A little bit about the purpose of this website and the thinking behind it.
Sophistication in communication
There are quite a few things I am trying to achieve with this website. On the surface it is just another website to promote understanding on the biggest threat to humanity in the 21st Century. But for me it’s really a proof of concept, a prototype that a far bigger organisation or collection of organisations can develop to the required level in order to get the general public to a tipping point.
Simply put this website is trying to be more sophisticated in communication delivery. Graphic design is front and centre of this effort. Successful graphic design is attractive to look at, draws people in, speeds up and improves both comprehension and recall. Humans are visual creatures and in a world of information overload and low attention spans graphic design is a pre-requisite in grabbing people attention and holding it.
A further extension of this is the use of video. Most people would rather watch something than read it. If the video is of high enough quality it can capture peoples hearts and minds to a much greater extent than a book can. Game of Thrones and Hunger Games are perfect examples. But communication also needs to be tailored to different audiences, in terms of prior knowledge, interest and values. Otherwise people will just switch off. We need to use 21st century communication skills if we are ever going to connect with a 21st century audience.
Once more with purpose
Because a lot of this involves new thinking I want to delve into these ideas into more detail. I’ll do that through the main aims of this website. These purposes are:
1 | To promote a greater understanding of the risks we all face in the most efficient, effective and entertaining manner possible.
2 | Serve as a collection of best practice ways of explaining many of the energy and economic related concepts that an informed citizen needs to know.
3 | To communicate in a more visual way, in line with how human brains prefer to process information.
4 | To promote the use of graphic design and it’s ability to speed up comprehension and making the process of learning much more appealing.
5 | To have messages tailored for different audiences.
6 | To develop a much more user friendly web interface through the use of information flow, graphics and more concise writing.
7 | To give a wider context to the story of our world, civilisation and situation that brings together the most important issues of our age delivered through a scientific lens.
8 | To inspire others to come up with new material, hopefully that combines or transforms existing material and take it to the next level.
While not there yet I would also like to:
9 | Create an open source platform that makes it easier for content creators to develop more sophisticated forms of communication in line with the points above and is made with a high degree of scientific rigour.