Comments on: Three Pillars of Good Web Design http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/ Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:56:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: steven http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-577 steven Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:17:07 +0000 http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-577 I'd agree that not everyone can be everything in this field. When you take graphic design, for example, it would be much cheaper to employ someone to do the job efficiently and correctly than to struggle myself in Photoshop for a week over what should be one day's work. Plus I'd only have 1/10th the final product (optimistic I admit). What I am a big believer in is that everyone should have some appreciation of the whole skillset - for example, be an expert graphic designer but understand good code from bad, a little about back end programming issues, database design and SQL, and about the underlying technologies. I'm always wary of the one man band advertisements because its almost impossible nowdays to be an expert across the board with web technologies. You may find its more economical in the long run to fish out the database work and take a slice of the price off the top for yourself for managing it. Maybe... I’d agree that not everyone can be everything in this field. When you take graphic design, for example, it would be much cheaper to employ someone to do the job efficiently and correctly than to struggle myself in Photoshop for a week over what should be one day’s work. Plus I’d only have 1/10th the final product (optimistic I admit).

What I am a big believer in is that everyone should have some appreciation of the whole skillset - for example, be an expert graphic designer but understand good code from bad, a little about back end programming issues, database design and SQL, and about the underlying technologies.

I’m always wary of the one man band advertisements because its almost impossible nowdays to be an expert across the board with web technologies. You may find its more economical in the long run to fish out the database work and take a slice of the price off the top for yourself for managing it. Maybe…

]]> By: Robin P http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-576 Robin P Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:44:54 +0000 http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-576 Yes, the whole is extremely important. Currently I'm working on a database project and it one of those few moment where I'm being technically challenged. I starting to think that maybe part of the key to this is more than type of person being involved. Most of the time good code designers are not good visual designer, maybe type of work to be done well has be to cross disciplines. Yes, the whole is extremely important. Currently I’m working on a database project and it one of those few moment where I’m being technically challenged. I starting to think that maybe part of the key to this is more than type of person being involved. Most of the time good code designers are not good visual designer, maybe type of work to be done well has be to cross disciplines.

]]> By: steven http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-559 steven Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:07:36 +0000 http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-559 Yes I read the Khoi Vinh article on storytelling and narrative when it was published a few weeks ago. I suppose when I called my first pillar of design aesthetics what I really should have called it was visual interaction design... that part of the design which is visually apparent and should lead us through the functionality of the site. If that makes sense. Each of these three pillars basically interacts with and supports the others (rather than being independent which is a common perspective out there at present). I think D Keith Robinson's template dillemma article hits a few points (one being Khoi on storytelling)... but my point is really that all these things interrelate - visual design, functionality and technical quality. For example there is a graphic designer I can think of who designs jaw dropping sites I could never dream of achieving - but only on one pillar and therefore I wouldn't call them great web design. Functionally and technically they fall apart because with JavaScript off, for example, there is no way into the subpages of the site. The same applies to people who are just about technical excellence but have no concept of the effect a strong graphic designer can bring to a project. What use is a quality coded website which looks like crap and has no understanding of user psychology or interaction? Which is why I referred to these as pillars. I think visual design is the most obvious naturally because our eyes can instantly assess the layman's aesthetic appreciation. Functionality and quality of code are less obvious but equally as important when the design has to operate for real users on the web. Yes I read the Khoi Vinh article on storytelling and narrative when it was published a few weeks ago. I suppose when I called my first pillar of design aesthetics what I really should have called it was visual interaction design… that part of the design which is visually apparent and should lead us through the functionality of the site. If that makes sense. Each of these three pillars basically interacts with and supports the others (rather than being independent which is a common perspective out there at present).

I think D Keith Robinson’s template dillemma article hits a few points (one being Khoi on storytelling)… but my point is really that all these things interrelate - visual design, functionality and technical quality. For example there is a graphic designer I can think of who designs jaw dropping sites I could never dream of achieving - but only on one pillar and therefore I wouldn’t call them great web design. Functionally and technically they fall apart because with JavaScript off, for example, there is no way into the subpages of the site.

The same applies to people who are just about technical excellence but have no concept of the effect a strong graphic designer can bring to a project. What use is a quality coded website which looks like crap and has no understanding of user psychology or interaction? Which is why I referred to these as pillars.

I think visual design is the most obvious naturally because our eyes can instantly assess the layman’s aesthetic appreciation. Functionality and quality of code are less obvious but equally as important when the design has to operate for real users on the web.

]]> By: Robin P http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-558 Robin P Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:05:22 +0000 http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-558 How about storytelling and good web design? Have you read http://www.blueflavor.com/blog/design/the_template_dilemma.php what are your thoughts on that How about storytelling and good web design? Have you read http://www.blueflavor.com/blog/design/the_template_dilemma.php what are your thoughts on that

]]> By: A collection of stuff » A number of interesting articles on web development http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-554 A collection of stuff » A number of interesting articles on web development Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:03:44 +0000 http://stevenclark.com.au/2008/01/22/three-pillars-of-good-web-design/#comment-554 [...] Steven Clark wrote an excellent article on The Three Pillars of Good Web Design, and I couldn’t agree more with what he has to say. A web site is not a poster, or a [...] [...] Steven Clark wrote an excellent article on The Three Pillars of Good Web Design, and I couldn’t agree more with what he has to say. A web site is not a poster, or a [...]

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