Principles of Website Evolution
Over the past few years I have been asked to Evolve or redesign many websites. In doing this I have distilled some simple principles that drive my process.
Whether it’s a marketing site or a full fledged web application when I am designing for the web I am designing sympathetically with the way people actually use the web, not how I think they should or wish they would.
The bottom line is that very often people use web sites very differently than how we design them. For the most part the average Joe or Jill Sixpack skims pages for clues, instead of reading the text in its entirety. Typically users make snap decisions, instead of evaluating and judging carefully and frequently they don’t even be looking at the complete picture. We have to remember users are driven by their goals, not ours and design accordingly.
I believe responsible designers need special skills to succeed in today’s web environment. Responsible designers must:
* Work to achieve the best possible insight into a site users’ goals and create a design that achieves them.
* Develop a clear understanding of the core purpose of a site, design for that and have the mental discipline to stick to that design.
* Help clients understand the concepts ease of use, simplicity and good design and help them make decisions that facilitate these concepts.
* Relentlessly pursue simplicity – if an element adds complexity but not value, it must be changed or removed entirely.
* Look at designs through naïve eyes – users don’t look at websites the way designers do and thinking they do leads to terrible designs.
