The Places We Live
Posted on: December 9, 2008
1 comment so far
The Places We Live
There have been a handful of stories I’ve seen that have approached the fact that 2008 has seen, for the first time in history, a larger urban than rural population. Worldwide, more people now live in cities. Of the stories and packages I’ve seen on this topic, The Places We Live is one of the most elegant. I could preach for a few hours (after enjoying for a few hours), everything I think Magnum understands about elegant online delivery of stories (mainly that they know that design elegance matters). Here’s a short list of what I mean:
- Selective UI Design. The site, like others Magnum sites such as Access To Life and Magnum In Motion, practices design discipline. For instance, on The Places We Live, there’s no sound controls. I think this was partly a director’s decision to deliver a controlled narrative, but it also elevates the visual content by having less to compete for my attention. Their designs show restraint.
- Linear intros that Inspire me. Most of their sites have a powerful movie that plays right off the bat, summarizes the site stories well, and feels and has the impact of a movie trailer.
- Color. Grey is the new white. OK. Let’s admit that just as YouTube as a brand decided so much of online video business and user expectation, so has the New York Times video site (another design favorite), Hulu, and other great multimedia showcase sites chosen grey to highlight the visual work as being the top priority. My site included…
- Padding. The designers understand that the space around a photo becomes part of the photo. They pad everything from titles to descriptions to icons as if it was a print product. Design is in the details, and they pay attention. Somehow, less is more, and I’m free to enjoy the content, as opposed to getting frustrated trying to figure out what to do.
I could go on. But now I’m tired and hungry. Going to dinner.
What are you thoughts? Other sites that hit the high bar of design and content like this one?
December 12th, 2008 at 8:50 am
One would be remiss not to mention how people respond to a video. Though in many web videos, public commenting does not play a part, there are just as many where it does. Comments and community are just as much a part of a documentary video on the web as the color of the page and the quality of its editing.
You can see this plainly on Youtube. No effort is made to foster a healthy community there, and people respond with flame wars, insulting remarks and responses low in cognitive content. The content is in turn effected by this culture and pirated videos, lusty teen video diaries and “lol videos” prevail.
In contrast, the video site Vimeo has from the start fostered a creative, fun culture. The founders created a site that respects the content it hosts–through good design and high-quality video bitrates. More than that, they have become community organizers, coming up with fun projects, meme’s and generally encouraging creative work. They are rewarded with folks creating quality content, constructive conversation around videos and a loyal community.