"Rhetorical Web Design: Thinking Critically about Ready-Made Web Templates and the Problem of Ease"
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Jason ThamJason Tham is a PhD student in the Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication program at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities. His current research includes connected knowledge making and sharing, digital and visual rhetorics, and new inventions in writing and communication technology. His scholarly works have appeared in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Intercom, and Digital America: Journal of Digital Culture and American Life. ContentsOf Ease & Efficiency: The Problem with Template-Driven Web Designs Agency, Techne, and Extreme Usability Agency, Techne, and Extreme Usability Analysis of a Template: WordPress.com |
Recommendations and ConclusionIf the template is a rhetorically designed space, if “easy and efficient” development encourages the split between the user and the developer/designer, and if the user does not have the agency and techne to control his or her own designs, then how can the user be empowered when it comes to web development and web design? If we don’t want users to become products of the templates, there are several ways we can cultivate a sense of rhetorical awareness in them, especially novice users. One avenue is to encourage collaboration between veteran developers and web design critics (scholars or practitioners) and reiterate that what we design are interfaces and interfaces mediate information dispersal, argument, and identity construction. The web development and design community must be aware of user needs and user goals before flooding them with ready-made templates and code libraries for ease and efficiency’s sake. Amid the rise of free code libraries and web design courses, scholars and industry practitioners could co-lead seminars and workshops to offer everyday users joint perspectives that might help them to discern the meanings of design. As coding cafes and meet-ups have become more popular, they can be avenues for scholars and practitioners to share their insights with novice users in a more informal approach. The scholar-practitioner collaboration could also serve novice web designers by creating and maintaining code libraries that are not only accessible and adaptable, but also bundled with informative materials (e.g., videos, handouts, etc.) that educate users on the rhetorical functions of the items within the library. Additionally, we must also acknowledge there is a power imbalance between expert developers and everyday web users. To neutralize the tensions, those with the expertise and experience should take the lead in creating common grounds for all to interact and learn to program. This doesn’t mean dumbing or watering down the knowledge of the invention process for novice developers and designers––otherwise it would simply reenact existing problems––but instead guiding and helping beginners to achieve expertise through active collaborations and partnerships. For composition and technical communication specialists, the writing classroom serves as an important springboard for students to get an early exposure to critical and rhetorical sensibilities in web writing and design communication (Karper, 2005; Richards & David, 2005). Courses such as rhetorical web design[1], visual rhetoric, and writing with digital technologies[2] could help students to dive deeper into the impacts of design practices on authorship, message delivery, and overall visual communicative ethics (Ariga & Watanabe, 2008; Hocks, 2003; Rosenquist, 2012). Many programs today also offer courses co-taught by computer science, design, and writing/rhetoric faculty members to address and examine the relationships between the technical and the rhetorical in communication. These courses welcome students to be a part of the conversations on expert versus novice involvement in web development, and identify their contributions to the ongoing efforts in constructing a leveled platform for common use. Finally, as a field, we must reconsider the validation of ease. At the 2014 Rhetoric and Professional Communication Colloquium at Iowa State University, Lindsley posited that ease should remain an illegitimate rhetorical justification for how to compose and design situated communication for as long as the discipline of rhetoric and associated fields exist. He argues that ease is rarely justifiable in user-centered development, as ease in the development process is often more enjoyable for the developer, as well as the institution, organization, or developer community controlling the design of that communication. As such, teaching users to analyze specific audiences and rhetorical situations in the design of websites, and to apply the principles of information architecture in the creation of a seamless user experience––in short, rhetorical web design––should be the goal of web design and development education. As a scholar, teacher, and student of technical communication, I agree with Lindsley.
____________________________________________________________________ [1] See Iowa State University’s course listing: http://newmedia.engl.iastate.edu/courses/313 [2] See University of Minnesota’s course listing: https://onestop2.umn.edu//pcas/viewCatalogProgram.do?programID=16480 |