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Bridges

I want to talk about design. But first, watch this beautiful, narrated tribute to the Golden Gate Bridge…

Bridges are design marvels. They’re bold and risky. They require teams of people to build. They (hopefully) stand the test of time. They’re both exceptionally beautiful and highly functional.

If you work on the web, you may be able to say some of those things about what you create, but usually not all of them.

Crossings & Connections

Crossings. Connections. The dramatic closing of gaps. Bridges bring people together.

The web, as a whole, is a massive, virtual bridge. It brings people together.

But do the things we create on the web have the same impact? Sometimes, but usually not.

Twitter, for example, helps drive political activism, and spreads news almost instantaneously. It shares educates, introduces and inspires.

(It’s also where people share photos of cats.)

But for every Twitter, there are countless more web-based things that don’t have much of an impact at all. And even Twitter itself, for all it’s impact, feels ethereal and intangible. Things made of pixels always do.

They lack the weight and visual impact of real objects. They’re like fog. You can see it, but you can’t touch it.

I love the web, but I also wonder how we can make things of greater importance and impact. Any ideas?