Have you ever noticed that we don’t allow ourselves to graze the Web the way we did back in 1994 when Netscape first became available? I can remember spending hours (and hours) clicking from one site to another, utterly entranced by this thing called the Web. It was a serendipitous trip and addictive for those of us ADDers. I rarely indulge in online grazing anymore but I found myself doing it this Saturday morning. And giving myself permission. I started with Elizabeth Marshall’s Author Teleseminars site, prompted by an email from her about upcoming events. I’ve known Liz for years and have been a guest on several of her author teleconferences. Wow. Her site has a snazzy new design. So I scrolled to the bottom and discovered Arcane Palette, her Salt Lake City-based Web designer. Clicked over and was immediately entranced by Arcane Palette’s design and philosophy (they use WordPress). Browsed around their portfolio and checked out Nonfiction Ink, bookmarking the site as a resource. (I use Instapaper and Delicious for bookmarking. Also Backpackit, where I organize and flesh out a number of projects I’ve got going.)
The creamy, soothing colors favored by Arcane Palette made me think of the cool design of Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Nonconformity blog. Chris has a new eponymous book out, BTW. His various sites are designed in Expression Engine by the amazing Reese Spykerman. She is based in Bangkok or some other wonderful exotic place in Asia. I find Chris’s sites to be exceptionally appealing.
I won’t bore you further with my journey. But you get the idea. Have I wasted the past hour? Not really. I’ve stumbled on resources for writing, books, graphic and Web design. I’ve evaluated every site I looked at for clear organization, for branding and for calls to action. It’s part of the continuous, experiential learning that is – or should be – how you spend your time online. Thots??