The Kitchen website Left: Old version, Right: Redesign. Screengrab AFC
Web 2.0 redesign attacks and non-profit art centers are the first to fall! Just take a look at the Kitchen’s latest redesign; it’s impossible to read their calendar, (a rather essential tool for a performance space), users still can’t purchase tickets online, and the scroll function on their event listings doesn’t work. It’s basically a non functioning url. It also now has a striking resemblance to the new corporate look of Art in General’s redesign, yet another website gone awry. We noticed earlier this year that HarvestWorks Digital Media Center had similarly taken to this kind of aesthetic, which is well, just depressing. The functioning non-profit websites are dropping like flies!
On a related note, The New Museum’s new website may look an awful lot better than the those belonging to the institutions named above, but they might add an image or two to the website. All those resources poured into redesign, and they have four images representing Unmonumental? Why?
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As much as I dislike websites that place somebody’s idea of aesthetics over functionality, I have to point out that Web 2.0 is blameless in this case. The Kitchen’s website is done in Flash, while none of the today’s major Web 2.0 sites use Flash in any way other than for video streaming (YouTube). Web 2.0 is about user-generated content and increased usability due to Javascript-based user interaction, while The Kitchen seems to be about old-school top-down information flow and content rendered unreadable to search engines due to Flash-based user interaction .
As much as I dislike websites that place somebody’s idea of aesthetics over functionality, I have to point out that Web 2.0 is blameless in this case. The Kitchen’s website is done in Flash, while none of the today’s major Web 2.0 sites use Flash in any way other than for video streaming (YouTube). Web 2.0 is about user-generated content and increased usability due to Javascript-based user interaction, while The Kitchen seems to be about old-school top-down information flow and content rendered unreadable to search engines due to Flash-based user interaction .
I art directed the New Museum’s website redesign. You’re right about our lack of images but just hold onto your hat. We’ve got some great things coming.
I art directed the New Museum’s website redesign. You’re right about our lack of images but just hold onto your hat. We’ve got some great things coming.
ES: Good point. Unfortunately it’s a little late to change the title…though I still might since it’s inaccurate.
ES: Good point. Unfortunately it’s a little late to change the title…though I still might since it’s inaccurate.
Perry: Looking forward!
Perry: Looking forward!
Flash-based features CAN be picked up by search engines if the designer knows what he or she is doing. It is not like it is a dead technology. Just wait and see.
As for 2.0, the simply fact is that a lot of sites are going to go under due to changes that need to be made. I know of a few top art sites that are shelling out thousands month just to stay in the game. However, they only have themselves to blame. You can’t sit around for half a decade without making a few changes.
One year without changes online is like walking around in a wasteland for twenty years. Yes, the world is moving fast and websites MUST grow with it.
Flash-based features CAN be picked up by search engines if the designer knows what he or she is doing. It is not like it is a dead technology. Just wait and see.
As for 2.0, the simply fact is that a lot of sites are going to go under due to changes that need to be made. I know of a few top art sites that are shelling out thousands month just to stay in the game. However, they only have themselves to blame. You can’t sit around for half a decade without making a few changes.
One year without changes online is like walking around in a wasteland for twenty years. Yes, the world is moving fast and websites MUST grow with it.
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