How often do web-based historians become so caught up in the intricacies of the structure and design that they neglect to fully examine the role of text on a page. As we well know, most historians are just becoming introduced to the world of New Media. We are forced to think of terms of audio, video, layout, and beauty. I don’t believe I am alone when I say that part of the allure of historical scholarship was the straightforward approach to material. There are books, you read them and then construct criticisms & arguments from them. At which point, others read your work and do the same. It is simple not only in the specific audience you tailor your writing style to, but also in format.

The paper format simply looks awful when you put it on screen (blogs excluding of course). It looks even worse to the modern scholar who knows all the possibilities that could occur on a webpage that are not being utilized. However the historian cannot create a page that resembles the History Channels, or CNN’s, which employs seemingly hundreds of colors and multiple focus points. The online publication is meant to be taken seriously as a legitimate piece of original scholarship. Thus historians are in somewhat of a bind. How to take advantage of the web while presenting the material in a serious manner? Simple steps can obviously be taken such as spell-checking and grammatical review. More importantly however I feel that the site must have a mostly minimalist presentation. Why? I argue for prevention against distraction.

First the minimalist design doesn’t distract from the content. Despite our leap into the digital world, these sites are for educational purposes. Obviously subject matter should be presented in an enjoyable way, as learning and brain function appears to be linked to happiness (see Donald Norman, Attractive Things Work Better. Look at week one). And perhaps those site directed towards K-12 should be a little more colorful and exciting. Yet at the same time there is a reason why advertisements, cell phones, and classmate gossip are all outlawed in classrooms. They are distracting. As adolescent riddling bottles continue fill, the ability to focus on one topic for an extended period of time becomes evermore crucial to academic development.

Now I am becoming distracted. Back to the sites. The benefits of a minimalist design for historical sites directed at adults and scholars are even more highlighted. Like it or not, academic work is presented in a particular format, and if digital publications wish to receive academic critique and praise they must conform to the analog style. The online historian has a fine line to tread in terms of design, which is why I believe simplicity is best. Stop worrying about design! Our goal should be first and foremost functionality. Historians are long practiced in the tedious process of flipping through sources while searching resources. Imagine (or remember) the joy felt by the scholar during the first encounter with the online keyword, title, author search function. Our job should be to aid the search. If the content is good and helpful, the publication will be able to stand on its own.

Now our only job is to make sure that our designs aren’t so bad that they ruin the content. To be continued…