Introduction : Circular structure of web design market (A starting point + Main research question + sub questions)
My enjoyment of making hand-crafted web pages has been navigating my career to web design practice. But then I, as someone who wants to work in the commercial industry for a realistic reason, admit that most of my future tasks will be framed by commercial agenda, not being able to play with quirky elements and styles I like.
By observing current mainstream websites, I've come to a realisation that my love about the playful websites will be likely to conflict with the market demand.
It's quite agreeable that most major web pages have certain types of features in common. For example, the shapes of most icons and the locations of the menu bars seem quite similar each other, as well as the user navigation system.
I am not saying that these implicit rules are all absurd, so there needs a total subversion/revolution on the web design context. But still, this repetition of the sameness is worthwhile to be questioned, even for figuring out in which stance I will stand as a web designer in the industry.
In order to do so, I'd like to explore the circular structure of the web design market, missions many designers confront, and how I will be navigating my stance in the reality. This goal will be explored through sub-questions mentioned below:
What are conventional rules/mechanisms that the web designers and developers work with in the industry? (e.g. Mobile-first approach, Frameworks, Flat-aesthetic, and so on?)
In which sense are these indispensable in the field? (Efficiency?)
How do the agenda/mechanisms influence the creativity of designers and developers?
What can frameworks made by non-professionals speak to the web design industry?
The thesis will be a documentation of my exploration for the research questions .
1. Uniformity (Conformity): Does it exist? A few cases and reviews
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)
Contemporary standards of commercial websites (aesthetics, functions)
- Desk research about Template market + CMS + Material Design(Webdesign guideline by Google)
- Field research, asking designers and developers:
-- If there are any conventional disciplines that they try to stick to when making a webpage, what they are?
-- Why are these rules/conditions important when working?
-- How do you experience/perceive the web design industry that you're involved in now?
The (dis)connection between 'Content'-'Form'. It could be better than now.
Websites made by net-artists:
- How do you feel about most (commercial) web pages today?
- Through which practical steps have they made their web projects? (design identity, front-end development)?
- What are basic/conventional rules that you stick to, while making the works? And why?
2. Potential causes of the uniformity (reading + interviewing)
The history of responsive design approach (mobile-first)
Co-relation between The Flat design (movement) and the responsive design agenda
Realistic working conditions in the web design industry (time, wage, ways of working, etc) (through interview)
Pervasive tools of the web development (through interview)
The history of frameworks for Css and Javascript, mostly developed by mega tech companies
Template based: Technological frameworks like Content Management Systems (CMS) and blogging platforms like WordPress. They are content agnostic. (Müller)
The relation between the uniformity agenda and creativities of designers and developers(through interview)
Any differences in the work process between net artists and the commercial designers? In which ways are they similar and different?
3. Experiments on the "uniformity": What happens if the "uniform" becomes "re/de-form"? and What can I speak through this experiment? My stance as a web designer?
In which way and how often do designers and developers depend on the frameworks?
Experiments (Participatory workshops) -> Try both pure coding and extracting codes from the frameworks, aiming for the same design sketch. How do I and participants feel? Compare the two mechanisms?
Experiments to make our own frameworks (made by non-professional!) Can we make it? What is the meaning of it? (Participatory workshops)
Conclusion
Recap the research (Circular structure of the web design industry)
References / Bibliography
Carpenter, J. R. (Mar 2015), A Handmade Web, Bath Spa University, UK, Slow Media (http://luckysoap.com/statements/handmadeweb.html)
Galloway, Alexander R. (2012), The Interface Effect, Cambridge, UK, Polity
Johnson, S. (1997), User Experience: Interface Culture, New York, Basic Books
Kay, A. and Goldberg, A. (1977), Personal Dynamic Media, MIT, The New Media Reader
Lialina, O. (2009), Digital Folklore, Frankfurt, DE, Merz&Solitude
Lialina, O. (2020), From Me to My, Berlin, DE, Critical Interface (https://interfacecritique.net/book/olia-lialina-from-my-to-me/)
Lurroso, S. (Apr 2020), The User Condition 04: A Mobile First World, Entreprecariat (https://networkcultures.org/entreprecariat/mobile-first-world/)
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)
