Re: <nettime> don't Disassociate Webdesign (as an aspect of app engineering) from Usability

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

With my original posting I did not want to dump on web design, nor did I
want to glorify it. What I pointed at is a widespread attempt within the
(new) media industries to limit the creative work of web designers within
standardized templates. There is a total victory of the portal aesthetics
(which in my view even extends to slashdot, the cnn for geeks). I think that
the ascii text-only lovers should not take the side of the web barons.
Instead, we should open new windows of dialogue and collaboration between
code/text writers on the one and the flash-oriented web design community on
the other hand. Flash is not anti text. It takes the web in a whole
different direction altogether, from the still image to animation and
eventually (interactive) film. To accuse people experimenting with the
moving image of being regressive, both in terms of technology and (social)
usability, only further widens the gap between the worlds of code and image.
Film and animation over the last hundred years have been fantastic tools to
tell stories. The fact that most flash animations are empty and meaningless
is not an indication of its conceptual weakness. It rather reflects the
deeply boring age we are stuck in, deeply devided disciplines and tribes,
all producing their own perfect self-referential worlds.

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