What's in a name? Plenty.
The group of students my group members and I peer reviewed redesigned a website devoted to creationism under the guise of "E-Volution Design". I thought this wasy deliciously clever, but perhaps in ways which didn't dawn on them. I am sure that the name was a sardonic jab at the web-owners. A creationist website done so poorly it needed an "e-volution" of its own. This is in and of itself amusing: the creationist web page is perhaps a leading counterexample against "intelligent design"...
Yet, I find this semantic situation goes even deeper.
"E-volution" like "e-mail"...
E-volution is, seemingly, the state of a dynamic internet. Without a doubt, the web is changing, the way sites are managed is changing. Things are with some speed becoming more sophisticated. It is as if the various species of website are evolving. However, evolving into what? and for what purpose?
Organisms grow to adapt to their situation. They produce features through subtle mutations to see what works and what does not work to aid in their survival. Webpages also adapt, but the environment that they respond to happens to be more volatile than the most inclement regions on Earth: human interest.
Human interest is what drives investments of time and money into webdesign. Inevitably as new ways of presenting material through various media emerge, it is human interest to keep up—or be left behind. Sites that do not update their features are obviously less favored by web-users in comparison to those webpages which do update.
Websites which are maintained find ways to stay on top of web developments and become easier to use as well as deeper and broader in their functions. It is arguable, I suppose, that advancements also allow websites to deftly specialize for a given purpose.
Expectations change as both usage and utility change. One way or the next, each new change redefines the whole, each new step becomes the popular dance. People anticipate certain things from a website that they wouldn't have a decade ago.
Websites are stretching human ingenuity. A muscle, which I think, grows from its tears—provided it gets some rest!
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