Does the Web Play a Role in Design Homogenization?
The momentum of trends have always been a part of design, well before companies started advertising positions for web designers. But has the web contributed to the increasing homogenization of design?
In the last year, closed, invite-only communities for designers have sprung up on the web. Despite their exclusive nature, sites such as Dribbble and Forrst have stolen the spotlight from older, more easily accessible communities such as Behance.
With their fame, they have ? inevitably ? attracted criticism. The most common point is that they seem to contribute to the homogenization of design styles, at least within their communities. Dave Gamache, an interaction designer at ZURB, wrote last month that the criticisms hold weight to a certain extent. His conclusions?
?The ?popular? filter surfaces some fairly homogeneous results, but why not try the ?everybody? filter? Honestly, the general quality of work is so high on Dribbble, you?re bound to find some treasures anywhere you dig in.?
Despite its exclusiveness, there?s quiet a variety of work on the site. But the same can be said of the web as a whole ? dig hard enough, and you?ll find things you?ve never seen before. What the wider community allows to rise to the top, though, tends to share similar elements and adhere to the flavor of the month.
This effect is groupthink manifested. Groupthink is frequently used as a criticism, and rightly so ? the only thing to be found in a community suffering from severe groupthink is stagnation ? even though most who use the term don?t understand its roots.
The term, coined by journalist and urban planner William H. Whyte in a 1952 Fortunate magazine piece, wasn?t defined in academic literature until the 70s, when research psychologist Irving Janis defined it as ?a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive ingroup, when the members? strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.?
Source: http://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/05/01/does-the-web-play-a-role-in-design-homogenization/
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