Making Media
The Virtual Producer

I have watched the web change over the years and I love thinking about ways to present a new web experience to site visitors/viewers.

My first experiences (age 13) on the Internet were not graphical ones. It was in a day when we sat at terminals and used text based browsers like Lynx to 'surf the web'. We were there for the information. We wanted to read articles on Litservs and we sent BOTS to travel the electronic lines and deliver us back loads of information from libraries and various government agencies. I recall the days when I was running a single line BBS (Bulletin Board System.) It's exactly what it sounds like, only one user at a time logged in and the network did not communicate with any other machines.

Today it is all about color and layout. Entire studies are done using eye-tracking technology to determine where a users eye goes first on a page, where did they click, scan left to right or right to left? We create templates with little compartments where content lives based on many variables.

Tonight I found myself on this website: www.dontclick.it

At first I was irritated, navigating an entire site and not clicking. As my mind wrapped itself around the concept and the techniques of mousing without my finger poised to click...well the concept grew on me. I felt like I was having to pay more attention to what was on the page and where my mouse was. This is a huge positive when you are addressing user engagement.

Check out the site and let me know what you think. I am curious to hear your thoughts on this experience.


I pose the question, "Can you imagine an internet without clicking?"