Web Design Principles

Today's entry is by guest writer Christian Strain, a professional web developer who has done work for Disney, the U.S. Army, NASA, and more...

There are a few principles I've developed for myself along the way that have become a sort of standards I always try to adhere to when developing for the web. Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule; especially in an area so wide like web design and multimedia.

Some of these I've learned from other developers, but for the life of me, I can't remember any single source on information. I'd certainly give credit if I could. These principles have always served me well.


1) Single Source of Navigation:
User friendly navigation is essential in development. Having more than one method of navigation can cause confusion and make the user feel overwhelmed.


2) Simple Navigation:
You always have to consider your audience with this one. In most cases you're developing for the lowest common denominator of user. I try to imagine what my grandparents would do when coming to the page. If the navigation is too complicated or difficult to find, they'll simply leave. Remember that in most cases people are a simple back button click away from looking at what else Google has to offer them.


3) Funneling Information:
This is one of the biggest and hardest parts of a project. In some cases, the client already has their content and how they want to present it. I always try to steer them to a more funneling type of information. If you have a 100 different things to show them, on the menu show only 5. When they click on one of those five, show them only 4 new ways to find what they're looking for. Then within that 4, they'll have 5 options.

It seems like a lot of clicking, but compare that with someone having to read 100 different links to find what they want on the front page, and it's no contest which one users prefer.


4) Clean Simple Design:
The hardest part of this is convincing the client that sometimes you don't need to put all of the information on their site. I had a client once that wanted to put the weather and local information on their front page. This had nothing to do with the content of the site, they just thought it was cool.

Most of the time the content a client gives you is a lot of information. That information has a place on the site, but it's not all in one place. A good example of this is when you're looking at hardware to buy on the Dell site. Below you'll find technical information about the device, but you can click buttons or tabs to find out more. If you were to put all of this information on a single page, it would be daunting for the user to find the information they're looking for. Compartmentalize and break down the information.


5) Avoid Plugins and Script:
The methods I use typically avoid using javaScript and plugins when possible. When I do use them, I try and make sure that they won't hinder navigation if they aren't working. We can't control what people have on their computers; in some cases, they can't either. Never use Flash or other methods in your navigation. I've developed a CSS method of roll over effects with buttons to avoid using javaScript and it works cross browser. I've written a blog on this.



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