Realistic design
Realism in web design has its origins in realistic techniques for television, film, or static graphics. The goal is to make the viewer believe that what she sees is simply a continuation of the "real" visual world that surrounds her--to give her the impression that she could step through the frame and into the picture. Techniques for realism are by definition techniques that do not obtrude: the viewer must not be aware that her perspective is being manipulated. Realistic or self-effacing web design encourages the viewer to look through the image rather than at it. (This is a distinction that Richard Lanham makes in his book The Electronic Word.) It encourages the viewer to overlook the form and to be aware only of content.
In cyberspace the viewer can in a sense step into the picture; she can put on the electronic environment and inhabit it. Web pages can be designed and structured to be realistic in this sense. They can give the viewer the illusion of an inhabitable environment. To give this illusion, they must avoid calling attention to themselves as visual and verbal constructs. The linking conventions must also be transparent. Clickable image maps, for example, support the illusion. Self-conscious hypertextual linking does not. Unobtrusive graphic design supports the illusion; the busy graphic style of, say, Hotwired does not.
Realism may ultimately prove as popular on the Net as it has been in television and film. Conventions of the web may come to be regarded as "natural" and no longer be noticed. Think of Hollywood's socalled invisible style, where the filmmaking does not call attention to itself, but only to the content. Even where they content is "cool," the style of presentation can strive to be invisible.
Realism in web design is an exercise in realizing a point of view.