Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Form follows frustration

While looking for a CV or list of publications by Yuriko Saito, I discovered the wonder of functionality that is the Rhode Island School of Design homepage. Check it out: all the links slowly swim past you from left to right. How do you know what to click on? If you wait long enough, will the desired link eventually find its way to the screen? Generally departmental homepages are put under the heading "academics" on university homepages. I sat waiting for "academics" to swim by for a while before I realized that the fish I was looking for was actually "degree programs." The website basically admits that this design is useless, because the all important "admissions" link, the link used by prospective students and their tuition paying parents sits still, like a rock, at the bottom of the page.

By the way, if anyone knows where I can get a complete list of Saito's publications on Japanese aesthetics of nature and nature-related stuff, I'd appreciate it.

Added: If anyone knows of an online version of Yuriko Saito, "The Japanese Appreciation of Nature," British Journal of Aesthetics 23 (no. 3, 1985):239-251. I would appreciate not having to walk to the library. I find that the internet can actually slow down the process of getting scholarly materials, because I keep thinking that one more google search will turn up what I want, so that I don't have to actually leave my office.

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