Having been employed as a web designer in various environments/companies, I can tell you there are several perks that only college/university employment can provide. Someday I’d like to write them all down. One of those perks, for sure, is the library.
Granted, most libraries are far behind in terms of having decent collections of books related to web design/development, but there are many other things to value in a good university library. For one, it makes for a great 20 minute escape. If I’m stuck in a design rut, or just mentally stressed and need to get away from my office/telephone/computer, I can often come back refreshed and refocused following a little excursion to the library. Cause, you know, there’s neat books in there.
On one such excursion recently, I realized that our library is a keeper of all the Graphis Design Annuals. Good find. A very good find.
Upon checking out the 2007 Design Annual and flipping through it in my office, I noticed a feature of the website: Design Build Bluff.
A url wasn’t provided in the book, but I was able to find it (almost) by a search for the University of Utah College of Architecture & Planning, which was spelled out inside the feature.
Once at the college site, I clicked on “design build bluff” thinking it would take me to the fantastically designed, 2007 Graphis award winning flash website featured in my book. But alas it didn’t. Instead I was directed here, to the blog of Design Build Bluff:
The blog makes reference to the other site in the header, and stops there. Now, I may be reading too far into this, but it looks like they’ve made a choice to feature the blogspot blog instead of its award winning couterpart, because the blog, while being a standard blogger template and not as pretty, is easier to update and maintain than the fantastically designed, 2007 Graphis award winning flash website.
Anyone given access can update it, add a photo, a description, add new links etc… in a matter of seconds by using blogger. The fancy flash website? …not so much.
Herein lies the rub of award-winning flash websites that are almost exclusively featured in the annuals and design publications. They look great. The have wow factor, but all to often they merely function as online brochures. Static, impossible-to-update-without- getting-another-bill-from-the-agency ..brochure’ware.
Throw in flash sites having the quality of being ignored by search engines and google, and don’t forget about sites like these not meeting accessibility laws.
But, I still love the site. It’s a thing of beauty, and it showcases very interesting and important projects.
You just wish that site builders and designers of these showcase-sites made them easier to maintain, and built them to grow. It isn’t impossible. In the meantime, visitors are directed to the blogspot blog for the most up to date news and information, and the fancy award winning wow factor site is fixed in stone like a petroglyph.
