By: Thought Mechanics Web Design
There is a balance to be struck in every web design between creativity and usability. It’s sometimes the case that our most innovative and exiting ideas never work in practice, and we have to compromise in order to give the client exactly what they want. A web design is the clients business, online brand or whatever, not our online portfolio, or somewhere to show off our skills. While there’s certainly an element of showing what we can do, it has to be strictly within the brief the client provides whether we like it or not.
It’s all very well designing the most beautiful sites around, but if the visitor can’t find what they’re looking for, or gets lost in the navigation then the site is a fail. That lesson, that you have to design to a brief and not for yourself, is the most difficult for many web designers to come to terms with. Ask any that have had to scrap what they viewed as a great idea because they wouldn’t work in the context, or didn’t meet the brief. Once you have come to terms with it, it’s plain sailing, offering a kind of freedom different from that of trying to exceed your own expectations. You have to go from thinking you’re an artist who works with websites to a web designer who works for clients. It’s easy for some people, but not for others.
Anyone who has designed websites for any length of time will also be familiar with the form and function conundrum. The site has to look beautiful, be attractive, target the right demographic and use design elements to highlight the purpose. It has to do all that while remaining easy to navigate, clear, clean and quick. Despite the crooning of our inner artist, the first rule of web design is usability. A user has to be able to get what they want in the fewest clicks possible and never get lost in the process. Menus have to be clean, clear and logical, the hierarchy has to fit the purpose and so on.
The balance between creativity and usability comes into play long before you flex your creative muscles. The client brief and their expectations must also be managed in order for them to get what they need and be happy with it. Any layman in any walk of life will have a certain idea of what’s possible and what isn’t.
That idea may not have any bearing on reality, which is where we come in. It’s our job to manage expectations and show the client what will work and what won’t. To forge a compromise between the site they dream of having, and the site the users will be happy with. In the end, we don’t design for us, or the client, we design websites for users. If they aren’t happy with how it looks or how it works, the both the designer and the client fail.
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