A digital garden is a collection of online entries that are on public display and grow over time, not simply in number but also in complexity.
So how does one go about setting up a digital garden? Is it simply a matter of setting up a bunch of notes and tending them, enriching them, expanding upon them. Or is there more to it than that?
The garden metaphor implies a certain amount of design. Otherwise why not simply call it a digital seedbed?
Design Considerations
Here are some of the things to think about when designing a digital garden:
– Substance: Themes, topics, images, and the general content of the notes
– Structure: Page layout, sections, links, and overall architecture
– Process: The way of taking notes, putting them on the page, maintaining them, keeping the garden growing.
Design Method
Given the premise that a digital garden is something that starts small and grows over time, it seems that the design process must be able to accommodate this kind of evolutionary growth.
One method that seems well-suited is Christopher Alexander’s Process of Creating Life.
- Visualize possibilities
- Set down a plan
- Eleven step process
- 15 structure preserving transformations
SEE ALSO
What Is a Digital Garden?
