Demystifying Myths About Web Design

Discussion in 'Web Design, HTML And CSS' started by coderzone, Jun 5, 2010.

  1. coderzone

    coderzone Super Moderator

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    Web has become an integrated part of day to day life. An inseparable partner and companion of life provides plethora of opportunities to earn online. People are interested in developing their website to kick start their online ventures and certain category of people would love to start blogs to share their personal things. Let the intention be anything. The ultimate aim is to bring maximum traffic to your websites and popularize the website. The importance of having beautifully web designed pages can never be ignored and this forms the core element when it comes to commercializing your website. Concentrating on the small business owners online, I would like to demystify some of the popular myths regarding web page designing.

    Design is Everything



    Most people believe that having beautifully designed web pages will solve all their business problems. However, I would like to say that good or great web designed pages will not solve those problem. Not even close. One must understand that design is not a magical wand. The first question to address this issue would be to answer the question on whom the customers want to target for their business. It is disheartening to see that most people did not carry any basic research about their target customers and market trend. You will not make tons of sales by just having greatly designed web pages.

    Example: Google

    Consider the case of Google home page design. Google is basically a search engine and it is enough if it has a search button and an input text box. There is no necessity to display additional information or any other buttons. I think the great success of google lies in its simplicity of design and placing only the apt contents in the home page. Would you be interested to visit their home page for a search query when it is stuffed with unwanted materials and contents? They have done their research well and have understood the pulse of audience. A neatly designed web page with proper contents have contributed to their mammoth success. It reminds me the good old saying "Less is More".

    Make sure what you want to convey to the target audience through the beautifully designed pages. The vital elements of displaying quality content should have their presence in the web pages. Design is divine when combined with the right kind of contents. It is only the combination that brings success. A good design might make people to stop by and enjoy its beauty. This does not guarantee to bring any amount of useful contribution to the business. Good design makes the customer to stop by our site and good contents will make them to come back right again and again.

    Example: Yahoo

    Take the case of Yahoo. Their homepage would describe about the wide range of products and services they offer. They have aptly displayed varied categories of news and contents in the right place. One can understand that Yahoo is not only a search engine but also has got varied services. One can spend his time in a relaxed manner and need not go to any other place to extract other sort of information. You name it and they have it. The clean and fresh contents make it a big success along with the artistic design of web pages.

    Design is not personal. Do not enforce your likes and dislikes in web designing. It is about targeting the audience and the design should communicate effectively with the customers. Do not risk your business prospects by succumbing to personal interests.

    Example: Content Sites

    When you take the design of ezine articles web pages and its home page, one could absolutely find it hassle free to get the information they wanted. Let it be a reader or an author who wants to post, the task is very much simplified. The web designers have carefully chosen the artistic colors for web pages. The pale yet freshly looking colors on the borders of the window offer a pleasant experience for the visitors. This website is a place which draws thousands and thousands of unique clicks per day because the design aptly fits into the interests of the readers.

    Design will not bring fortunes and will not work miracles. It is just a part of package. The usage of pretty colors, interfaces, pictures should be pleasant and must reflect the business motive in every move. There could be nothing worse than visiting any of the websites inducing mismatched and out of control color scheme. The web designers might have the toughest of times in choosing the colors. The choice must be made purely on the interests of audience and business requirements.

    Graphics and usage of flash are better options to enhance the user experience. It keeps the user interested and save their time a lot. Watching a video or animation will just take few seconds. However, when used excessively, it might irritate the users and make them leave the website. It might also consume larger bandwidth. The designers must take care of the web page loading time when stuffed with these contents. This should not affect the lower end internet users having lesser bandwidth and speed.

    Example: E-Mail Providers

    Consider the case of gmail and Yahoo mail. Yahoo mail was a pioneer in offering free mail accounts. Almost 90% of the internet users had Yahoo mail account. However, when gmail launched its service, slowly the users started using gmail application. There is only one obvious reason for the paradigm shift. Even I have Yahoo mail account but use GMail now. The simplicity in using gmail accounts is one major reason. The next obvious reason is that gmail will never give pop ups, banner advertisements, third party advertisements in a flashy manner. This will allow the user to concentrate on his personal work. Google will display only text ads that will not consume any of the user's time and does not need any attention. On the other hand, Yahoo displays more of banner ads which might distract the users and waste their time. It ultimately irritates them and do not encourage to come back. In short we can call it to be Flash-al abuse.

    Usability has been an issue with the consumer as well as the designers. This often conflicts with the point of personal interests of the designer. Opinions differ from every individuals. Visual design and cues play a vital role in getting the customers and binding them with the business. People misunderstand with the terms usability and attraction. It was a common perception among the designers that external links must be opened in the new window. Slowly people started behaving in the way such that it is the mantra of web designing to make external links to open in the next window. The point is, there are thousands of websites which are exciting and highly engaging. They are easy to use and are very attractive. Sites like Mint.com, cnn.com engraves both the qualities and have been a testament for both qualities.

    Designers & Developers both are not part of Design



    The next common myth is about the difference of opinion between the design and development team. It is strongly believed that designers cannot be good developers and developers create ugly pages. Every individual will have a sense of proficiency in a field and it does not mean he does not know anything apart from his field. This does not hold true at least in a global sense. It is rightly believed that design and development co-exist. Its high time to give credit to the design team for having understanding technology in a better way and similarly for the developers to understand the design part. One should understand that successful web page designing and developing is done by the combined work of both teams knowing each other. No web page can become great without a good design team but it does not mean great looking pages can have good functionality without good development team. Web Design is not about great looks but also is sum total of great way to do what it is intended to do.

    Conclusion



    The myths are real countless when it comes to web designing. Professional web designers have to take care of all these aspects and more importantly, should be aware of good usage of colors and design themes. He must understand the business of his/her client in depth to make effective designs. Beautiful design of web pages is not only about understanding business requirements but also about creativity. You might start hearing "do this" and "don't do that" the moment you start working. There are many official and unofficial rules and you might not be bounded by all of them. Its all about wise design and the apt design. There are lots of firmly held truth that are fully based upon outdated assumptions. Most myths are just wrong to start with. Its high time step back and re-assess the conditions as a professional web designer. I hope I have given you some bitter truth and clarified most of the misconceptions when it comes to web designing. Do break the cycle of wrong piece of advice and free your minds from the outmoded dogma.
     
  2. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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  3. johnny.dacu

    johnny.dacu New Member

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    The Designers & Developers both are not part of Design is an interesting opinion. I've worked as an jack of all trades at my ex company. Photoshop , HTML, CSS, JS and PHP. And nobody has complained!
     
  4. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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