Fascinating… I’m a musician and a web developer, and I never before considered how strong the ties between the two activities can be.
When you start considering layout in terms of intervals, it becomes, I think, much clearer that certain intervals should be used sparingly, and for specific effects: few people enjoy listing to hours and hours of diminished fifths! Nevertheless, when used appropriately, they can elevate and highlight what’s around them.
I wonder whether further analogies could be drawn with regards to form and content: should we actively be adopting specific forms (rondo, sonata, etc.) when we’re writing the copy and designing the site, so that we know to reintroduce themes and motifs, and thus keep the user engaged and focussed? This is perhaps more relevant to the design than to the copy itself — writing well is, after all, an art in and of itself.
You could get really carried away, and start viewing a website or webapp as a larger work, like an opera, which, whilst being composed of many different pieces, performed by many people, remains a single whole throughout: the librettist and composer work together to produce the work. Perhaps I’m starting to stretch the analogy a bit too thin, though. :)
barryvan
Fascinating… I’m a musician and a web developer, and I never before considered how strong the ties between the two activities can be.
When you start considering layout in terms of intervals, it becomes, I think, much clearer that certain intervals should be used sparingly, and for specific effects: few people enjoy listing to hours and hours of diminished fifths! Nevertheless, when used appropriately, they can elevate and highlight what’s around them.
I wonder whether further analogies could be drawn with regards to form and content: should we actively be adopting specific forms (rondo, sonata, etc.) when we’re writing the copy and designing the site, so that we know to reintroduce themes and motifs, and thus keep the user engaged and focussed? This is perhaps more relevant to the design than to the copy itself — writing well is, after all, an art in and of itself.
You could get really carried away, and start viewing a website or webapp as a larger work, like an opera, which, whilst being composed of many different pieces, performed by many people, remains a single whole throughout: the librettist and composer work together to produce the work. Perhaps I’m starting to stretch the analogy a bit too thin, though. :)