Apr
28
2003Punk Rock Usability
28
2003
I’ve just started work on a website for a friend’s band. I rarely do freelance work outside of my own little projects, but I really wanted to take this on as a challenge. For the first time, I could really try my hand at a site that was not geared towards computer geeks - quite the opposite, in fact, as the band in question is a punk rock trio. The vast majority of band sites emphasize style over substance, which is idiotic considering the "product". If your web site is there to sell really boring industrial widget whoosamawhatsies, you may need to jazz things up a bit to make things interesting. But when a web site is devoted to displaying someone’s actual art, what do you want people to notice more — the site, or the artists’ work? Museums have known the answer to this question for centuries.
On the other hand, the site must capture the personality of the artist(s). You can’t duplicate UseIt.com and change the words to talk about a punk rock band. Well, Jakob would probably argue that you could, but he’d be wrong.
So, therein lies my challenge. Can punk rock be “usable”? Can usability be punk rock? I guess we’ll find out the answer soon enough! When the site is launched, Chausse.org readers will be the first to know.