Digital Web Magazine – Web Design for All the Senses by Dirk Knemeyer is an interesting article about stimulating the 5 senses in web design. He says, “the real reason the Web and other digital networks and interactions are such a hollow, flat experience is we are not being innovative and creative enough. Happily, this is something that we can easily take control of and change.”
I find this interesting because I recently had an epiphany of my own to the effect that web design is both engaging and interesting because it allows the creator to exercise both the left and right brain simultaneously. You have the analytical experience of writing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., to stimulate one side of the brain. And you have the visual experience of planning a color scheme, a layout, graphics, etc., to stimulate the other side. This bit of insight came to me after I signed up to take a Photography and Journaling class, which promised to involve my whole brain with both art and words.
One of my past career paths was to write several books about cooperative learning and multiple intelligences as they apply to the writing process. The Write! books were published by Kagan Cooperative Learning, run by cooperative learning/multiple intelligences guru Spencer Kagan. I’m making quite a leap from the five senses to multiple intelligences here, but stay with me. I’m wondering if there is a way to move from the experiencing of a web page with more than one sense into the teaching of the skill and art of making a web page by using more than one or two of the identified intelligences.
To refresh your memory, the multiple intelligences are Linguistic intelligence, Logical-mathematical intelligence, Spatial intelligence, Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence, Musical intelligence, Interpersonal intelligence, Intrapersonal intelligence, and Naturalist intelligence.
I haven’t heard of anyone trying to teach web design in a way that brings all the various intelligences into play. Drop me a line if you know someone who has, or if you have some ideas about how it could be done.