Part of the course I’m
currently doing involves editing content for digital media, and a component of
this has been to examine/experiment with some HTML and CSS coding.
I remember learning a
bit about this as a kid. Dad showed me how to make a really basic web page and
to jazz it up with some colour. It was fun because it was a bit like playing
with Lego – you’ve got certain finite elements to use but you can combine them
in pretty much infinite ways.
Don’t believe me? Check
out the CSS Zen Garden. It shows how different
designers can create hugely unique webpages with the same building blocks. It’s
awe-inspiring to see how many different ways the elements can be combined.
The idea that so many
different designs can come out of one set of building blocks is appealing, for
it mirrors nature. Think of snowflakes, or even human beings: all made up of
the same basic elements but no two are exactly alike.
It’s not a coincidence
that only recently I have come to find the ‘art’ of HTML quite profound. I’m
currently reading Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance which (among many other things) talks a lot about
the inherent beauty of the structure of things, even seemingly ‘scientific’
things, and how art and science really aren’t as far removed from each other as
some people like to pretend.* Good web design is an art form – a highly
technical, specialised one, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any less
artistic.
I like the idea that creativity
is an expression of each individual person, and this can be found through a
Renaissance painting or a website. In every web page a small part of the web
designer’s worldview is expressed.
With a basic
understanding of HTML you can view the source code of sites and begin not to
see just web pages constructed by strings of code but choices. Every page element has been deliberately placed and coded
by somebody. There is a reason that a search box is placed where it is, and why
it has a grey border instead of a pink one.
I’ve made an effort to
be more mindful about encounters with art that I’m having every day. The Google
homepage, from a design point of view, is a thing of beauty. Twitter’s ability
to present so much information in such a clean format is elegant. The fact these
sites just ‘work’ without us ever really thinking about it, is a credit to the
designers and their ability to harness the craft of quality HTML coding.
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