Whether it be in cyberspace or mental space, maintaining order or ordering chaos is measurable in a finely tuned balance of what takes up space. This past weekend I have not only challenged my website’s balance but also my own through life events.
This past weekend I competed in Pivot, a management information systems case competition that urged us to find a solution to lacking sustainabilty in the fashion industry in BC. For the case we were consultants for the British Columbian Provincial Government and worked with technologies such as Salesforce. The learning curve was steep but the greatest challenge was balancing our team’s strenghts with the roles that we found ourselves within.
Dr. Meredith Belbin writes about her understanding of roles in a well-balanced team based on behavioural tendencies. Her model follows nine main team member types that I find can be easily attributed to the members of my team that I worked with. From what I believe can be my personal role as a “shaper” to my teammates as other action and thought oriented individuals. It is also important to note that this balancing act works in, “focus(ing) on each team member’s strengths” which acts in somewhat of a contrast of the commonly understood idea of bandaging and honing in on weaknesses (Asana 2021).
This practice of assessing strenghts, while balacing weaknesses applies to web design as much as teamwork. While designing my website I primarily used intution and general design understanding that I have learned over my years in the digital marketing field, however, due to a recent lecture by Mauvé Page, I have found myself reassessing and reflecting on my process. An article by Contents Magazine explores the structures of websites and newly included elements of, “video and audio features [that] have become relatively common on … sites” (Kissane 8). Such media diversity has now prompted me to explore including audio recordings and video elements into my work that I had not considered prior and even led me down a funnel into reassessing how generic I wish my content to be.
During the lecture with Page, she used a part of my website as an example for assesment of peers and many alluded to the fact that my website was seen as a medium level alternative website with modern elements. I had not thought of this assesment prior and personally did not think to categorize my site as such, however after Page’s unwitting suggestion, I am now intrigued by the potential for my website to take a turn toward a more distinctive theme. One of my worst fears for my website would be for it to become, “just one of the popular yet mediocre ones plaguing modern screen-based design” so I think it’s back to the drawing board to see if any design upheaval is required (Gertz 7).
So in all the revamping that my mind state and website has undergone over the past month it has been keeping a keen eye on the balance of elements that has and will continue to make things move a lot smoother come rougher seas.
Works Cited
Gertz, Travis. “How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse.” Louder Than Ten, 10 July 2015, https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines.
Kissane, Erin. “Contents May Have Shifted.” Contents, 4 Oct. 2012, http://contentsmagazine.com/articles/contents-may-have-shifted/.
Team Asana. “Team Roles: 9 Types to Create a Balanced Team • Asana.” Asana, 16 Aug. 2021, https://asana.com/resources/team-roles.