A responsive, user-specific website like this operates on the scale of the individual user. Above all, it strikes a commercial compromise between producers and consumers impossible for the broadcast mentality to conceive. The digital revolution is revolutionary for businesses because it alters the dynamics of commercial interaction, shifting the emphasis from the producer to the user. The design principles in this medium therefore differ fundamentally from those for broadcast technology. The goal of online marketing is not to persuade, but to facilitate.
Producers provide functionality, helping users create the product.
The broadcaster is always telling the receiver what to buy. But network-savvy design demands sites that listen and respond to users. This may seem like a simple distinction. But the shift from a broadcast to a responsive approach to web design has the power to transform completely the inherited conventions at the heart of current business models, advertising, product design, and online commerce. Glenn Kurtz is a writer and internet consultant.