Wednesday, February 4th
What did you think about the essay? Did anything in particular resonate?
I resonated with the essay's idea that a website is a “shifting house” that has the power to “[set] the record straight.” I agree that individuals and not corporations need to be the ones to shape the future of the web. The web is valuable because many people contribute to it, and it would lose the diversity of information and sources if just a few corporations controlled everything. As someone who uses social media frequently, I recognize that the photos I post and the tone and language I use in my captions form my personal brand online. However, social media profiles are still pretty homogeneous across all users. Everyone's profiles show up in the same layout, and there's also a pressure to only post what you know other people will respond to positively, so people curate their lives around likable aesthetics, and someone's profile rarely tells the whole story. In contrast, you have a lot more control over how you want to present yourself through a personal website. I think this is why I see a lot of people who maintain profiles on platforms like LinkedIn and GitHub choose to build a separate personal portfolio website. These personal websites showcase a person's work in a more meaningful and personalized way. You have full control over what specific work you want to highlight, the layouts you use, and other stylistic elements you want to apply like colors, fonts, spacing, and more. So while social media is an important part of the web and does a good job of connecting people, you can use a personal website to tell a more authentic, deeper story about your work.
Laurel proposes a website could be a river, a garden, a thrown rock. If you have a website, what could your website be?
I think my website would be a garden. I'm interested in the intersection of business, technology, and design, and all my work is rooted in these areas. My past projects and experience shape my future ones, and like a garden, my website would be a living ecosystem where I can document the process I use for each project and explain how my previous work inspires various choices I make in newer projects. Just as plants grow, I see my design style as growing and shifting over time. Expanding on this, I could also see my website being a kitchen or workshop of some sort because I could highlight current projects that are works-in-progress and ideas I have beyond any projects I've finished and wrapped up, and I'd be able to document my design and development process similar to how I could in the garden metaphor.
What can you do with a website that you make yourself that you can't do if someone else makes your website?
When you make a website yourself, you have more control over the layouts, the content you present, and little details. You aren't influenced by another designer's interpretation of your vision, and you can structure the website around your unique thought process. You could easily decide to change the style of the cursor or scroll bar, add decorative elements, and add transitions and animations how you see fit without having to run it by someone else. In contrast, if your site is built by someone else, I think it's more likely to become a finished product, and you might have to pay to get it updated. There's more friction in that process than if you designed and built the whole website yourself.