Design is everywhere. It’s not just the verb form of a word describing a bunch of espresso drinking pseudo professionals that charge ridiculous amounts of money for drawing a ‘swoosh’ and calling it marketing. Design is a process of thoughtful consideration, a planning and purposing that considers usefulness and effectiveness it’s main goals. People that are a part of this process, that drive it and use creativity and artistic skill as tools to create, they are designers.

Web Design

When we talk about the design of a website, we’re talking about more than style. Navigation, information structure, page layout and interactivity are all things that need to be considered, things that need to be designed. It is possible to create a website without considering any of these things, and, not surprisingly, websites like that are created every day. However, if you want a website that is effective, and communicates a confident, purposeful message to your intended audience, design should be extremely important to you.

Usability

One of the big words that is thrown around a lot in web design circles these days is ‘usability’. The simple definition of usability is “available or convenient for use” [1]. Usability isn’t confined to web design, it’s a consideration for anything from washing machines to drinking glasses. If the shape of the glass makes drinking difficult, the glass has poor usability. Likewise, if the navigation structure of a website makes the information hard to find, the website has poor usability. And given the nature of Internet users, if your website is hard to use, visitors will simply move on and find a site that is easier to get around. The only way to ensure that your site is easy to navigate is to put some time into designing an information and navigation structure that is simple and easy to understand. Do some reading on web standards and visit www.websitesthatsuck.com for a fairly blunt assessment of your site. Don’t believe everything you read there, and remember that there are no perfect websites, but also remember that a walk through the hall of mirrors can be a very good thing.

Character and Communication

There’s a very simple fact about the Internet that is so obvious that it is sometimes forgotten, and it’s this: The Internet is primarily a visual communication medium. Sure, there are websites with sounds, some which speak to you, and we even make websites accessible to the blind who hear sites by use of screen readers. However, these things are exceptions or are secondary to the visual nature of the Web. So surely the appearance of your site would be something of high importance? One of the things that I find frustrating about some websites is that the style of the site doesn’t communicate the same message as the text. The subconscious or emotional connection created by the colours and shapes of the site don’t match the intellectual connection created by reading the text. And in most cases, it’s the emotional connection that happens first, before you even read the text. What is it they say about first impressions?

When it comes time to consider getting a website built, are you confident that the person that is building your site can take all the areas listed above, and create something for you or your business that is designed to communicate your message? This is the mark of a professional, in any industry, and it’s the reason professional design costs money. Not only are you getting a website built for you, you are having a marketing, productivity or sales tool designed for you by someone who knows what they’re doing. There’s more value in that than we sometimes realize.

Read Part 4 of the series: Search Engine Optimisation
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[1]: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/usability