Last week I linked to Miranda July’s site for her new book No One Belongs Here More Than You where the site is nothing more than her messages as written on household appliances in dry erase format.
Jason Kottke shares his thoughts on the site:
The really intriguing thing about the site is that it breaks pretty much every rule that contemporary web designers have for effective site design. The site is a linear progression of images, essentially 30 splash pages one right after another. It doesn’t have any navigation except for forward/back buttons; you can’t just jump to whatever page you want. July barely mentions anything about the book and only then near the end of the 30 pages. There’s no text…it’s all images, which means that the site will be all but invisible to search engines. No web designer worth her salt would ever recommend building a site like this to a client.
There’s more (though not too much, just another paragraph, still worth a read) and I agree completely. Though I’m also one for sites that don’t quite fit the mold of regular webdesign for creative promotion and the like. Sites like dontclick.it make me stand up and take notice because they’re different and show what you can do if you are willing to play with the web just a little bit. And the sites remain interesting and engaging to the viewer. Sure, cookie cutters help greeting new folks, but sometimes they’re a turn off, every site looking and working the same way. It’s a format that works for certain models but if you’re going for something more creative, like the promotion of a book or even a blog, you should be willing to break out of the typical mold and really play with the medium a bit more.