Tending the Webpage
A workshop for the design- and code-curious to build tools in HTML/CSS/JS for tending and growing a shared webpage together.
What if a website could be watered? Pruned? Left to overgrow?
In this workshop, participants design and build small tools in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that act on a shared live webpage using gardening and tending as metaphor. Together, we’ll tend a collective garden in real time, where every participant's tool leaves a mark on the webpage.
Drawing on the feeling of cozy games and the spirit of the early web, this workshop reimagines interaction through the lens of maintenance and care. The focus is less on coding from scratch or becoming “experts” and more on translating concepts into interactive behavior: What does trimming look like in CSS? What happens when two people's tools conflict?
No prior coding experience required—if anything, beginner’s mindset encouraged!—just curiosity about how websites work and what else they could do.
Program
Demo Dive into references and inspiration material and a quick demo
Brainstorm Develop concepts independently and get feedback in pairs
Coding Setup, sharing project template, and doing hands-on HTML/CSS/JS coding
Playing Put everyone’s code together and test it out on a live server—chaos ensues!
Learning Outcomes
Learn how to think through metaphors and develop then translate a “non-digital” concept into code
Understand the relationship between HTML, JS, and CSS and how these come together in a simple website
Adapt existing code (beginners) or write your own (intermediate+) to produce a desired behavior or effect
Build confidence on finding documentation, resources, or AI tools to troubleshoot and execute ideas independently
Collectively author a shared, live environment (website) that we can experience together
Resources
Projects:
Readings:
Instructor Bio
Nicci Yin is an interaction designer, artist, and runs SHIFT CMD, a research & design practice whose projects ask what else computing could feel like. She creates conceptual art about software and produces prototypes, videos, writing, and workshops that defamiliarize everyday computational behavior.
Refunds
We get that things come up, but we rely on headcounts make our programs viable. If you request a refund...
More than 4 weeks before the program begins → 100% refund
More than 2 weeks before the program begins → 50% refund
Fewer than 2 weeks before the program begins → No refund
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Media Release Clause
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