Revinity by Andrew Heaton » Futurism http://revinity.com Design, Music, UX Mon, 17 May 2010 13:33:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Mark Rothko & the Fascism of the Box and Arrow http://revinity.com/2008/02/mark-rothko-and-the-fascism-of-the-box-and-arrow/ http://revinity.com/2008/02/mark-rothko-and-the-fascism-of-the-box-and-arrow/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:35:29 +0000 Andrew Heaton http://betaia.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/mark-rothko-and-the-fascism-of-the-box-and-arrow/ Picture 1.png

Boxes and arrows are fascist statements.

They indicate a herd mentality that we wish to push on our visitors. They show the world segmented into a series of non-contextual areas, but vaguely related spaces touted as an “experience”

Mark Rothko had it right… there is no edge to the box, no line connecting them.

the contents of the box should be a spectrum of interest as defined by the user. the path is an effort by the user of venturing further into each area.

Content should be sculped around a user’s position.

Simply, wherever they are is the best place they can be.

If current position is the best context, every item becomes a promising tipping point, or positive next step.

So what does this mean?

It means what most of us have come to find:

  • Most navigation is junk
  • All content should be multi-faceted
  • Top-Down Tree-ing is dead

Some things we can do now

  • Draw content maps instead of page maps
  • Stop starting with navigation, and start thinking about how to indicate a story
  • At each expected user point, think about what questions would stem from that content
  • Stop aiming for the lowest common user
  • Try for understandability over usability
]]> http://revinity.com/2008/02/mark-rothko-and-the-fascism-of-the-box-and-arrow/feed/ 0 My Ghost Lives in the Machine http://revinity.com/2008/02/my-ghost-lives-in-the-machine/ http://revinity.com/2008/02/my-ghost-lives-in-the-machine/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:35:59 +0000 Andrew Heaton http://betaia.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/my-ghost-lives-in-the-machine/ Not to digress, because that last post contains a lot to discuss… but another similarity between Twitter, Facebook and WoW is the user’s effort to project an image of themselves into the world.

WoW makes this very easy, you have an avatar, you accomplish things within the construct of the system, meet others and interact within a somewhat constrained storyline.

Your reputation is evident in your skills and experience, and compounded by your actions in play.

I’ve noticed a similar behavior occurring on various social networks.

Recently, I’ve noted some with a concerted effort to transfer the events of their life into a story-based construct through links, tweets, photos, and contacts.

By following their Digital Ghost, I can find out all I need about someone by the interactions that are made very visible online.

This is far more revealing than a bio, or the typical bullets-and-bullshit type of content seen in a CV or resume. First-person exposition is a fading concept when I can learn more about a person through following their own experiences.

By constructing their own story out of various pieces of media around semantically-linked points that are regulated by time, the adventure of life emerges.

]]> http://revinity.com/2008/02/my-ghost-lives-in-the-machine/feed/ 0