The myth of "design"

Small introduction

I wrote this article for the blog of the project EtMay.Ru , which I am a co-founder and designer. EtMay.Ru is a web site creation service focused on small business and entrepreneurs. In parallel with the development in full swing, we run a blog, where we also consider the current situation in the web development market, as well as the problems and misconceptions that people who are looking to get their site to face.

The myth itself

It sounds like this: “Cool, certainly creative and individual design is an indispensable part of a good website.” The “design” here means a beautiful or unusual appearance of the site, and not its competent structure or usability.


')

Why is it wrong?

Because in most cases, all that is required from the site design is to be neat and unobtrusive, comfortable for perceiving information. The design is of paramount importance only for promotional sites.

For example, if I want to buy a new stylish laptop or a house in an elite village, I have to see the goods in all their glory and from all angles. Preparation of such a presentation is worth a lot of investment, but it makes sense.

When I need a refrigerator repair or a private lawyer, I dial the appropriate request from Yandex and get several links to websites. The one of them, who will give me information about the services and prices of the company most quickly and clearly, is the best site. And excessive decoration and “creative” only irritate the view, which is used to immediately look in the “Prices” and “Contact Information” menus. It is enough for design to be just careful - it informs the visitor that the company is serious and responsible.

Who benefits from this myth?

It is beneficial to people who sell beautiful pictures under the guise of developing the site. They actively disseminate this belief and often do not even themselves realize that this is a myth, a delusion.

Beautiful pictures are not bad, but they should know their place. Paramount useful and conveniently submitted site content, and design plays a subordinate role.

Argued that "design increases sales . " Yes, it enhances, if we take the design in the original meaning of the word - “design”. Then the design is a conveniently located office, an intelligible location map on the site, the company's always accessible phone number and a pleasant voice on the other end of the line. But tell me how beautifully drawn Big Ben will help on the website of a translation agency, if I cannot understand from this site whether they translate into French. And on five other sites, everything is clear. So where am I going to go in the end?

I’ve been around for a long time in the web design industry and I know that drawing a site’s design and even creating and programming it is not everything. The hardest part starts after. 90% of customers do not know what to write on an already finished site. The originally planned two-story menu of twenty sections is suddenly reduced to five, and the maestro copywriter takes the stage and goes to the client. In Lebedev’s studio , by the way, there is a whole department that collects information from a client and helps him fill the site.

Create a website with your own hands. Market situation

Now all decent web services for creating websites are design-oriented. This means that you concentrate on how it will look , and not on what you want to say . For a trained person who has extensive experience in the development of sites, this is a convenient scheme. For an untrained person, this approach is confusing, distracting with ryushechki, prevents to concentrate on the main thing, for the sake of which people will come to the future site - specific information on the case.

In the next article, my colleague, Eldar Mustafin will consider in detail two such services, identify their pros and cons. Unfortunately, Eldar does not have an account on Habré. So if you have an extra invite, write, I will give his mail, he will be very grateful to you. Invite found =)