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CataneseAlexanderJ_ThesisFinal.pdf (5.28 MB)

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Abstract Header

Organic Web Design: Exploring Nature as Metaphor in Responsive Web Design

Catanese, Alexander J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1492554405168728

Abstract Details

2017, MFA, Kent State University, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design.
The rise of responsive design as an approach to web design in the last decade has shaped the ways that designers consider the web as a medium. As this approach has developed, its practitioners have begun forming patterns and templates which might limit alternative modes of thinking in the field. Criticism of this approach is still in its early stages, leaving open an opportunity for reflection, expansion, and the exploration of alternative modes of thinking and making for considering the medium. The web browser has properties which are inherently flexible, fluid, and adaptive—begging for a parallel exploration of flexible, fluid, adaptive systems as external inspiration for web design. Nature has been considered as a form of inspiration throughout the history of the arts and design, providing analogical and metaphorical modes of thinking that expand upon traditional approaches. Biomimicry is an emerging practice within industrial design, architecture, and engineering—yet little has been discussed within the field of visual communication design, especially within responsive web design.¿ In this thesis, relationships shared by design and the natural world are investigated through secondary research, and critical making is used as primary research to examine the organic properties of the web browser. Three prototypes were designed to explore, expand, and reflect upon these organic properties within responsive design. Each prototype was subsequently reviewed by design educators and professionals. This thesis proposes that looking to nature’s principles and forms can inform design for the web as a medium, providing an approach which builds upon and extends the capacities of responsive web design.
Jessica Barness, MFA (Advisor)
Ken Visocky O'Grady, MFA (Committee Member)
Aoife Mooney, MA (Committee Member)
92 p.
Design
Biomimicry; Responsive Web Design; Medium; Critical Making; Web Design; User-Interface Design;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Catanese, A. J. (2017). Organic Web Design: Exploring Nature as Metaphor in Responsive Web Design [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1492554405168728

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Catanese, Alexander. Organic Web Design: Exploring Nature as Metaphor in Responsive Web Design. 2017. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1492554405168728.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Catanese, Alexander. "Organic Web Design: Exploring Nature as Metaphor in Responsive Web Design." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1492554405168728

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1492554405168728
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.