Just Browsing

by Serena Williams

The way people look at websites becomes a neutral part of one's daily browsing experience. The logo is on the top left, the search bar is on the right, links are blue underlined and menu bars look the same. In the beginning of the world wide web the idea was rather that there was a variety of interacting with the content . Today identical webpage layouts are supposed to increase the usability experience. The result is that users know their way on the web but have no idea what they are looking for. The browser has become just for browsing.

By modifying the underlying markup languages of user participated specific websites like youtube and flickr, I created two different kinds of browsers. One browser layers these pages on top of each other and reveals the typical layout. The other browser strips the pages from their original content and reveals the hidden framework of the user interface. As a result both browsers are completely usable, recognizable but utterly useless.