Achieving good Web design
I sometimes ponder what a good web design is. And when doing this there are several things that immediately come to my mind. The first being the visual i.e. aesthetic component of a website. This is wrong!
The first and foremost principle should be getting the point across. If a website doesn’t do this it has failed. What a web designer should do is understand every single aspect of the project he is assigned to and then transform what he has learned about the subject into images and text that is as easy as possible to understand and navigate.
Which brings us to another principle, web site navigation. Have you ever visited a site where it just seemed like you were going in circles? Navigation will make or break a website Site navigation takes careful and intelligent planning. The larger the site, the more emphasis should be placed on navigation. I think that navigation is a key to good, functional website design.
I think that web design should be about communication above all. It should make our message heard, believed and acted upon. The final test of web design is its ability to motivate the reader in the intended manner. If a designer wants the audience to buy, to believe or to feel and if he achieves the goal he has set then he can then call himself a successful web designer.
Having said that, I think good web design is usually clear, simple, and easy to navigate. It never gets in the way of the product or service it promotes by drawing too much attention to itself. It supports and explains the product or service of the client. It is a capitalist tool first and foremost. Therefore, the true measure of web design is its ability to perform that task above all.
