Going down memory lane is one of the best past times we can do on weekends after working for the whole week. It is also a wholesome activity for the family during special occasions like weddings.
A scrapbook can be implemented either in a physical form or digital. But what is it? A scrap book design does not adhere to a standard appearance. It utilizes a more liberal approach to design. However, this does not mean the appearance of the site is going to be a mess.
Benefits of Designing a Website in a Scrapbook Format
Clouds Always Dissolve
Despite the presence of social media, people use these to store information about their daily activities, as a communication tool, or marketing. I cannot definitively say they can serve the purpose of a scrapbook, although they can store data for a very long time. All that information will persist as long as the service stays alive in the cloud. One day, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the other social media sites can shut down. Some new ones can always take their place, but it can be annoying to start over again.
There are also limits to what you can post and what types of media you can post due to the technical limitations of the service or how the website was designed. These are supposed to serve a general audience. Designing your own website that uses a scrapbook format is a great idea to preserve family memories.
Speaking of Memory
Boosting cognitive abilities, especially among seniors or people suffering Alzheimer’s disease. Recalling past memories can help patients with their ability to improve their memory through neuroplasticity, among other benefits.
Be Unique in Presentation
With the amount of web builder services, anyone without a programming background can build their own website. This is an opportunity to create striking landing pages. Of course, knowing how to build a website from scratch is still the ultimate advantage since you won’t be limited with design and functionality.
How To Approach the Aesthetic of a Scrap book Websites
Look for examples of cluttercore aesthetics. The idea is to present a landing page with elements arranged in a messy manner but still makes sense. In terms of interior design, the space looks “lived in”.
Media Types for Scrapbook Website
Photographs and Videos
A scrapbook is likely to be composed primarily of photographs. In this day of cameras on phones, we can take pictures and record videos any time, so there is no shortage of data regarding that department.
You can’t store videos on physical scrapbooks unless you stick a CD among the pages. But that CD will degrade, and you will lose all data unless a backup exists.
Scanned Images
For higher quality images, you can scan photos to the highest possible resolution then reduce resolution to make it load faster on the web. You can convert them into various formats like (.SVG for image scalability).
Audio
Audio recordings are great for content you don’t necessarily need to watch. Audio conserves space and bandwidth. You can keep recordings of songs, speeches, and embedded sound effects to various elements on the website for a better interactive experience.
Digital Files
Documents don’t always have to be scanned material but the also digital. This is great for people who create digital content and want to preserve them.
Scope and Privacy
Website as Virtual Scrapbook
Storing all this information online is not a comfortable thought for many. Privacy still matters. Thankfully, websites are flexible and can be programmed to function in a certain way. Features such as memberships, where only those people, like family members, qualified to view the content are verified.
A more private method of implementing a scrapbook website is hosting it at home in your local computer network. If you have a network attached storage (NAS), you can use that as your data repository. Your scrapbook website can reference those files and organize them. Going about it this way, isn’t that far off from doing it under a paid web hosting service. The catch is access is limited to family members within the premises.
Website for a Purpose
Business
A business that sells antiques or souvenirs can also opt for this as a stylistic choice for a niche audience. Instead of products organized in a grid format like how we typically view products on online shops, the items for sale are arranged on the page like a scrap book. It is probably the closest a business can give customers the impression they are inside the brick and mortar store. It’s a wild idea.
Advertising and Promotions
Another unique way to implement a scrapbook aesthetic is through advertising and promotion. Depending on what is being promoted, a website’s appearance does not need to be too formal. Designing a web page to look like a scrapbook page is a great way to show intent and to drive interest among audiences.
An upcoming rock concert, for instance, can have a unique landing page for the announcement. The promoters don’t just state in words what the audience is there to expect, they can just show it through pictures, sounds or videos. Give them a teaser trailer for the show, so to speak.
Personal Portfolio
For the creatives out there, nothing expresses one’s self in a portfolio through a scrapbook aesthetic. Have a collection of paintings? Photograph them and put them on display in the most creative way. The website itself is a medium for artistic expression.
By Subject
A scrapbook doesn’t necessarily have to be about very personal topics, it may also revolve around a certain subject of interest. Interested in chemistry? Why not make a scrapbook all about that? Making a scrapbook about one’s hobby and interests is a creative way to showcase things about the subject in a less formal way.
Why have a website when there’s social media?
Social media is powerful because anyone, especially businesses, can reach out quickly to the public instantly, but having your own website makes things more official and professional. Imagine if a corporation as big as Microsoft communicated to the public via Facebook pages only. Having a website is the equivalent of being able to publish your own magazine if the internet does not exist today and newspapers and radio would be the equivalent of social media.
