MAYBE WEBSITES AREN'T SO BORING

 

YAYYYY!

Overview

Ok, so all hope is not lost for the internet. There are people out there making some really cool websites and experimenting with some crazy fun design techniques. They may not be main stream yet, but the art is out there. They ditch the overused and homogenized features that we see everywhere and they try and make something unique and original. Something that captures the user with its art and character. This is the kind of stuff that the sandbox of web design is supposed to let us do. 

Something about the way authors leverage words, common experiences, and fantastical creativity to somehow make just a bunch of words on a page about some fake planet into something that I deeply relate to and connect to has always blown my mind. Or the way that an artist can throw some paint on a canvas and it can reach millions of people. To me it doesn't make sense why the internet has to function a different way. Luckily I am not the only person, because some people out there are doing really amazing things. 

One of the hardest things to balance, or consider, about design is functionality. The reason that websites are so homogenized is very simple, they are functional and effective. This makes it really hard to sell people on the idea of websites that might be less functional, even if they look really neat. There is a certain level of necessity for functionality in websites, that is undeniable, and I am not going to debate that at all. That doesn't mean that all websites need to be built the same. The question I think we need to ask is when and where can the power of a really well done alternative design be functionality? When does the stuff gained from the stylistic choices weigh more than the functionality of say a sidebar or something like that etcetera. It's a question that is different for each project, but I have some good examples that get at my point. patrickfoxy is a great example of how what might be considered an over creative design can give more to the project than really utilitarian features. The super impressive animation, combined with the interactivity with the user make a really powerful experience for the user. Due to the nature of this website to act as promotion and a crowd funder, this bond to the user adds a lot to the value of the website. It also gives the animator a chance to show off is skills, acting as a form of self promotion, without the addition of the universally despised pop-up ad.

Exposing Them to People

I decided to take some of these examples of alternative designs and show them to a bunch of my friends and peers. The reactions were almost unanimously a wave oohs and aahs. They were all immediately so much more interested in whatever was going on my screen, and I didn't even have to force them to engage at all. If we think about web pages like landing pages, this kind of reaction is huge! That is instant attraction and engagement to a product or a project. Even if you end up sacrificing a small amount of functionality or familiarity (which you can usually just add in a different less front facing spot anyways) I think that this could be totally worth the trade off depending on the type of organization or goal of the website in question. Plus its totally way cooler!!