What Is Good Design?
Written by Darin on April 6, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I think whenever you’re considering working with a web designer, it’s important to understand what that person considers good design. If you’re not on the same page from the beginning, it is bound to be a painful process. On the other hand, if you agree before the design process begins it can be an exciting and fruitful time. That is why I’m writing this, I want you to know what I think is good design.
Form follows function
First of all, content is king. This may not be what you’d expect from a designer. In fact, many people (and unfortunately many designers) don’t think of the content as the first and most important part of a website. People often think first of color schemes, and layouts, and flashy graphic touches they can have on their site. Some people don’t even know what the content will be, but they know they want “eye catching graphics” and “fancy animations” on their site. I believe that a good web design pushes the content to the front, making it the most important part of the site. After all, I know of only a few people who have websites just to amaze with fancy graphics. Instead, most people are trying to communicate information, display a product or service, and/or provide a platform for interaction. Think about the web sites you use most frequently, chances are you don’t keep visiting them because of the way they look, but because you get useful information from them. Google and MySpace don’t have the fanciest designs, but they provide useful products with emphasis on the content - and this brings repeat business.
Ease Of Use
Websites must be easy to use. One of my pet peeves as a user of web sites, and thus as a designer, is “mystery meat navigation.” This is the type of menu where you have some unlabeled shapes, and until you move your mouse over them (or even worse, until you click them) you have no idea what they do. This was particularly trendy several years ago, and I still come across sites using this method for moving me around their site. I believe menus should be intuitive and obvious. The easier people find it to navigate your site, the more likely they are to explore your site. Menus should be easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use. You should have indicators of where you are on the site, and how to get back to other parts of the site.
Have style don’t be trendy
Be stylish, not trendy. Just like fashion, web designs have trends. Sometimes these can be very seductive, and sometimes a trend is in the best interest of style. However, often employing the latest/greatest graphics will make your site look outdated in a few months. Because the internet is such a dynamic medium, trends change quickly. Because of this, if you try to grab the current trend, your site will quickly be out of date. Is it easy to tell the difference between trendy and stylish? No. But, we should continually work toward sites with longevity by avoiding flash-in-the-pan trends. We do this by drawing inspiration from print design, the history of web design, and everything in the world around us.