Uniquely Digital

Digital Experiences

I have been thinking about this for a while. It's played on my mind and I think I have it fleshed out enough to put it into words. I have been making and interacting with digital products and experiences since I was a kid. I found Minecraft and delved into software, became comfortable surfing the world wide web and eventually landed where I am now, a self-taught programmer and tech-savvy 20 something year old. But now I'm entering the phase of my life where I'm consistently creating, and have the skills developed enough to experiment with new concepts, I think it's important to acknowledge what my priorities and overall design philosophy actually is.

Some Context

The idea stems from a sentiment held by Dieter Rams, celebrated product designer, in that products should be honest. I remember someone comparing that to iPhones and Samsung phones. The iPhone SE had an unapologetic plastic casing, even embracing the material by supplying various colours, whereas Samsung regularly used plastic to mock leather, shooting for classing but landing o tacky. This idea really resonated with me and I now see it everywhere I go. Wood and marble effect on laminate, brick wallpaper, chrome spray-paint. It all feels tacky and a bit gross because it's dishonest, and I get that same feeling from Skeuomorphism in general.

I acknowledge the importance of skeuomorphism and its role in transitioning from analogue to digital, by maintaining a sense of comfort in the familiar until the widespread familiarity had shifted. It seems as though we've come to a point where we're all now familiar with digital alternatives to pen and paper, calculators, etc. But the design of this has stagnated and, if anything, seems to be going the wrong way. The clearest example is in robotics. The robots making the headlines are recognisably humanoid, rather than embracing design for purpose, we're making our own replacements.

It's a shame really..

Early digital interfaces are so iconic, to the point that 'green text' is a phrase and visual familiar with those of us who were never even exposed to DOS and base level CLI. Strings of 1s and 0s and flickering digits are the symbol of the digital experience, but we've tucked all that magnificent technological imagery behind white walls and rounded corners. Nothing against minimalism, but the enshittefication of the internet is a very real thing. Looking back at 90s websites and comparing to todays, there is a clear decrease in creativity and unique brand expression in favour of stale corporate clean rooms. My issue with this is that, ultimately, that's already kind of just reality?

The beauty of the internet is it's a whole new space for free expression and experimentation. Everyone can have their own corner and there were so many different places to explore. There's a great video I'll link here which goes into the background and history of spaces like Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel, and the crying lack of online spaces for children. I can't think of a modern alternative to Club Penguin (beyond Fortnite in the loosest possible way), which is awful because Club Penguin was a defining point in my childhood, and the wholesome independent arty nature of it was so refreshing in a world filled with grime and misery. It was a uniquely digital experience, and that's my point here.

There's a point?

Yes there's a point, and it's this:

Digital experiences are best when they can exist in no other medium. Something uniquely digital utilises not only the technology, but the underlying aesthetics of the medium. By filling a space on the internet with interactive experiences and dynamic information, you create something new, unique, and unto itself.

And I don't mean a YouTube video (though that's a good start), I mean an all out webpage, crafted by you from scratch to serve exactly what you want in your way. Creating this website has been such a revelation into finding my digital style, refining my kind of niche and understanding how much goes into creating something like this. And having full control of it is a wonderful thing.

It's why I love pixel art. It's obviously possible to paint and draw but it was born of necessity and has become its own artform. I'm much more interested in finding the limits of pixel art (if there is such a thing) and pushing it to work alongside advanced backend concepts and techniques. That interests me far more than the same old mechanics with shiny new graphics pasted on top. Dwarf Fortress has the right idea. That's not to say pushing the bounds of computer graphics isn't a worthy endeavour, but too often is it treated like the defining standard of a game, but that's a whole other can of worms...

Who Cares?

Well... me? I'm a fine art graduate and very, very nearly landed on a philosophy MA so it's a given that design philosophy is an important aspect of the process for me. Without it, I feel like I lack any guidance. It also seems to matter to a lot of other people considering there is a movement of people making basic websites that their 90s era selves would've loved to see. A place where they can express without care or fear of not conforming to modern web trends, and as a consequence have created some really beautiful sites. I can't find the directory of cool websites but there's this one.

I remember club penguin, the games on Lego.com, old Minecraft.net, websites that made you feel closer to people, more insulated. Now it's like standing on an endless platform screaming into the void. That's not how the internet should be. It's supposed to be tacked together with tape and glue because it's a global project and, more often that not, it's a mess! Projects like Reddit's r/place are perfect examples, reminiscent of the million dollar webpage selling a dollar per pixel on a 1000x1000 grid. Genius, innovative, and community driven. The internet is a web of people, so utilise the people. Communicate and share and create weird things that you love because chances are there is at least one other person out there who will love it too. Just make something unique to the medium. Let's stray away from this trend of mimicking reality and instead embrace that digital landscapes look very different from reality, and that's a beautiful thing.