In a review written for Scientific American in August of 1996, Ben Davis comments that the World Wide Web "seems to be creating a broad definition of culture that forces us to recognize that science and art are parallel aspects of the same
basic creative impulse rather than unrelated pursuits." This compelling thought has stayed with me solidly since reading it.
Long aware that I have struggled with a desire to be a scientist and an artist, and having had some difficulty finding a place where the two met, it occurred to me that Davis has hit upon a philosophical gap that the popularization of the Net in general
and the hypermedia-based Web in specific is bridging. With one foot firmly planted on the land of science, and the other equally balanced on that of art, the meeting point is this elusive place called Cyberspace.
Web designers are challenged to be many things, including computer scientists, communications specialists, graphics artists, and advertising authorities. Precious little guidance exists to help these makers of a new medium, and, as such, the Web
designer often makes up his or her own rules to navigate these unique circumstances. Most designers are, by necessity, preoccupied with keeping up with the stormy seas that this emergent technology instigates. Few have time to investigate the more
theoretical ideas surrounding what impact this new medium is having on individual lives, as well as on the world society at large.
In my workaday world, I, too, am engaged in the creation of commercial Web site design. You can bet that my clients are typically not that interested in new media theories, the brain, or the shrinking of this chasm between science and art because of the
unique opportunities provided by hypermedia. Yet, an understanding of the philosophy behind media is part of what can enable someone to create it effectively. It is for this reason that a significant amount of theory is discussed within the following
chapters, along with examples of how that theory can be moved into realization and practical use.
New media, a phrase I use often in my writing, is both as clear as the words indicate, and as vague as the difference between mind and brain. In simplistic terms, new media is any traditional media that is combined with interactivity. It
requires, and responds to, response from the person or people who are involved with it.
Two unclouded examples of interactive media are CD-ROM presentations such as games or encyclopedias, where individuals make choices that result in a variety of possible responses from the given program. The World Wide Web is another clear example of
interactive, or new, media. The best Web designers understand that this means engaging the visitor with the material on a Web site, and the best Web sites are those that do this successfully.
Another aspect of new media is that it is non-linear. This means that the right-to-left paging and hierarchical flowcharts to which the Western mind is accustomed are only two of many ways of arranging content. Pick up a book in English or
German, or any of the Romance languages such as Spanish, and begin to read. You will move in a linear fashion through the words, paging along as you go.
Although you can do this on the Web, there are other options as well! You can choose to move through the Web environment tangentially, first following one road, then branching off on another. Another good example of non-linear movement is casual
conversation. Everyone has had the experience of starting out with a political topic and suddenly ending up talking about cheese, or children, or how bad the mosquitoes were this past summer. The natural rhythms of communication are also tangential rather
than linear.
More than a call-and-response or non-linear environment, new media is a sensual one. As Web technology becomes more sophisticated, this is proven time and again with the addition of sound, animation, three-dimensional graphics, technologies such as
CU-SeeME that allow for point-to-point visual communications, and virtual worlds, which create replicas of existing environments or envision imaginary ones. I even saw a Web site once, a parody of CU-SeeMe technology called Smell-U-Smell-Me! Who knows?
Perhaps there will one day be a way of adding fragrances to our virtual environments, creating full sensory adventures.
When hypermedia is taken away from the commercial realm and studied by those scientists interested in the relationship of intelligence to computers, an interesting observation is made. Hypermedia—the Web's infrastructure that allows for the linking
of documents and objects to one another in non-linear ways—acts very much like the human brain.
The non-linear environment created by hypermedia can be described as similar to the way human memory works. Think of your favorite piece of music. You should quickly remember its melody, name, or some combination of its aspects. This information won't
always come to you in the same order. The reason is because all the pieces of that music that you know are stored in many places in your brain. Using a complex system of biochemical and electrical impulses, the brain retrieves this information as quickly
as possible and places it into consciousness. Sometimes you'll notice, especially as the years of our lives pass or we are particularly fatigued, that the response time is slower, and pieces are missing.
