I believe people want to use clear, intuitive, functional websites. A clean, professional look reflects well on your business. I don't believe in overloading the user with a lot of bells and whistles. My design beliefs include these principles:
- Looks alone aren't enough. A dozen high-quality graphics might look nice, but it won't matter if your customers get tired of waiting for them to load and go elsewhere.
- Keep it simple. People want clarity, predictability, and a minimum of clutter. An idea that seems "clever" to a designer will probably confuse, and thereby annoy, a large percentage of your users. Your website should help people, not make them angry at you!
- Never use a graphic when CSS will do. Colors, borders, spacing, even certain rollover effects can be achieved using CSS without the drag of loading more images. And it's a lot more flexible, too.
- Customers don't want Flash intros. Unless you're in the entertainment business, a Flash intro is just an unwanted delay that keeps people from their purpose. That's why every Flash intro has a "skip intro" button. I do not offer Flash design.
- The client decides. Although I personally believe certain things, such as "visitor counters are superfluous," I also believe that intelligent people can and do disagree and there are exceptions to every rule. I am happy to explain the pros and cons of certain design elements, but you make the final decisions for your site. So if you want a visitor counter, you get one.
© 2005 Carina Merrick