Site Design 101

Having spent some quality time with developers and UX Designers, I’ve come to appreciate that not only is website design a really interesting topic but it’s also a bit controversial.

Almost by default it’s easy to believe, especially for younger crowds, that the only way a website can be successful is if it’s “up to date”, hip, stylized and trendy like Apple.com or the Tesla Cybertruck ordering page. But alas, Craigslist receives approximately 10 million visitors a day! Seth Godin’s plain-as-an-empty-tortilla blog gets about 600,000 visitors per month (the design is plain, not the content)! Google.com is essentially a box with a title, and it holds claim to 90% of the web browser market share! So what gives?

The truth is, as advanced as the internet and our computers may be; most websites, even very popular websites, are nothing but a bunch of rectangles with text and images. It’s that simple!

Just kidding, it’s not THAT simple…

Yes, that’s the main structure of site design, but there is SO much more to know! There is an unfathomable number of articles, books, and videos about all the ins and outs and nuances of site design.

The core of site design success though is usability. This is the common link in successful websites no matter how plain or trendy they may be. From our good and honest friend, Wikipedia:

“Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience.”

Going a little deeper into that; usability looks different for different people. For example, when it comes to e-commerce sites, you have to play by the usability rules of the market you are catering to. Construction dudes looking for decent prices on metal products likely don’t mind the unrefined appearance of MetalDepot.com. Other users may see its unrefined appearance and immediately look elsewhere thinking such a poor looking site must be indicative of a poor customer experience waiting to happen.

Now, a site that caters to middle-class Americans wanting to HGTVify their home, like HomeDepot.com, has to put in the work to make sure that the photography and overall design says “you want this, you need this, you can trust us!”. If it fails to give that impression to their target audience then it fails to be usable to them.

In summary, site design is all about 1. Usability and 2. Catering to your unique audience’s wants, needs, and expectations. The rest is science! …or something like that.

Related posts:

If you need to batch delete all Outlook rules that perform a specific action, such as “Move”, “Copy” or “Flag”, you can read this article. Here we will take “Move” action as an example to introduce…