Middle of nowhere
Middle of Nowhere is a 404 error page created for a research organization website. A 404 page appears when a requested webpage does not exist, and this design turns that moment into a visit to imagined places. The landscapes shown are made by a generative adversarial network, a machine learning model trained on thousands of photographs of real landscapes from around the world. The results are places that exist nowhere. The page is built as a responsive website, and the intent is to make being lost online calm and engaging.
Middle of nowhere 404 website design by Yijia Xie was selected as an outstanding illustration of communication design by the A' Design Award. Middle of nowhere 404 website design received the Silver A' Design Award in Website and Web Design in 2022. The A' Website and Web Design Awards is an international, jury-voted, fair and ethical design accolade which celebrates outstanding design of web design, portfolios, E-Commerce sites, blogs, news websites, social media platforms, educational websites, Non-Profit websites, personal websites and more.
