Chapter 12. Colonizing Company’s digital appearance

Colonizing Company’s main product is a ticket to Mars and the following transfer of a passenger. To sell the product to a user, the company goes through a particular process which I visualised in a journey map. In 2020 the journey map of Colonizing Company would look like this. It includes four key goals that have to be achieved in order to make a client happy: engage, convince, sell, and provide. On this graphic scheme I listed the channels which can help achieve those goals. Although some of them will probably be rudimental in 2050 like classic television, others will still be topical 30 and even 60 years later such as websites.

(See the table "Journey Map of Colonizing Company reaching its client in 2020" in the published PDF on page 92)

Despite fulfilling the primary function of being a marketing instrument of Colonizing Company, the website is also a piece of an internet artwork, the webbased element of Planet B. Through the website prototype presented in the installation, viewers can explore the corporation and find hidden colonial patterns in design and space exploration themselves.

The organisational structure of the website is a simple hierarchical model, which has a main parental page “Home” and the five child pages “Shop”, “Lottery”, “About”, “Contacts” and “My Account”.

(See the table "Structure of the Colonizing Company website" in the published PDF on page 93)

The main page serves the purpose of convincing a future client in the necessity of the purchase, and of selling the product. Therefore, the design of it is based on a typical landing page explaining the qualities of the product (in this case the ticket to Mars) with repeatedly appearing call-to-action messages and links to the shop with appeals to buy the Red Card. What users can notice from the first look is that Colonizing Company is not ashamed of such Dark Patterns as ‘Confirmshaming’ and, if one actually finds and reads the legal note, ‘Privacy Zuckering’ as well.

The first screen of the “Home” page of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The “Home” page tells us a lot about the system of discrimination and oppression created by Colonizing Company Inc.. Colonizing Company provides different qualities of services depending on the price of the ticket. Of course the most expensive offer – Level A – is the most advertised one. But the Level C services look more like a legalized type of slavery rather than the blessing of survival and excitement of moving into the new world. This information is to be found on the “Home” page as well as in the “Shop,” that is why it is recommended to take time for exploring the project, because it is not what it seems at first sight.

Level A advertisement on the “Home” page of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The “Shop” page means to sell the main product – the Red Card – but also merchandise. Secondly it shows us the predicted level of inflation of 30 years later – I imagine it to be 100% compared to todays prices. There are also a few internal technical pages bound to the shop: “Payment” and “Confirmation of the purchase” pages.

“Shop” page of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The next page, dedicated to the Red Card lottery, briefly explains some points about the lottery, gives an opportunity to participate in it, and a possibility to win the Level C Red Card. The photo of a person of color on top of the page is not an accident and also not a sign of using fake diversity for more profit – it is simply because Colonizing Company shares the opinion that POC can never afford buying a ticket. The “Lottery” page is not considered the most important one among other child pages and is not as highlighted as the “Shop” page is.

“Lottery” page of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The “About Us” page of the Colonizing Company website is meant to convince users of the greatness and importance of the corporation. It describes very precisely the inspiring mission and values of the corporation, its glorious history and main milestones, yet tries to sell the ticket in the meanwhile. On the page we can see the managing board of Colonizing Company which is predominantly male and white. It reflects the current problematic gender and racial ratio in the industry and questions its normality. It is hard to imagine but all the photos used for this section were made with the help of artificial intelligence.

Managing board of Colonizing Company on the page “About us”.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

On the “My account” and on “My Red Card” pages, viewers may find surprisingly detailed information about the student who won the lottery. On the “FAQ” page, Colonizing Company answers only the questions about purchasing but nothing really important. The page “404” appears every time a user wants to know more information than he is allowed to. All of these shady moves and design methods make a user think about the normality of such a service and provider. The Colonizing Company website and the company did not invent anything new, they hyperbolize the existing status quo in graphic design and space exploration up to the most annoying point. This website is the quintessence of the discriminative colonial patterns in use.

“My Red Card” page of the Colonizing Company website contains information about the attachement of the main character to the Earth including all of his relationships.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

“FAQ” page of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

“404” page of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

Footer of the Colonizing Company website.

Source: colonizing.company © Vasilisa Aristarkhova

While the Colonizing Company webpage is the face of the project, the Planet B website is its explanatory inside part. The two pages are linked together and are published on one domain – colonizing.company. To get from the Colonizing Company web-prototype to the documentary page Planet B, a user has to scroll any page until the footer and press the button “About the project.”