South by Sunday: High Class vs. Low Class Web Design

While it may not have been the most instructional, or even the most entertaining, the most thought-provoking panel I attended all weekend at SXSW was Chris Fahey’s HIgh Class and Low Class Web Design. On paper alone, I found the subject matter fascinating. In a world where everything around us is designed, we make judgments on quality. There’s “good design” and “bad design.” Maybe it’s not really that, but a case of designing for different tastes, classes, markets. What are we to make of all this? And can we apply what we’ve learned to things beyond web design?

The actual content put forth by the panelists wasn’t quite as eye-opening as I hoped it would be. The admitted self-consciousness of some of the panel stifled a bit what could’ve been a lively and honest discussion. The other problem with the panel is that the discussion touched on so many tangents that were of equal largess: creating for yourself vs. creating for your/an audience; good vs. bad, ugly vs. beautiful; audiences unreceptive to “quality” vs. a lack of exposure to it; and populist vs. elitist design.

In truth, any one of these mini-topics only briefly mentioned could’ve spun off into their own full-fledged discussion. Despite the constraints of time and the panel format, I really enjoyed the hour long discussion, mostly for the questions and ideas it raised within myself. In that sense, I think the panel was highly successful. It’s inspired me to put down a bunch of thoughts I have on these topics in further detail.

That’s one of the points Chris made when he started the panel: that this was all designed to bring awareness and spur a discussion. If that discussion happened then and there and died, it wouldn’t have been as worthwhile. The fact that people have now gone away with a new perspective on their role as designers, and on the role of design in our society—that’s what’s really valuable.

In the coming weeks I hope to write on each of those debates listed above. For now, be sure to read Chris’s original blog post which spurred a lot of discussion the first time around.