Purposive Drift

How Websites Learn

One of the things I love about the Web is the way you can stumble across fellow spirits or at least people who share some of your thinking. This morning via Matt Jones I followed a link to Steven Garrity's blog, Acts of Volition, where I found something I wish I'd written. In his piece "How Websites Learn" Garrity applies some of the lessons from Stewart Brand's classic, "How Buildings Learn" to the design of websites. Well worth a read.

I've long been advocating Brand's book as key text for designers. In a footnote to "As We Might Learn: Vannevar Bush where are you now?" I wrote:

"Another winner from Stewart Brand. "How Building Learn: What happens after they are built", Viking, 1994, ISBN 0 670 83515 3 is ostensibly about architecture, but contains many valuable insights for would be society builders, hypermedia designers and many others whose professional interests would seem to be far from architecture. Highly recommended."

And in the bibliography to "Understanding Hypermedia 2.000":

"Not a word about hypermedia, but this book about architecture is well worth reading by any hypermedia designer who is interested in designing systems that can change and evolve over time. Filled with insights and general principles about adaptive design."

To this I would now add, read Steve Garrity's piece on the Web and then get yourself Stewart Brand's book and read it carefully. There is much to learn.