Digital Communications Design in the Second Computer Revolution

As quoted in a tweet, this is Katherine McCoy’s introduction in Digital Communications Design in the Second Computer Revolution by Stephanie Redman.

Written in 1998, it’s a perfect description of what it means to be a web “designer”:

This environment requires a much different visual design strategy than that of the traditional perfectionist designer. What are the implications for graphic designers trained in the modernist traditions of clarity, formal refinement and professional control? We can no longer think of our work as the production of as precious perfect artifacts, discrete objects, fixed in their materiality. The designer is no longer the sole author, realizing one's own singular vision. This forces a reordering of our design intentions. The designer is an initiator, but not a finisher, more like a composer, choreographer or set designer for each audience member's improvisational dance in a digital communications environment.

Or maybe even a director like in film.