'd like to see how logics of participants in writing codes a......<br>
<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>
And the over-arching questions include sub-research questions below:<br>  
<li>How have aesthetic movements such as Flat-design and Brutalism (a counterexample to the Flat-design) been influencing the web design market?</li>
 
<ul class=“desk" style= “color: #7787b1;”><b><Desk research questions : Reading research papers/articles/theories></b>
<li>How have histories of 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>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>
<li>The history of "mobile-first" approach in the industry</li>
</ul>
</ul><br>


<ul class=“field" style= “color: #b17787;”><b><Field research questions: Interviewing and Making participatory coding workshops></b>
<ul class=“field" style= “color: #b17787;”><b>Field research: Interviewing and Making participatory workshops</b><br>
<b>Interview questions</b>
<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 framework libraries such as Bootstrap and React?</li>
<li>In which circumstances do developers and designers extract codes from frameworks such as Bootstrap and React?</li>
<li>In which sense does it helpful/frustrative when using the frameworks?</li>
<li>How does it helpful/frustrative when using them?</li>
<li>How do they deal with issues when they can't easily find the desired codes from such libraries? (ex. Some might have approached to fit their design to the existing libraries so that they compromised to keep their creativities.<br>In contrast, some might have approached, (over)writing or implementing their own codes with intense research to really embody the result as they want.)</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 to balance their creativity and work efficiency? or not really?</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>Have do they perceive the ‘mobile-first’ approach?</li>
<li>(Ask to net artists): How do you make your web works? (Practical process)</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>
<li>(Ask to net artists): How much do you care making your website to be responsive on all viewports?</li><br>
<br>


<b>Workshop questions</b>
<p style = "font-family: Serif;">2) 0rganising workshops.</p>
<li>How long does it take when you try to make a simple header, not relying on frameworks but just with your knowledges?</li>
<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>


As for the field research, I will mostly meet and interview designers and developers who are currently working in the field. For instance, questions asking their practical mechanism in their companies and insights about it will be explored better through hearing their real experiences than looking into papers. The recording medium will be decided on the interviewee’s preference. It can be formats of audio, video, photo, or text. <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.
When it comes to some questions, I will run online surveys, targeting multi-disciplined artists and currently working designers. These methods lie on a borderline between the desk and the field research. <br>
<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>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Timeline</p>===


<p style = "width:80%;">
<b>Oct 2021˜ Dec 2021</b>: <li>Investigating the connection between Flat design motto and the web industry market</li>
<li>Collecting examples of the <i>identical</i>web design I have meant (also mobile layouts)</li>
<br>


The format of the archival web is relevant in that I aim to explore how all the research records will be making a (new) connection, contextualised each other, not just being juxtaposed by an obsession with a term like 'objectivity'.<br>
<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>


<b>Nov 2021 - Mar 2021</b>
<li>Keep e-mailing to designers and developers that I'd like to interview</li>


<b>Dec 2021</b>
<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>
<li>A second test of the workshop (<i>Clumsy code</i>) with implementation</li>
<br>


This archive website will be meaningful for designers and developers in the web industry to overview the circular structure in the field and contemplate their stances, and even use it as a context of a discussion. 
<b>Nov 2021 ~ April 2022</b>
<li>Interviewing and recording</li>
<br>


<b>Jan 2022</b>
<li>Orgnanising the first workshop (not a test. A significant part of my research+thesis) (<i>Clumsy code</i>)</li>
<br>


<b>Feb 2022 ˜</b>
<li>Start building up the archive (sketching the potential outcome)</li>
<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>
The way how I present all the collection of findings will be naturally followed by my insight during analysis. 
</p>
 
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Timeline</p>===
 
<p style = "width:80%;">
<b>~May 2022</b>:<br>
<li>Reading theories and essays about Reproductive economy and to deepen my insight about the topic</li><br><br>
 
 
<b>Oct 2021˜ Dec 2021</b>: <li>Investigating the connection between Flat design motto and the web industry market</li>
<li>Collecting interface examples of the flat design on web and mobile</li>
<li>Collecting interface examples of NON-flat design on web and mobile (such as Brutalism ..)</li>
<br>
<br>


<b>Nov 2021</b>
<b>Apr 2022</b>
<li>E-mailing to designers and developers that I'd like to meet/interview (The interviewees can be also artists working with the medium of web, app)</li>
<li>Organising second workshop (not a test. A significant part of my research+thesis) </li>
<li>Start meeting them up! (At least two people!)</li>
<li>Polishing thesis</li>
<li>Preparing XPUB2 workshop: Probably I want to do a small workshop called '<i>Naive code</i>', letting participants to make small a menu bar or banner on the web page, but truly by thier hands with pure research(ex.looking into W3C, etc), not extracting codes from libraries</li>
<br>
<br>


