There Is More To Website Design Than Meets The Eye..

By Author: Percy Lawrence
Total Articles: 10
Comment this article

I designed my first web site nearly 7 years ago. I loved every pixel of it...every image, menu, link and each of the over 30 different colors I managed to squeeze into my layout. There was just one problem...

DESIGNING FOR APPEARANCES vs DESIGNING FOR FUNCTIONALITY
I originally came from a graphics background. I had spent years designing company promotional material and pamphlets, posters and restaurant menus. In each case, rich colours and glitz and glamour were a pre-requisite. It was heresy to ever think about sending out a piece of artwork on a plain white background!

When I designed my first website, I naturally brought my old talent and habits with me, but as fish are not so adept out of water...I soon realized the web industry was not quite the same as my graphics past.

When Google launched its barebones, plain look, I discovered a new love: Zen design principles. I was taken in by the simplistic, minimalist approach and since casting away my photoshop and coreldraw applications, can report I am now a fully fledged afficionado of simple..functional design principles.

Long gone are the ...
... 'heavy', ostentatious, maybe even showy, overly intricate menus...in their place, simple intuitive links. Gone are the tens of colour variation, replaced by 2 or 3 colours per template page..and happily, I must admit, I no longer stick 3MB background images on every page I design...I turned over a new leaf!

COMMON MISTAKES IN WEBDESIGN
Most webdesigners are too focused on showcasing their CSS, XHTML and layout skills they forget the reason people visit sites in the first place: To use..not to look. Web sites are too often designed without clear navigation that users can actually utilize to access their preferred content, be it news, galleries or feedback pages.

For winning webdesign efforts...take it from me, chuck the graphic, switch to ZEN! I did...and I'm loving the shift!
3Way Marketing is a South African Website design company based in Johanessburg, South Africa