The 5k webdesign competition was established by Stewart Butterfield, who hopes to focus web designers once again on creativity rather than bells and whistles, which seem to be in danger of engulfing the web in recent times, with webpages growing heavier and heavier under the burder of excessive use of cutting edge technologies and the over indulgences of web designers.

"There's a lot of bloat on the Web," Butterfield said recently in Wired, stating that he chose the 5k cut-off because at that point designers can't use a lot of images to pretty up a page. He sees the competition as more than an intellectual exercise, as for many people the Web is still the end-point of a painfully slow modem connection and with the take-off in internet use on wireless handhelds and smart phones and the creeping limits bandwith, size will continue to be everything.

Butterfield puts the excitement about the competition down to the design community's love of a challenge. "The more constraints there are, the more creative people become," he said. "I think there will be some very clever stuff."

"Last summer I found I'd lost sight of what I liked about the Internet in the first place," Butterfield said. "The whole Weblog revolution reminded me the Internet is all about how people communicate. It's not about commercial Web design for big companies."

Entries to the competition will be judged according to four criteria: (i) size, (ii) aesthetic appeal, (iii) function, (iv) overall concept & originality. The judges are drawn from across te web design industry, and will use their own platform, their own browser with their own plug-ins and none of these will be revealed. As with any website design, the designer never knows completely the setup of the end-user, and must adapt to allow for accessiblilty.

The deadline for entries is 5:00pm PST, April 2nd 2000. Winners will be announced May 1st.

For further information visit: www.sylloge.com/5k/

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