How can you make discussing global warming ‘cool’?
With awesome internet design, that’s how.
But what makes the formal design of information cool? It’s a question asked by Alan Lui, and I’d say with the diverse range of people determining what gets produced and consumed on the internet, in fragmented niche markets, it’s impossible to get a universal answer on what is cool.
That does not mean web design is irrelevant. In fact, appearance helps us distinguish, judge and remember something, and thus affects how we consume and categorize them. It affects how popular things are.
Colour, form and design help differentiate a site in the dense blogosphere. So what is cool and how has it evolved?
Back in the old days the web was dominated by crowded, amateurish, cluttered, unorganised, content-heavy and constantly under construction pages. Yeah, you can tell I’m not a fan of Geocities (or Comic Sans, “the epitome of trash culture typography” – see the Leo Mertz essay in the Digital Folklore Reader, page 236).
Colours were often not contrasted well, there was no evidence of balance, form or unity and it just looked unclean. Totally uncool.
I actually remember in primary school using this sort of design for a page I made about the ozone layer. My interests haven’t changed much, but let’s hope my eye for cool has. That grade 4 page probably looked something like this.
But it must be acknowledged that no matter how cringe worthy it is now, Geocities “invented the modern internet”. Even though the technology was clunky, the users geeky and the animations cheesy, Geocities gave power to the people and let them choose what was produced on the web.
But this isn’t a defence of GeoShitties. What is ‘cool’ nowadays is the inversion of the overcrowded crap evident on early web design. The trend is now minimalism: a reductive concept that makes information cool by simplifying its design, with clear structures and subtle colours.
Although I find Olia Lialina’s argument in ‘A Vernacular Web 2′ limited somewhat by its ethnocentrism, her point that the minimalist impulse extends from the high-end of society is interesting. Although only time will tell how exclusive this minimalist web design will remain.
“In America poor people often have yards full of junk and the rich aspire to the ‘spare artist loft’ look…[just like] a website with money backing hires an ‘interior decorator’ whose first instinct is to get rid of all the junk” – Tom Moody, quoted in Olia Lialina, ‘A Vernacular Web 2’
The idea is that with less being more, elements are grouped together to make information easier to process and as such, more meaningful to the viewer.
Pre-existing formats, such as WordPress, aid this. Everything is selected, and design can be personalized, however all this has to be done within the confines of streamlined options. For most WordPress users, their blog’s appearance will be based around one of the 92 present themes provided by the platform. Lachlan Sadler makes an interesting point when he notes that on average, each theme will be used by over 2,000 blogs.
I wonder whether this topic is more about aesthetics of the web or conformity on the web. But this isn’t the place to deconstruct homogenized cultures. I’ve save that for my anthropology essay.
Point is, design can function as a marker of distinction in many social, economic and cultural contexts and can help users develop their blog’s identity and niche in the crowded blogosphere. ‘Cool’ on the web is no different to ‘cool’ in fashion, ‘cool’ in food, ‘cool’ in music and ‘cool’ in people. Even if there are trends ensuring some uniformity, web design does allow for individuality and act as a maker of unique distinction. As Liu states, the ‘cool’ has always been next to the ‘cold’ – take a look at some of these ‘retro’ websites.
Interestingly, these websites can be interpreted as anti-design, or what Liu terms “really cool pages”, as they understand the “disturbances” of design on the web, and do not attempt to accomodate them at all. It’s punk design, and that’s really cool (Liu, Laws of Cool, page 228).
Ultimately design replicates what we identify with; as Lialina notes, changes in appearance of pages on the web are just inevitablities of the Internet becoming “entwined with our daily lives” (Vernacular Web 2, page 59).
So back to my central question, how have I kept warming cool?
I’ve gone with the theme ‘Spring Loaded’ by the 449. It’s minimalistic without being pretentious. Obviously the green adds to the message I hope to convey, and will immediately identify me as having ‘green’ views; as pop psychology has taught me. It contains several widgets, including my twitter – which I believe will be of more value than this time-consuming blog – a quote which inspires me, an email subscription offer (to lure people in) and a CO2 widget available at co2now.org, which updates the level of CO2 in the atmosphere – an daily update on how our energy use effects our Earth. The tufts of grass in the top right hand corner just add that earthy touch to it. I’ve also gone easy on images around the heading, as I feel that would make this blog appear too amuterish.
I chose this design as I beleive it not only allows my content to stand out, but adds another dimension to it by assisting in the processing of that content. Most importantly however, it does distract attention away from my content. Focus remains soley on the content, with the well thought out sylistic elements blending well into the background – creating what Liu terms the “facade of a whole harmonium”, accomodating the web’s wackiness into sleek and controlled design (page 227).
Pretty cool if you ask me. Now to make the Earth cooler…
Climate Communications 