It was in 2005 when I stumbled upon a site created by Big Spaceship for a then upcoming film entitled Wolf Creek. This site would forever change how I looked at websites and it would take me in a direction to be followed in designing sites for the following 5 years. Not only did it embrace the full-browser concept, but it was the first site I had seen to use video as background elements. It was the perfect website for a feature film.

We have come a long way in the world of web design over the past 5 years—lets not forgot the sites that have paved the way for this tremendous progress. Lets not forget the vision and creativity that went into building these pieces. Lets not fall into this climate of ‘sameness’ that seems to be taking over the web. Heed to creativity and heed to vision.

It’s good to see WEFAIL still churning the work out. DNOTS is the approach that one would expect from WEFAIL. Challenging the visitor to figure it out and think for themselves.

What prompted this comment?





I was sifting around on the web, looking at work of the past that has really inspired us as designers. I came across the wonderful work of group94 and the site they designed for famed artist Annie Lennox. Keep in mind, this site was designed back in 2005. Four years later it still lives on—but unfortunately lives on in an archive section of group94′s site.

Now I wasn’t expecting to still see the original group94 site representing Annie Lennox, but I was defintely expecting something in the same ballpark. Something that properly represented her as an artist. Something relaxing, enjoyable, easy to use. Something that complements her sparse album portrait covers. Something that captures her individuality.

To my surprise, this is what I found:





Now I’ll be the first to admit that these things happen. Re-designs happen that leave us all scratching our heads. In some cases even forcing us to take a closer look at what exactly our role is as the designers. The original Annie Lennox site was a very thoughtful design, whereas this new one seems like an afterthought.

More and more as time goes on, these things are starting to baffle us less and less. The question of why something like this has happened is not even entering our mind. It is becoming clear that in most cases, the wrong people are making the decisions along the way. I don’t think it’s a case of the right people making bad decisions—it’s probably the wrong people being given the power to make these decisions.

Any thoughts?

“Surely interaction design has more to offer than just aping a centuries old display system such as the printed page. It was time for a rethink.”

Great article over at The FWA written by Brendan Dawes.