Earlier this week I was asked to look at the design for a new Web site. Since the designer was only asking for the views of established website designers, I won’t add a link here.
The site was lovely to look at, with elegant illustrations, sophisticated typography, and plenty of white space.
Of course, even as a visual design, it had a couple of problems. The menu system wasn’t exactly proportioned, and the balance of the page wasn’t quite right. But that wasn’t its real problem.
The designer had concentrated on making visually attractive pages. He hadn’t spent time thinking about the purpose of the site, who he really wanted to visit, what those visitors would be looking for, etc., etc. There was no focus, no site concept other than to look good, and it was barely useable.
I have written before about how website design is not about creating pretty pages. In a follow-up post, I compared website design to designing teacups or bridges, but in formulating my response to this designer’s site, I was hit by a much better analogue: kitchen design.
What really counts about a good kitchen design is that everything a kitchen needs should be in the kitchen, that the person who is going to be using the kitchen can find everything easily, that everything is really easy—even a joy—to use. And what matters about the look of the kitchen is that the kitchen user, plus her/his friends, feel at home in it, enjoy being there. (The designer is not going to be cooking in that kitchen, nor drinking coffee with friends, nor having breakfast, etc.)
You can spell out the similarities for yourself. Once again it underlines how good Web design is visitor-centred Web design, not client-centred Web design, and certainly not designer-centred Web design.