What Is Design?
Web design is design applied to the web
Design that works becomes part of our lifestyle
- an interface can be a draw, e.g. Flickr
Graphic Design vs. Utility Design
"Consumer schlock"
- not beautiful, but well-designed
- "appropriate design"
- example: cereal box
Example: eBay
- why does it work?
- desire: we'll go through anything to get what we want badly enough
- undesigned experiences appeal to some
But you can't always predict which experiences will transcend design (e.g. Craigslist)
An undesigned site can work if it's functional - so does design matter?
- It does in some countries, e.g. Japan, Denmark
- but US is used to bad design
Example of undesigned site where lack of design gets in the way: Bugzilla
- you need IA input
Effective consumer design: AOL
Not effective: Amazon
- clutter
- but people are comfortable with it, e.g. tabs
Toolbars
Well-designed sites
- does design reflect the brand?
- well-known sites can break with traditional design
- good IA + good copywriting
Speed vs. design
- depends on your goal
How can we increase respect for design?
- show what a good redesign looks like
but that's a risk
not better-looking, better-performing - help client meet their goals
Looking at it with stylesheets turned off is not the same as using a non-CSS browser
Extreme customization
- bad for design
- don't give people too many choices
- don't give in to all "edge cases," but listen to them
Kelly: Design should support brand
Joe: Design for design's sake is possible on the web
How do search engines influence design?
- a user can enter your site from any page, not just homepage
Newsreaders to access content → does design still matter?
- interfaces still matter, e.g. mobile devices for reading news