Which of the following is not a component of “web design?”
I assert that all of these (and more) are constituents of design (in this case, “web design”), and it is therefore inaccurate to blame “design” for a lack of usability or accessibility. Usability and accessibility are design, and therefore can not be the antithesis of it.
I’m sick and tired of hearing people blame “design” or “designers” for sites being unusable or inaccessible, and/or implying that sites created by non-designers are somehow more usable or more accessible than those crafted by professional designers These people do not understand the definition of the word design, usually mistaking it for style or sex appeal (both of which are elements of design, rather than the whole of it).
It’s possible (and even common) to have sites that lack an adequate balance between aesthetics and usability. But neither sites that are ugly but usable nor sites that beautiful but unusable are well-designed. The moniker well-designed can only be achieved by crafting a site that provides the appropriate balance between all components of design for its intended audience and stated goals.
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001 // Dave Lowe // 04.29.2006 // 9:21 PM
I wholeheartedly agree. The A List Apart article ‘The Bathing Ape Has No Clothes’ on the difference between style and design comes to mind. We need more designers to hear things like this. And imagine the impact if educators taught the proper definition of design.
002 // dandellion // 04.29.2006 // 9:28 PM
agreed. but so many people is doing design without paying attention to non-visual things that it made people believe that design is just colors, nice images and composition of graphics and text. well, I doubt there is much we can do.
003 // Jeff Goseland // 04.30.2006 // 1:18 AM
This snippet could not be more true: well-designed can only be achieved by crafting a site that provides the appropriate balance between all components of design for its intended audience and stated goals I have been developing web-based solutions internally that the “external” web community would slaughter. Initially, I balked at the idea of developing IE-only pages that ignored W3C and web-accessibility standards. As it turned out, we completely controlled the environment in which we worked. It was to everyone’s benefit to create these pages in the way they were being created. To say that someone’s design is poor or a failure without making a direct comparison to what the site is attempting to accomplish is like Critiqueing Children’s Artwork…asinine.
Jim Carrey said it best: One man’s garbage is another man’s potpourri!.
004 // Jeff Croft // 04.30.2006 // 1:38 AM
but so many people is doing design without paying attention to non-visual things that it made people believe that design is just colors, nice images and composition of graphics and text
These people aren’t doing “design.” They’re doing “decorating.” Design is the art of problem solving and communication. Decorating is the art of making things look pretty.
Decorating has it’s place — I am very style-consious and very interested in “making things pretty.” But, decorating has to come alongside making things functional and solving the problems and meeting the goals of a particular site in order for it to be part of “design.”
005 // Jared Christensen // 04.30.2006 // 6:20 PM
Web design is clearly in the throes of maturation, and there are still TONS of web designers who have no concept of web standards, accessibility, usability or any of the other critical components “we designers” think about every day. It’s perfectly reasonable for a client or “non-designer” to mistake styling for design, but not someone like the Jobby guys. Good to see someone else calling them on their mistake.
006 // zoel // 05.01.2006 // 3:13 AM
web designer is power full talent with smart brain, user will know “how designer the web layout ” more than “how is coder it”. Web designer is King of Visualitaion of digital web art cuz the success of web goal in his hand
007 // reese // 05.02.2006 // 1:40 PM
Thank you for stating what needed to be said.
I can’t help but wonder if, for years, the design world has been full of hacks, but we are more aware of it it now because of the exposure of the web.
008 // reese // 05.02.2006 // 1:41 PM
Btw, I love the grid structure you followed on this design and the way you embrace what WORKS rather than the latest design fads.
009 // cody lindley // 05.04.2006 // 10:14 AM
Personally I think this is why job titles and the understanding of the functions associated with these titles are important in the mist of a maturing profession. A visual designer (web designer) is not typically trained in interaction design, HCI, User experience design, and so on. It’s a fallacy that when you hire a web designer you are hiring a trained UI designer. I have no problem with the fact the traditionally trained graphic designers (visual designers) can become great UI/HCI designers but the reality is we should not assume a graphic designer is responsible for usability or accessibility when that is not what they are trained to do. As I see it, we all know this, however the people doing the hiring and pointing the fingers often do not.
010 // Nate Klaiber // 05.11.2006 // 8:14 AM
Well said. Sadly, I always hear from designers about the ‘sex appeal’ and ‘prettiness’ of their work, forgetting EVERYTHING about functionality and user interaction (etc..). They lose so many things when they focus one ONE aspect like that. So, in those cases, yes, I feel that the ‘designer’ has ruined a potentially good website.
I ran into this with a website a few months ago. The designer was CLUELESS and I ended up parting ways because what he created was absolutely useless for our goals (written on paper).
011 // Lautreamont // 09.25.2006 // 12:42 PM
I couldn’t agree more. Yet, most of the people will only measure the appeal of the site and will take for granted it works fine when it does not.
:(
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