The brain is thousands, perhaps millions more times complex than a computer, but the concept of memory storage and retrieval is similar. This is, again, especially true of the hypermedia environment found on CD-ROMs and, of course, the Web.
Imagine the potential empowerment that surfing the Web can actually bring! In the process of looking at cool sites with animations and sound, or researching information, you are not just having fun or doing work, you are learning. And not only
are you learning, but you are doing so in a way that works in a natural rhythm with your brain. This in and of itself provides a powerful argument to those naysayers in the world who believe that computer technology inhibits and reduces human creativity.
The facts may very well show that these technologies have indeed allowed us to work those virtual mental muscles and come away with stronger, more realistic patterns of thought and information processing.
That might sound rather clinical, and herein lies the other virtue of the Net. You aren't just connected to an interactive, mechanized world. People are accessible! And not just people within your community, but people from world communities, cultures,
and myriad ways of being. With mindful guidance and organization, the combination of hypermedia and communications technology reaches much farther than imaginable.
That's simple! To be a great physician, one must understand not only the parts of the body, but the way those parts work together in order to function smoothly. The same is true for Web design. As a designer, it is important for me to not only
understand the parts—HTML, computer programming, whatever my specialty might be—but also the way those parts integrate with the whole. And, in this case, that whole involves technology, art, and the way those entities will interact with the
complex people at the other end of the data stream.
Web design is the creation of media. Most North Americans and many world citizens are familiar with the impact of media. The importance of journalism is a major thread in the fabric of democracy—the right to express a fundamental part of the U.S.
ideal. On the other hand, the continuous barrage of stories about disorders such as anorexia and bulimia remind us of the power the media can have over minds and self-perception.
Web designers need to understand the impact of what is created and subsequently placed in front of humanity. This might not be something that I'm inclined to think about while building a Web site about music or some other form of entertainment, or a
product. But every so often the impact of what I'm doing comes home to me, be it in the form of someone at the other end reminding me that he is out there by commenting on a Web experience via e-mail, or when I'm working on subject matter that relates to
children.
I'm convinced that the foundation of a great Web site lies with designer ability to bridge art and technology. Many Web sites have yet to embrace the artistic aspect of Web design, and as design on the Web becomes more and more sophisticated, those
sites become less and less effective. There is also an inherent danger in throwing too much technology at a design. As I'll point out in many places throughout this book, the simplistic can be just as effective as the fantastic.
For the purposes of this book, I've chosen sites that fill a variety of criteria that amount to "sizzling." The design is typically original, with strong graphic presence and unique style. Use of font styles, layout, white space, and
background are each considered as important aspects of a design. I've usually avoided sites with cliché, over-used backgrounds and text layouts.
A sizzling site will generally have to be accessible and attractive in different browsers, specifically Netscape 3.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0. The browser issue is becoming increasingly less of a focus as home computers, and the software that people
use, become more advanced. My current inclination is to be much less concerned with the cross-browser issue with the one exception that informational sites must be text-accessible.
My rationale for the text-access is much less oriented toward the bandwidth and load-time issues, but is instead related to accessibility. Many organizations have limited Internet access, especially those outside the English-speaking world. Of further
note is access for the blind. GUI (graphical user interface) environments are typically very difficult for current screen-reader technology to handle. Therefore, text access is important when delivering significant data to people.
Sites that sizzle must load within a reasonable amount of time, and graphics should be optimized for speed but not at loss of visual quality. HTML code should be clean. In many instances of sites that are well-designed graphically, the technology is
poor or vice versa. There are many instances in this book where this is true, but in each case there is something of importance in what that site is giving the Web, as well as lessons for the Web designer.
In fact, please bear this in mind when you see a site that doesn't seem to fit into my own chosen parameters for a great Web site. Although this book features a range of Web sites, the point is to use these sites as vehicles for understanding concepts
and techniques inherent in current Web design trends.
