Graphic design is the first thing that many Web site owners and managers think about when they seek out the services of a Web developer. There is no denying that the graphic design element of a Web site is important, but having a distorted perspective on the importance of design can be a stumbling stone in reaching the goal of creating an effective
site. Here are two common pitfalls:

1. Design Myopia—an owner or manager drives a Web design from their personal perspective and preferences. This approach might be fine for setting up a personal page on MySpace, but is most often not a good approach for effectively communicating the quality and unique value of a business or organization to the much broader cross section of those who will be visiting your Web site.It’s important to know that using conventional elements for the basic design, structure, and style of a Web site is a good thing. People will know how to get around and subconsciously associate your site with other quality sites they’ve visited. This doesn’t mean that your site will be a cookie-cutter template, it means it will possess a unique and professional visual presentation based on professional presentation standards that will best communicate your value.To be effective, your Web site should be built using best-practice design and structure principles that have been developed around the needs and conventions of your customers and prospects.
2. Design Centric Goals—Too high of importance is placed on graphic design. A site owner has a vision of what they want their site to look like and once that goal is achieved the project is considered a success. This often stems from Design Myopia as described above.

While design is important, without design being part of a holistic strategic approach to communication, it becomes impotent. A site with no design will trump the most artistically original site if the former has quality content and offers intuitive and easy to use solutions to its target visitors needs. The classic example is the most visited and arguably most successful Web site in the world: Google.

Web sites are a lot like people, their success is ultimately based on the value they contain, not their outward appearance. This is vital to understand so that design is put into its proper place. Web design is still important, it just has to be the dressing for content of real value.

Google is like one of those geniuses who are so recognizable and brilliant that they can get away with wearing an old t-shirt and jeans to deliver a key-note speech. It’s fair to say the brilliance of most of us is not as common knowledge.

Web design is the same, once the foundation of quality content is present, professional and usable design is an excellent catalyst to facilitate communicating the value of your site. In my next post I’ll get into some specifics about our philosophy and methods for designing Web sites that are modern, appealing and clearly communicate the values of your organization.

Imagine driving down the freeway…you see a billboard with a message about an accountant specializing in international business, just what you’ve been looking for! As you start to read a few sentences at 70 mph, a giant helium-filled monkey that’s anchored in place next to the billboard begins clashing it’s synthetic cymbals while cables retract and expand it’s eyelids. Hey look there’s some sort of logo on the monkey’s shirt for the accounting firm….too late, you’ve sped by the sign.

As ridiculous as this example sounds, it’s exactly what happens many times on websites. We find a site in a Google search that looks like it might be what we’re after, but on its front page were confronted by too many snippets of ambiguous information and distractions and no clear statements of what this site is about.

One of the most ludicrous distracting features that I’ve seen recently is “SitePal.” A zombie-like animated talking head that speaks in slow broken computer generated speech…”Welcome (octave lower) to our Website (two octaves higher) Please mouse over my (pause) face to make me talk. What’s even creepier is that on some versions the characters head slightly bobbles and it’s eyes cross as it attempts to follow your mouse movements.

Having some sort of animated or technical feature on a site can be tempting for its novelty factor. But just because something can be done does not mean that it should be done. Research has consistently shown that superfluous elements are often detrimental to the overall communication and persuasion goals of web sites. For
access to solid research on the topic visit the  Stanford Web Credibility Research site or, in keeping with the theme of efficient communication, check out the all-time classic, Don’t Make Me Think, by Steve Krug.