Abstract
The article presents a crossdisciplinary experiment of analysing web-design through a combination of the academic fields of design history and anthropology. The two authors merge aesthetic and socio-cultural aspects of new technology in a case-based discussion of the invention and use of contemporary web design. Indicating the potentials of an inter-disciplinary perspective in exploring design in general they draw on such parameters as user-differentiation and aesthetic positioning in a discussion of the role of genre and style in commercial formations on the web. Comparing examples from banking web-pages, they discuss certain aspects of cultural and esthetical conceptual representational systems that are expressed through genres and styles on the net. They argue that web design has become a central cultural field for the negotiation and expression of identity and taste, communicating different design norms and forms of social distinction.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2005.017
Citation
Engholm, I.,and Salamon, K.L.(2005) Webgenres and -styles as socio-cultural indicators - an experimental, interdisciplinary dialogue, in Binder, T., Redström, J. (eds.), Nordes 2005: In the making, 29-31 May, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2005.017
Creative Commons License
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Webgenres and -styles as socio-cultural indicators - an experimental, interdisciplinary dialogue
The article presents a crossdisciplinary experiment of analysing web-design through a combination of the academic fields of design history and anthropology. The two authors merge aesthetic and socio-cultural aspects of new technology in a case-based discussion of the invention and use of contemporary web design. Indicating the potentials of an inter-disciplinary perspective in exploring design in general they draw on such parameters as user-differentiation and aesthetic positioning in a discussion of the role of genre and style in commercial formations on the web. Comparing examples from banking web-pages, they discuss certain aspects of cultural and esthetical conceptual representational systems that are expressed through genres and styles on the net. They argue that web design has become a central cultural field for the negotiation and expression of identity and taste, communicating different design norms and forms of social distinction.