My project will be a website promoting a product, a small chip surgically attached to the brain that permanently stores memories. This way, memory loss can never occur – people with dementia, Alzheimer’s, head trauma, etc. will still remember their life and loved ones. Although my project will be focused more on the design of the site than the realism of the product, I did want to do some research on the science of human memory. In addition to this research, I found aesthetic inspiration and started working on the elements of my site design.

Memory Research

“Memories” are stored in the form of specific groups of neurons, which are reactivated when we recall that memory (Queensland Brain Institute). What I was most concerned with in my research was figuring out which part of the brain the chip would be attached to. However, these neurons are not only stored in one part of the brain. The parts of the brain that participate in memory storage are the prefrontal cortex, the neocortex, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. Of these parts, the only ones that are located on the surface of the brain are the neocortex, the prefrontal cortex (technically part of the neocortex), and the cerebellum.

After my research, I decided that the chip would be attached to the neocortex. Because memories are stored in connections of neurons, the chip would be able to use these connections to access memories that are stored anywhere. My research showed that the neocortex is already capable of transferring memories from other parts of the brain, such as taking temporary knowledge from the hippocampus and transferring it to general knowledge in the neocortex (Queensland Brain Institute). The neocortex is powerful, central in memory storage, and easily accessed at the very top of the brain.

Design Research

For this project, I couldn’t help but be inspired by Ghost in the Shell. Set in a very near future where humans have essentially become cyborgs, trading their biological body parts for improved cybernetic versions, the aesthetics of this series have been sitting in the forefront of my mind. I considered its world of blues, greens, and endless wires as I began my research.

For the actual design of my site, however, while I still keep this aesthetic in mind, it is overall too dark and grungy for a product site. For color inspiration, I googled “cyberpunk gifs”. As I’d hoped, I found bright colors set against dark backgrounds. I pulled out the three that spoke to me the strongest, and derived a color palette from them.

I wanted a bright blue as the main color, with a very dark blue, almost black, as the page background so that the colors stand out more. While blue is definitely the focus color, I wanted an accent color that would stand out so that the design was not completely monochromatic. I pulled out the purples and pinks present in the rightmost image and placed all of them alongside the blues, then simply chose the one that paired best with them. At the moment I am planning on using Major Mono Display as my header font, and Inter as my paragraph font.

After coming up with my color palette and fonts, I made the wireframes for the front page. I want to have the layout be fairly simple for the consumer, but more interesting than plain symmetrical columns.

Over the next week I plan to make wireframes for all of the pages, and add colors and text styling.

References:

“How are memories formed?” Queensland Brain Institute, qbi.uq.edu.au/brain-basics/memory/how-are-memories-formed.

“Where are memories stored in the brain?” Queensland Brain Institute, qbi.uq.edu.au/brain-basics/memory/where-are-memories-stored.