It took me many years, almost 5 to be precise, to really wrap my head around what a website is. Actually, let me rephrase that. It’s taken me 5 years to figure out what a website ISN’T. Here are my findings.

Websites are a relatively new thing.

And people are still excited about them. “A website.” “Ooh, Aah.” “Social Media.” “Ooh. Ahh.” The buzz still lingers for many people. Its understandable then, considering the rags-to-riches success stories and the still shimmering buzz that surrounds words like ‘online’, ‘web 2.0′, and ‘social networking’ that some folks invest a larger-than-necessary portion of their energy dreaming up a website and not dreaming up their dream. Somehow, the website itself has become the dream. It’s a sad state of affairs and I’d like to offer my two cents for anyone out there with a website on their mind.

Putting the website in its place

A website is not like a magazine or any other real world object, really. It lacks that all important 3-rd dimension. You cannot pick up a website. You cannot touch it. You cannot turn it sideways or put it down. It is a broadcast of information that we must explore by sliding around a plastic oval and tapping at a rectangle (made of smaller rectangles).

And a website does not exist in any one true state either. Like any broadcast, a website is subject to interference in transmission and the qualities of the system which receives the broadcast and presents the signal as human-ready information. Each instance of a website is NOT the same. You cannot count on a website to appear in the same way in every possible setting. Browsers, computers, monitors, and network connections all dictate how the site will be rendered. The website is not a definite thing. It may be definitely intended, but it is not definite.

Less dress is truly better

Lets look at books, arguably a direct ancestor of websites. Can you imagine if the shape of a book was determined by its subject matter? Music books shaped like a G clef, automobile books shaped like cars, sex books shaped like genitals? Yeah, books in this imaginary world be pretty frustrating and hard to use, organize and interpret. Of course, some books in the real world do apply this novelty of shape. (I’m sure there are car-shaped books, guitar-shaped books, etc.) But in the world of books, this play on design is the exception.

Not in the world of websites, however unfortunate. The exception in the world of websites is a site that does not dress itself up. A site that does not over style its information or functional elements. A site that presents its information in a simple and effective way, using color, image files, and complex layout only where these things are significantly and essentially helpful and do not interfere in the transmission or interpretation of the information.

I’m as guilty as the next guy

It was a mistake to theme my old business website (spacesuitgroup.com) around space imagery and colors. Did this space-theme make my information more readable? More digestible? No. This dressing up of my information abstracted my content on both technical and interpretive levels. This theming was a failed attempt to distinguish my site from other sites, an impossible effort made to convince prospective clients that I could transform a website into something else. Something more than a website. But, alas, a website is a website and not a colorful slice of deep space.

As producers of information bound for a website, its important for us to mind these limitations, these inherent qualities that make a website a website and not a magazine… a website a website and not a spaceship. And its maybe even more important to remember that we are the producers of information… not of website. Remember that website is a spot on the radio dial. It is a place to stand when you want to receive particular information. As the person behind these information broadcasts you should mind the transmission, craft the transmission, but keep the website, that virtual place to be, as transparent as possible.