Do you remember the Millenium Dome? This thing:
Taken from Wikipedia.
Long before it became the mammoth, swish, Brand Fest that is now The O2, it was something a lot more pointless. In a nutshell, it was a bit shit. Nobody really liked it when they turned up, the exhibition/room things were a bit boring and rubbish, and it was in London, therefore making it too expensive for us poor Northerners. Essentially, it was one gigantic, lumburing failure from the very beginning. It sort of summed up what we thought of Britain at the time – lofty ideas, but when it came down to it, it was just a bit rubbish.
But, it showed potential. It showed us that everything didn’t always have to be the same. Above all, it showed us that it was possible to do things differently. Yes, the Millenium Dome was a big pile of disapointment and pointlessness, but it was a showpiece for looking at things in a different way.
Why isn’t there more Millenium Domes in web design? Why does nobody ever seem to question where a footer should go, or where and how our content is displayed? It wouldn’t happen in any other design medium – take film for example.
Films aren’t always the same lengh. A film’s header – the opening credits – don’t always appear at the same point, and it isn’t always the same length. Sometimes, there’s no opening credits at all. Sometimes there’s no final credits. Sometimes there’s no talking on films, or there’s subtitles. In film, people are designing Millenium Domes, and pushing boundries.
It seems that as we’re getting more technologically advanced on the web, and as more technologies are becoming available to us, we’re pushing more boundries with the technologies we use, rather than using it to create unique and new ways of experiencing the web. We’re forgetting – or just not caring – about questioning the status quo, about producing new experiences and new ways of looking at the web. These new experiences don’t have to be for anything or even very good, we just need to start exploring and experimenting again.
Lets create more Millenium Domes. Please?