{"rowid": 217, "title": "Beyond Web Mechanics \u2013 Creating Meaningful Web Design", "contents": "It was just over three years ago when I embarked on becoming a web designer, and the first opinion piece about the state of web design I came across was a conference talk by Elliot Jay Stocks called \u2018Destroy the Web 2.0 Look\u2019. Elliot\u2019s presentation was a call to arms, a plea to web designers the world over to stop the endless reproductions of the so called \u2018Web 2.0 look\u2019.\n\nThree and a half years on from Elliot\u2019s talk, what has changed? Well, from an aesthetic standpoint, not a whole lot. The Web 2.0 look has evolved, but it\u2019s still with us and much of the web remains filled with cookie cutter websites that bear a striking resemblance to one another. This wouldn\u2019t matter so much if these websites were selling comparable services or products, but they\u2019re not. They look similar, they follow the same web design trends; their aesthetic style sends out a very similar message, yet they\u2019re selling completely different services or products. How can you be communicating effectively with your users when your online book store is visually indistinguishable from an online cosmetic store? This just doesn\u2019t make sense. \n\nI don\u2019t want to belittle the current version of the Web 2.0 look for the sake of it. I want to talk about the opportunity we have as web designers to create more meaningful experiences for the people using our websites. Using design wisely gives us the ability to communicate messages, ideas and attitudes that our users will understand and connect with.\n\nBeing human\n\nAs human beings we respond emotionally to everything around us \u2013 people, objects, posters, packaging or websites. We also respond in different ways to different kinds of aesthetic design and style. We care about style and aesthetics deeply, whether we realise it or not. Aesthetic design has the power to attract or repel. We often make decisions based purely on aesthetics and style \u2013 and don\u2019t retailers the world over know it! We connect attitudes and strongly held beliefs to style. Individuals will proudly associate themselves with a certain style or aesthetic because it\u2019s an expression of who they are. You know that old phrase, \u2018Don\u2019t judge a book by its cover\u2019?  Well, the problem is that people do, so it\u2019s important we get the cover right.\n\nMuch is made of how to structure web pages, how to create a logical information hierarchy, how to use layout and typography to clearly communicate with your users. It\u2019s important, however, not to mistake clarity of information or legibility with getting your message across. Few users actually read websites word by word: it\u2019s far more likely they\u2019ll just scan the page. If the page is copy-heavy and nothing grabs their attention, they may well just move on. This is why it\u2019s so important to create a visual experience that actually means something to the user. \n\nMeaningful design\n\nWhen we view a poster or website, we make split-second assessments and judgements of what is in front of us. Our first impressions of what a website does or who it is aimed at are provoked by the style and aesthetic of the website. For example, with clever use of colour, typography, graphic design and imagery we can communicate to users that an organisation is friendly, edgy, compassionate, fun or environmentally conscious.\n\nUsing a certain aesthetic we can convey the personality of that organisation, target age ranges, different sexes or cultural groups, communicate brand attributes, and more. We can make our users feel like they\u2019re part of something and, perhaps even more importantly, we can make new users want to be a part of something. And we can achieve all this before the user has read a single word. \n\nBy establishing a website\u2019s aesthetic and creating a meaningful visual language, a design is no longer just a random collection of pretty gradients that have been plucked out of thin air. There can be a logic behind the design decisions we make. So, before you slap another generic piece of ribbon or an ultra shiny icon into the top-left corner of your website, think about why you are doing it. If you can\u2019t come up with a reason better than \u201cI saw it on another website\u201d, it\u2019s probably a poor application of style.\n\nDesign and style\n\nThere are a number of reasons why the web suffers from a lack meaningful design. Firstly, there are too many preconceptions of what a website should look like. It\u2019s too easy for designers to borrow styles from other websites, thereby limiting the range of website designs we see on the web. Secondly, many web designers think of aesthetic design as of secondary importance, which shouldn\u2019t be the case. Designing websites that are accessible and easy to use is, of course, very important but this is the very least a web designer should be delivering. Easy to use websites should come as standard \u2013 it\u2019s equally important to create meaningful, compelling and beautiful experiences for everyone who uses our websites. The aesthetics of your site are part of the design, and to ignore this and play down the role of aesthetic design is just a wasted opportunity. \n\nNo compromise necessary\n\nEasy to use, accessible websites and beautiful, meaningful aesthetics are not mutually exclusive. The key is to apply style and aesthetic design appropriately. We need to think about who and what we\u2019re designing for and ask ourselves why we\u2019re applying a certain kind of aesthetic style to our design. If you do this, there\u2019s no reason why effective, functional design should come at the expense of jaw-dropping, meaningful aesthetics.\n\nWeb designers need to understand the differences between functional design and aesthetic design but, even more importantly, they need to know how to make them work together.  It\u2019s combining these elements of design successfully that makes for the best web design in the world.", "year": "2010", "author": "Mike Kus", "author_slug": "mikekus", "published": "2010-12-05T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/beyond-web-mechanics-creating-meaningful-web-design/", "topic": "design"}