eb design is one of the most interesting art forms to arise in recent years. It's a demanding form that combines traditional arts, such as drawing and photography, with technical skills like computer programming and layout design. A good Web designer also needs equal parts wit and writing skill. Some Web sites even employ music. The resulting creation can be interesting, compelling, informative, even mobilizing.
A well-designed Web site can also reach beyond the conventional bounds of art by allowing communities of people to form and grow. And artistic Web sites can even offer services - that is, they can become useful art, like a well-designed chair. And because Web sites can continually change and grow, they can remain fresh and thereby keep an audience over an extended period of time - like a museum with an ever-changing collection.
Unfortunately, many people today don't think of Web design as an art. That's because most Web sites people see and use on a daily basis lack the fundamental essentials of artistic integrity. Instead, they are designed to sell something or boost a company's image. And while some sites also entertain or teach, few inspire.
Web creation in the corporate world is largely a team activity. A group of writers creates the content. A digital artist might create images or retouch photographs. Finally, a Web ''designer'' pieces together the words and some templates.
Web design can also be a very rewarding solo activity. It is a uniquely affordable one, as there are no paints to buy, no film to process, and no dangerous chemicals. And while a Web designer does need a computer, he or she doesn't need to purchase his own. In fact, the only thing a real Web designer needs is time - time to learn the latest techniques, time to try them out, and time to build a complex creation.
One Web site that demonstrates the potential of this new medium is ''Escalation,'' a simulation that follows the US involvement in Vietnam. In this Web site, which is loaded with historical documents and photographs, you play the role of President Lyndon Johnson. As the simulation progresses, you are faced with the choices of increasing economic aid to South Vietnam, stepping up military presence, or doing nothing. There are plots, raids, and all sorts of political military intrigue - all happening as the number of people killed and wounded steadily mounts.
Escalation was created by Nathaniel Duca, a 17-year-old high school junior from Wenham. Duca is one of the finalists for the ArsDigita Prize, a $10,000 cash grant that will be given annually to a person 18 or younger who has created the most artful, tasteful, noncommercial Web-based service. Seven runners-up will each be given $1,000 prizes.
''Screaming banner ads and graphics are the antithesis of Web-site-as-art-form,'' says Philip Greenspun, creator of the prize and Cambridge-based Web design firm ArsDigita. An artful Web site, says Greenspun, ''does a job well. It's as simple as possible. It doesn't have a user's manual. It's obvious how to make it work. [And] it's aesthetically unobtrusive - it doesn't hammer you with its design.''
Greenspun is a great believer in the potential of Web technology and is one of its greatest advocates. His company, a prototypical MIT spinoff, has created Web sites for companies such as America Online, CNN, and ePLAY. If you order custom made blue jeans from the Levi Strauss Web site, you are using Greenspun's code. And his new book, ''Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing'' (Morgan Kaufmann, April 1999), offers insightful comments on the Web economy and the future of the information marketplace, as well as nuts-and-bolts information on building on-line creations.
But Greenspun's greatest contribution to the future of the Web may well be the ArsDigita Prize. Beyond the money, all of the finalists will be flown to MIT for a special one-day class on Web design and technique. (The class is also open to the public; see http://arsdigita.org/ for registration information.) And then, says Greenspun, he will give these young artists the tools of corporate giants and turn their creative energies loose on the world.
And ArsDigita will give the winners free use of high-powered computers with screaming-fast Internet connections for their next projects.
''A big part of what we are doing is letting these people use our servers in the future,'' says Greenspun. ''We are finding people that we are going to invest in for the next 10 or 15 years by helping with the infrastructure part. They will have the infrastructure of the best Web publisher.''
The finalists in the ArsDigita Prize, including Escalation, are all on the Web today at http://www.arsdigita.org/prize/. Drawn from 155 submissions from around the world, many of the finalists have a somewhat utilitarian theme. There is a Web-based calendar, now used at Earlham College; a message board, used at Western Washington University; and a guide to the theater - complete with important advice to stage parents.
The winners will be announced on June 23. You'll probably be hearing from them again, and not before long.
Technology writer Simson L. Garfinkel can be reached at plugged-in@simson.net.
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