Usability & Design

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Web Design 101
By Reshma Kumar
Published: January, 2005

What is Web Design?
Sometimes in the daily grind of actually doing web design we can lose sight of what exactly web design really is. So, lets come up for some air for a bit - step away from your computer. We probably all have varying definitions of what web design means to us; however, we can likely agree that it encompasses a host of issues not the least of which are visual esthetics, usability and technology.

Web Design defined
Per About.com, "Web Design is the art and process of creating a single Web page or entire Web sites and may involve both the aesthetics and the mechanics of a Web site's operation although primarily it focuses on the look and feel of the Web site. Some of the aspects that may be included in Web design or Web production are graphics and animation creation, color selection, font selection, navigation design, content creation, HTML/XML authoring, JavaScript programming, and ecommerce development."

What makes a good design?
In my view, a good design is one which marries form and function. In other words, a design that successfully combines the elements of form - that is, design issues such as typography, color palette, imagery, layout, etc. with elements of function - that is, technology issues such as cross-browser compatibility, resolution independence, connection speed, programming languages, etc.

As a web site's creator we are not in control of the user's environment. The user controls their environment by way of:

• A variety of Platforms
• A variety of Connection Speeds
• A variety of Displays
• A variety of Browsers
• A variety of User Settings
• A variety of Devices
• A variety of Users

The challenge is in striking a balance such that design elements serve to enhance the exploration of a site without sacrificing the level of technology used.

Design considerations
Part of the process of creating a winning design is ensuring the site will be user-friendly. Understanding both the site and as well as user goals are imperative to ensuring you have a winning design. Who are your users? Why are they coming to your site? Is your site serving their needs? Knowing and respecting your audiences' needs are critical to the success of a site.

Recipe for success:

• Conduct user interviews
• Conduct focus groups
• Conduct card-sorting exercises to determine site taxonomy
• Develop information architecture to determine how users will interact with your site and how it will be structured. Knowing your audience will help you determine how you should structure the site to meet their needs.
• Create wireframes
• Create prototype
• Usability testing
• Iterate - incorporate revisions and run a secound round of usability if need be
• Post launch, periodically solicit feedback via online surveys

Choices, choices, choices
What color palette will you choose? Will it be part of the 256 browser-safe color palette? Do the colors reflect the identity of the organization? What message does your color choices send? Are they culturally sensitive?

Typography...what typeface will you choose? Will it be something standard and that renders well in different resolutions? Will your font choices accurately reflect the identity of the organization e.g. is it appropriate to use comic sans serif on a corporate site. How will you format your text? Will your fonts work across both Windows and Mac operating systems.

Image strategy...gifs vs jpgs. Does the style of imagery reflect the identity of the organization? Locating the right imagery is sometimes a challenge. Is your imagery strategically enhancing your content or hindering it?

Site layout...how will your site be laid out. Will the site be a fixed-width or liquid design? Where and how will you place design elements to optimize the user as well as visual experience? How will your navigation be structured?

Stylesheets...how will you determine the link styles, tables styles, styles for page headers and subheads, etc.

What level of animation and interactivity will the site support? Will your site incorporate multimedia, audio, video, flash and shockwave? If so, how much and how much is too much?

Other issues include are we designing for web accessibility and internationalization of the site. This is especially important for corporate and government web sites.

As you can tell, design considerations are vast and complex. The trick is in balancing both the user as well as business objectives in design. Sometimes a tough order; but when the two intersect, we have success.

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