Nollind Whachell

Context in design means that we place our work within the framework of our surroundings, that we try to give it a distinction based upon the sense of place in which we are working.

Community definition is based on constructed and social elements. We want to understand the cultural setting into which we are moving and adding elements.

Finally, we are concerned with use of immediately adjacent sites. This is likely to have great impact on design decisions because activities on them influence our site and what we do affects them.

Our design needs to respond to functional requirements of our program, from the inside out so to speak, but it also has to respond to the larger setting, from the outside in.

These words are like a splash of water in my face, especially for someone who has built community sites in the past. What is being said here is that your site doesn’t exist in its own little space (i.e. my site, my world). Your site exists upon the Web and it therefore coexists with other sites around it. By around it, I referring to where most of your visitors may come from or go to. Those are your neighbors. You probably know them already because you probably visit them frequently yourself. Therefore, when designing your site, you not only need to think about your own local framework but of the framework of those around you as well. This is even more so true today with many blogs forming communities amongst themselves.

All people have an ethic by which they conduct themselves in their dealings with other people and their work. However, this ethic is frequently unstated and hidden away. It is a challenge to ask ourselves where we are coming from in making design decisions. What are the things we believe and how are they reflected in our lives and our decision making?

I’ve been calling this ethic, our culture. I’ve also been saying that a massive cultural paradigm shift is occurring right now. It isn’t making headline news but it is out there if you watch for it. Just look for people talking with words like “honest”, “truthful”, and “open”. If you don’t see those words, then just look for buzzwords that equate to them such as “transparency”. That’s just a fancy name for a company that is open, honest, and truthful. I encapsulated what I thought were these cultural values in my post entitled I Work For The Web.

Make links and connections.

Use local resources.

Increase ‘edge’.

Maximize diversity.

Relative location.

Build multiple backup and support systems.

In reading through this new discovery that I found this morning, I’m pretty much in awe at seeing many of my independent thoughts and feelings over the years all together in one place with a unified meaning to encapsulate them all. As Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith used to say on the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Want to change your thinking? Starting looking at the world from different places and different viewpoints. How do you do that? Start doing different things to put you in those different places.

Change now. Do the unexpected. Be quirky. Be daring. Be adventurous.

That simple act of turning left one day, instead of continually turning right, could change your entire life and take you places you’ve never imagined.

I stumbled off a path well travelled, blindly exploring with interest, and stumbled upon an exciting find that I know has always been waiting here for me to find it. I’ve seen glimpses of this place before from casual glances off the path, barely seeing it through the foliage around me and not quite sure of what it was until now.

I will repeat what I said before. The future is not so much about a change of technology as about a change of thinking.

Do you remember back to when you were a kid and it seemed like every day was an adventure? You’d wake up in the morning ready to explore the world and go outside to see and do things that you didn’t do the day before. It was almost as though you were in a constant state of change because, in actually fact, you were. You were learning, evolving, and growing.

Now fast forward to today? How many people can actually truly say that they feel the same way that they did as a kid? Are you doing something different every day? Are you walking off the beaten track or are you still walking down it on autopilot, not even aware of that groove in the ground that you’ve worn away in taking it every day?

Aha! Scott Rosenberg reveals the real origins of Web 2.0. It’s a marketing ploy by the corporate Business 1.0 world to blow some hot air hype into the Web balloon again. He’s has a good point though. I really do hope people have their new Bullshit Detector 2.0 glasses on to notice “the next super-cool but not-quite-usable-yet Web applications”. And I think the words “not-quite-usable” speak volumes here. Hell, forget about Web 2.0, I’d settle for Usability 0.5.

Jason Kottke talks about the importance of still having applications that you can use offline, even though most of the industry is pushing towards online applications. He has a very good point and one that I’d like to expand upon using the comparison to your existing computer’s RAM memory, virtual memory, and disk storage space. In the future, I see our computers as being the RAM and virtual memory of Web 2.0 with the Web itself being the disk storage space. In effect, when we work and save our applications, they will be saved to our hard drive but more as a “disk cache”. As soon as Internet network activity is established your computer will synchronize this data with your online storage space automatically without you having to do anything. That way, if you don’t have your computer, you can still access and work with any of your data at any computer that has the same applications upon it (just by logging in).

I can’t help but think about what David Seah said about wanting to eventually develop his own products instead of focusing just on services. I feel exactly the same way. Don’t get me wrong though, the feeling you get when you actually help someone is a great feeling but therein lies the problem. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want your help, no matter how badly they may appear to need it. That company or person has to be willing to want your help first and trust in your experience and knowledge before you can help them.

Obviously companies like 37signals are a great example of companies who’ve switched from services over to selling a product. However, a little closer to home, I remember admiring a local carpenter who does the same thing. Instead of running his own shop where he may have to create custom work for clients, he works out of his garage building what he likes and then turns around and sells those pieces to other stores for them to sell. He may not make as much money but he loves what he does because he works whenever he wants, vacations whenever he wants, and builds whatever he wants (like an artist). I always thought if I could create my own product in this same way, I’d be in heaven. Again, yes, you’re not making as much money but as long as I had enough to live a comfortable life, I’d be happy.