Programming Pauls of Wisdom

keep on the grid

http://69.93.55.174/articles/outsidethegrid

The author feels that simple grid-like web sites (3 columns, nav bar at the top) are easy to navigate, but lack the emergent accidents of messier web sites that allow communities to grow outside of a rigid box structure. The analogy used is one of tucson has a grid layout for its city, but there are few centres of community or interest. London has no grid layout and has many varied communites and they constantly reshape according to house prices, building etc.

Well I agree with the analogy for the cities, but the mapping of website = city is I feel wrong. A city is like the www itself - it is London, messy, hard to navigate (think of google as an A-Z) but constantly morphing and springing up new areas. But we want the websites, our destinations, to be regular and simple to navigate - I do not want houses all over London that have exciting desigins, departing from the basic box/room structure to provide emergent opportunities for the people in the offices and houses to interact. Yes some web sites will benefit from being less rigid, just as a georgian terrace with mezzanine levels beats a cubicle farm. But the websites are the buildings, and the city layout is already there.

posted by paul @ 4:00 AM