The Digital Press

A UCLA design student created a capstone project exploring the web as a living space, highlighting slow, quiet, and communal websites that feel like rooms where people can gather. The project includes a live, community-updated archive of such websites and reflects on how digital environments impact wellbeing and social connection.

Why it matters: It challenges the dominant web culture focused on speed, profit, and interaction metrics, advocating for spaces that prioritize calm and human connection.

The big picture: The project situates websites as embodied places with emotional impact, akin to physical rooms, emphasizing individual creators over corporate motives.

Quick takeaway: The archive invites contributions to preserve and celebrate "handmade" web spaces fostering slowness, quietness, and gathering, especially important post-pandemic.

Commenters say: Some note the project’s poetic framing of the web as a home and appreciate its focus on slower, more personal digital spaces, while others point out potential security issues like the mentioned XSS vulnerability.