My friend Jin has a theory:
Here’s my theory:
The web is a low resolution, low fidelity, crappy medium.
A quick gut check: Would you ever hang a web design on your wall?
A legendary work must transcend time, place, purpose, and even its own medium to become a work of art. Think Japanese swords, 1960s Mustangs, and almost anything by Jonathan Ive or Paul Rand.
It’s hard for any web design to be transcendent because:
- The web isn’t tangible. It’s not even tactile; your hands are abstracted through a mouse and keyboard. You can’t smell or taste a website. You can’t see a website play a live gig.
- The web makes everything ugly. It’s almost 2010, and web typography is still hopelessly broken. Browser windows are ugly. Operating systems are ugly.
- Web design has little value in itself. Web design is just a container and delivery mechanism for ideas and information we do care about. Web design is the scaffold, not the cathedral.
- The web is a solitary experience. It’s not fun or useful to watch someone else using it. Now, watch someone swing a hammer or sing a song, and the crucial “learn by imitating” center of your brain lights up.
It’s worth noting that video games can and do transcend their medium to become art, even though many legendary games were made and played on machines primitive by today’s standards. There must be something special about the immersive nature of video games, some magic in that they are “played” instead of “used”.
So, what to do? Keep on trucking. Embrace the web’s strength as a disruptive, world changing technology. We can figure out the transcendent stuff later.