Is simpler better for website design? I have held to this maxim for years now, but after today's class I'm not so sure it's true. Today we discussed website design with the many personas of potential viewers in mind. Website design has often been regarded as more art than science, but I believe that in class Professor Kagan successfully demonstrated that the design process is scientific and can be accurately measured and tuned to optimize the viewer's experience.
The key to successful design is a combination of researching past design (using tools like the "Way Back Machine"), using proper keyword and link allocation that we discussed in class, and leveraging available optimizer tools like Google's Website Optimizer. There is really an overwhelming amount of information that one can use for web design, yet it does not lead to one clear layout or template for perfect design.
I think this is because designers are catering to all potential visitors and their various viewing habits and idiosyncrasies. Even broken down by visitor's personas, there are various possible viewing patterns (such as the one shown above). It stands to reason then that though we cannot please everyone, there is a happy medium to be found that covers the majority of the website's target visitors by combining the dominant patterns into a website that is a mosaic of the various styles dictated by target viewers' personas.
I have been actively involved with web designing projects for the last 12 years. My focus is to improve corporate web identities for medium to large scale companies. What I found in my experience is that you need a team of people with distinct skill set to make a successful web site that attracts and serve the purpose for all type of visitors.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, even today many companies don't like open innovation and they end up designing the sites based on some unbiased liking of their own.