<b>Nov 2021~Apr 2022</b>:
<b>May 2022˜</b>
<li>Interviewing and recording</li>  
<li>Finalising thesis</li>
<li>Implementing the <i>Naive Code</i> Experiments (through workshop formats)</li>
<li>Finalising the website build up</li>
<li>Sketching my web archive with the documentations of my research</li>
</p>
</p>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Relation to my previous practice and a larger context</p>===
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Relation to my previous practice and a larger context</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;"> My trajectory in Experimental Publishing can explain why I am particularly interested in the lack of diversity in the web context and ecology of the market. 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 individual 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, which are key languages for making a webpage, I’ve been very charmed by various possibilities in aesthetics and tools of making the pages.<br>
This attraction in HTML world has inspired me to create my personal essay website called ‘TEXTYOURS[[http://textyours.world/|TEXTYOURS]]’ in March 2020.  
<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>
In the platform, I’ve been experimenting to create hand-made web pages with stories I wanted to talk about. On top of that, the stories are displayed in visual languages that I personally found relevant to the contents.
The style and the level of completion of the works are admittedly amateuristic from a professional perspective. Yet, for me, this process itself has been a big part of my artistic statement as I feel great freedom and intimacy, unlike in other websites having all the similar aesthetics and moving systems under the name of professionalism.<br>  
[[File:textyours_main.jpg|350px|thumb|left|Textyours]]
And this enjoyment has gradually triggered me critical questions: <li>'Why so many times am I bored in the web context?' </li>
[[File:textyours_content.jpg|370px|thumb|none|A project 'SAVIOR' in Textyours]]
<li>‘How will I be able to balance myself between the flat + efficiency-orient agenda and fun + creative desire, when working as a commercial designer in the future?’</li>
<br>
These have naturally motivated me to look into the ecology of the web design industry.</p>
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 = "width:80%;">And while doing pre-research for writing this proposal, I’ve realised some professional designers(UI/UX, Product, Graphic) have been also making some critical voices about the status quo in the industry. For instance, Boris Müller, a UI/UX designer and professor, keeps writing about the scarcity of diversity and creativity in the web design market and also initiating some projects about it. <br><br>
<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>


<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. (from his essay on Medium: [https://modus.medium.com/on-the-visual-weariness-of-the-web-8af1c969ce73 Why Do All Websites Look the Same?])</i><br><br>
<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>


<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">But my impression is that right now, designers tend to limit their creativity so that the design works for the template. And I strongly believe it should be the other way round. Instead of asking how they meet the demands of the template, designers and developers should ask themselves how they can create templates that meet the demands of the design. This is one of the reasons why I believe that designers should be able to code for themselves. If you want to push the boundaries, you have to understand the limitations. (from his essay on Medium: [https://borism.medium.com/balancing-creativity-and-usability-9bb2cd0fe929 Balancing Creativity and Usability])</i><br><br>


<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">We should remember that creativity is the core qualification of professional designers. And while creativity always needs constraints to be productive — it should not be drowned out by procedure and conformity. Designing for yourself can provide you with a creative breathing space in the design process. (from his essay on Medium: [https://borism.medium.com/design-for-yourself-sometimes-7c9b8118fb63 Design for yourself! (Sometimes)])</i>
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>
<br><br>
 
Another relevant example is arguments made by Olia Lialina, a Net artist, theorist, experimental film and video critic, and curator. Through many writings and web projects, she has expressed her regrets on the gradual disappearance of the(amateur) personal webpage, which was used to be active in the past.<br><br>
<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">
<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">
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. (from her essay : [https://interfacecritique.net/book/olia-lialina-from-my-to-me/ From Me To My])
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>
</i><br><br>


Also it doesn’t seem directly relevant, but Silvio Lorruso, a writer and web designer, also pointed out user's ways of thinking are being limited and dominated by pervasive notions of agent today.<br>
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>
<i style = "font-family: Times; width:80%;">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.<br>
Here’s a platform-related example. We can postulate a shortage of user agency within most dominant social media. What limits the agency of a user, namely, their ability to stop using such platforms, is a combination of addictive techniques and societal pressures. It’s hard to block the dopamine-induced automatism of scrolling, and maybe it’s even harder to delete your account when all your friends and colleagues assume you have one. In this case, low agency takes the form of a lock-in. If agency means choice, the choice we can call authentic is not to be on Facebook (or WeChat, if you will). (from his writing: [https://theusercondition.computer/ The User Condition])</i><br><br>
 
They all commonly warn about certain types of the economy being continually reproduced. Thus my personal question eventually all resonates to a larger social context.</p>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Who can help you and how?</p>===
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">Who can help you and how?</p>===
<p style = "width:80%;">
<p style = "width:80%;">
<li style = "width: 80%;">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 he has been discovering the web industry, and what is his teaching philosophy in design, and how he personally manages to balance personal creativity and market demands.</li>
<li style = "width: 80%;">Boris Müller (Professor for Interaction Design at FH Postam, Graphic designer)</li>
<li>Many potential interviwees</li>
<li>Many potential interviewees</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors: Manetta Berends and Michael Murtaugh(As for technical inputs and discourses)</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors: Manetta Berends and Michael Murtaugh (As for technical inputs and discourses)</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors: Marloes de Valk, Aymeric Mansoux (As for direction and structure of my research)</li>
<li>XPUB Tutors: Marloes de Valk and Aymeric Mansoux (As for direction and structure of my research)</li>
<li>Silvio Lorruso</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>
<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>


===<p style="font-family:helvetica">References / Bibilography</p>===
===<p style="font-family:helvetica">References / Bibliography</p>===
<li>User Experience: Interface Culture by Steven Johnson(1997)</li>
 
<li>The Interface Effect by Alexander R. Galloway</li>
<li>Joyce, C, and Blomley, H. (2020), nweb, nweb (http://nweb.club/)</li>
<li>https://theusercondition.computer/ (By Silvio Lurroso)</li>
<li>Kim, N. (2020), SAVIOR, TEXTYOURS (http://textyours.world)</li>
<li>https://esono.com/ , https://borism.medium.com/ (By Boris Müller)</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 style="with: 80%;">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>Lurroso, S. (Feb, 2021), The User Condition, the Lectorate Design of KABK (https://theusercondition.computer/)</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>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>  
<p style="font-size:11px;">A Vernacular Web</p>
<li>Müller, B. (Nov, 2018b), Balancing Creativity and Usability, Medium (https://borism.medium.com/balancing-creativity-and-usability-9bb2cd0fe929)</li>
<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>
<li>Park, S. (2020), A Collective Booklet for Computational Women, SoyunPark (https://soyunparrrk.com/projects/computational_women)</li>
<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)