Big Web Adventure

In this episode of Big Web Adventure, I visit solar.lowtechmagazine.com and find a website that runs on a solar panel in Barcelona, and tells you so.The page is two colours. Pale blue at the top, buttery yellow underneath, and the yellow is the battery. The more sun Barcelona gets, the further up the page it climbs. If it runs flat, the site switches itself off. There’s a live power page with the watts, the volts and a three day forecast. Every photo is dithered into tiny dots in blue and cream, and you can tap one to see it in full colour and watch the page size go up as you do. The articles have titles like How to brew solar powered coffee and Rediscovering the handcart.I talk about what these choices say about the people behind the site, and where it could be kinder to visitors, from alt text that starts with the word image to three asks you have to step past before an article begins. I also ask whether a website that admits it needs the sun is more honest than one that pretends the internet runs on thin air.LinksThe Low-tech Magazine website: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/Big Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

In this episode of Big Web Adventure, I visit Echobox Radio, the website of an independent radio station in Amsterdam, and find a site that’s happy to tell you when it’s gone to bed.The home page is flat black, with a stripe of six colours across the top like a row of felt tips laid side by side. A blue ticker scrolls underneath. When I visited, the station was off air for the night, and the site said so with one huge red word, Offline, its letters sliced sideways like a signal breaking up. Further in there’s a programme page laid out day by day, a show about live improv and dreams called Donnie’s Dream Show, and an A to Z of shows that reads like a family album. LinksThe Echobox Radio website: https://www.echobox.radioBig Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

This week I visit the UX Design Institute's website, where the first thing you meet is a real graduate smiling out of a pink circle, not a stock photo.I'm a graduate myself, so I come to this with a soft spot, but I try to be fair rather than kind. The homepage is warm and confident, with logos from Google, Apple and Microsoft running underneath, though on my phone it goes on for about 19 screens of stories, quotes and course cards. The diploma page does its job well, with the start date, time and price all out in the open. Then there's that bold 79% jobs figure, and the small print that sits right under it.I also talk about the beginner's course tucked away below the big diplomas and whether the site works for a nervous career changer like I once was. The answer is... well, you'll have to listen for the rest.LinksThe UX Design Institute's website: https://www.uxdesigninstitute.com/Big Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

Episode #004: Haoqi Wen's Portfolio.This week I visit haoqi.design, the portfolio of designer Haoqi Wen, where nothing on the home page is a picture and everything is drawn live in code.You wait through a loading bar on a near black screen. Then the word hello floats up in fat, glossy lettering like a balloon on deep ultramarine. Along the bottom, a thin strip of readouts shows his time zone, the temperature and even where your own cursor is. It feels less like a portfolio and more like someone's workshop with every instrument switched on. I look through his work from 2018 to 2026 and the big aDrive case study, where he admits he doubted one of his own ideas until testing changed his mind.I also talk about where the site could be kinder to visitors, from that twenty second wait to a case study that switches into Chinese without warning. And I ask who it's really built for, because that's what decides whether it works.LinksHaoqi Wen's website: https://www.haoqi.designBig Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

Episode #003: Content Design LondonThis week I visit Content Design London, a site that skips photographs and lets plain words, set large, carry the whole front page.It opens with black type on white, a name stacked like a stamp and a basket icon that tells you they sell things. On the courses page, every card shows the price with VAT. Open a single course and it answers almost every question a nervous buyer might have, down to the group size and an early-bird deadline with a day and a time. Then there's a 404 page that says "It's us, not you", and that one line tells you a lot about the people behind it.I also talk about a headline that makes a claim rather than an offer, course cards with no dates and student quotes with no names. And I ask whether a company that teaches good writing has built a site that lives up to its own words.LinksContent Design London's website: https://contentdesign.london  Big Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

Episode #002: The Modernist SocietyI visited The Modernist Society's website, a site that asks you to join something rather than buy something, and then hands you five things to do before you've worked out who they are.Get past the homepage and the about page calms right down and tells the story properly. It names the people who started it, thanks its funders in public and lets someone else's quote describe the magazine better than the site could itself. I spotted a small contradiction about how often the magazine comes out, and I talk about why a slip like that chips away at trust. The page for issue 57 gets selling a magazine just right, with eight pictures of the real thing and an honest note about a very small team.I also talk about a menu full of names that only make sense if you're already in the know, and some lovely photos that nobody using a screen reader can see. So would it win over someone arriving cold? Have a listen and you'll hear where I landed.LinksThe Modernist Society's website: https://the-modernist.orgBig Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

Episode #001: Joe LycettIn the first episode of Big Web Adventure, I visit joelycett.com and find a website that breaks nearly every rule, and gets away with it.There's no headline and no welcome. You land in an archive of small pictures, from Taskmaster in 2017 to work made this year, and it's up to you where to start. The about page is one long, rambling paragraph that somehow fits in two BAFTAs, gallery shows and a stunt that made international news. The shop puts tea towels next to a sculpture with a very serious price tag. Then the contact page drops the jokes and gets down to business.I talk about what these choices say about the man behind them, and where the site could be kinder to visitors, from a shop that takes some scrolling to a home page full of pictures that has to load on a phone in a pub garden. I also ask why a tidy, sensible website would be the wrong fit for him.LinksJoe Lycett's website: https://www.joelycett.comBig Web Adventure: https://www.andrewbackhouse.design/podcastMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-backhouseMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewbackhouse.design

Every website tells a story about the people who made it. Someone chose what greets you first, where each page leads and what got left out.In each episode, I take a close look at a real website. I start with first impressions: what you see and feel in the first few seconds, before you read a word. Then I pick two or three key pages and ask if each one does its job. I dig into the detail too, from the words, pictures and type to how fast it loads and how it copes on a phone.I care more about the people behind a site than scoring points. I'm warm about what they were reaching for, and honest when something gets in a visitor's way. Each episode ends with a short verdict: does this site work for the people it's meant for?