Shaun Inman has always been an innovative developer, be it with IFR or his plug-in designed analystics program mint. Now Shaun comes up with a new way of viewing web information over time. His new redesign shows the aging and decay of his posts via color contrasting. As posts decay over time, information becomes less and less relevant, as outdated techniques are replaced with modern pratice and topical items lose their impact.
The notion of decay on the web, in my humble opinion, has never been dealt with properly and Shaun’s site take that next step to help the user determine meaning. Searching through google for fresh content leads you down the rabbit hole, which never quite leads you to the most appropriate destination. This proves one ultimate truth about the web: its very nature is that content has a shelf life. Content has no meta-data associated with it to define its time and relivance to that time. Simply supplying a date to the post might not provide enough meaning for the user to uncover relevance. So, what tools does the web developer have has their disposal to provide context? Color and Content.
The idea is indeed brilliant but I have my issues with this choice of decay. He’s gone from a dark tones, which symbolize the freshest content, to a lighter tone, as content fades away. While we can talk sematically about the nature of decay and the Goethe-est poetics of color as we fade away, I wonder if Shaun’s users will see the importance of dark tones as new content? Fresh, to me, is much like the adverts for Laundry Detergiant: pretty girls running through a field of tall grass and fresh linen sheets. The imagery of freshness is light. Inman has done ever so well to develop a system to help add meaning to the decay of content, I just think he’s missed perhaps the most important detail of all: the impression of what decay is…. a slow fade to darkness.