Moreover, there are only one hundred Web sites in this book. I've left out many that in fact might have embraced the ideas of sizzling better than those I've chosen. I think of those sites as the good children of the Web. They miss getting
attention because they do everything right. So to those great sites and designers I didn't or couldn't include, or simply haven't found yet, keep up the good work, and know that you weren't excluded because I didn't think you sizzled!
Much of what you'll find in this book involves the art and technology of Web sites. Each site has brought some combination of cultural or artistic value to the Web, channeled through the Web's technology. I examine each within my evaluation of a given
site, although I typically focus on one over another, depending on the teaching within that section.
When expressing concepts, I will usually give thoughts, guidelines, or simple exercises that can assist in strengthening your experience and hands-on application of those concepts. A good example is the writing trick in Chapter 8, "Sites with Spice: Food and Beverages on the Web." The site is M&Ms, the issue, voice. I consider voice a conceptual rather than a technical approach. Conceptual lessons relate more to the ideas involved in
a Web site's creation.
With technology, I may actually give physical examples of existing code, with recommendations on how to arrange that code in a different or more effective fashion. Or, I may offer a list of tips and tricks to apply to a given application for maximum
effect. There's a companion CD-ROM to this book, and where it has been particularly advantageous, I've included programs and basic instructions on how to apply those programs to work with a specific technology.
I've selected 10 categories with 10 sites in each category. I based the categories on what I felt defined the various types of Web sites found on the Net. Sometimes you'll see that a given site will cross over, but that's okay! One of the powers of the
Web is its flexibility, and the offerings here are intended to reflect just that.
Within a chapter there are both conceptual and technology techniques offered through two types of coverage. The first is the "Feature Site" the second is the "Highlighted Site."
There are a total of 20 Feature Sites in this book, two per chapter. These sites typically have great all-around presentation, strong HTML, great graphic design, quality writing, and a balanced use of multimedia and interactive components. There is more
detailed teaching with these sites, and a special component to some of these sites is that where it's been possible, I've included comments, philosophies, and ideas from the designers themselves.
Highlighted Sites focus on content, with the opportunity to serve as an inspiration to demonstrate a specific component of concept or technique. The teaching is abbreviated, as is the description, but here's the great part—you can always visit the
site online to get a fuller view of what's occurring.
All sites have been rendered in full-color screen captures to give as complete an experience of their detail as possible. Obviously a two-dimensional rendering cannot take the place of the interactive medium. For this reason, I've included as many sites
as possible on the accompanying CD-ROM, in whole or in part, in order to allow for instant access to the pages of note.
Brock Meeks of Wired Magazine asked me what the point of writing a book using models of Web sites—sites that might be gone tomorrow —was. Aside from the practical teaching involved, my answer hadn't yet matured. However, after thinking
about it, my response to him would also reflect how important it is to document the way Web design is done, the concepts involved, and the practices.
Many of the books on my shelves are about the history of typography, or the evolution of technology. The account of a process is as important to the practitioner as is the practice itself, if that practitioner is to have a deep and personal
understanding of what he or she is choosing to spend significant parts of the day doing.
I am certain that when I look back at this book a year from now, most of the sites covered will have changed, and as Meeks points out, some will be gone completely. However, I will also know that the fundamentals of interactive media and the practical
design concepts covered here will still be applicable. Even if the Web were to go away, ideally, the issues discussed in this book will be interesting and useful to individuals who design media in the coming century.
And, with the beautiful color renderings and presentation within, this book will stand in the future as a historic testament to the way things were done in the early days. A pioneer's guide, if you will, to the way it was.
Finally, and most simply, this book is fun. There is art, humor, personality, optimism, and, perhaps most importantly, humanity within these pages. Writing this book taught me how to really enjoy the Web from each of these perspectives. I've learned that the Web is much more than a simple surf. But, then again, some days it is just that—the adventure of knowing that anything is possible, and the joy of the unusual and astonishing places where the virtual waves will take you.
