When Good Web Design Is CRAP

Hello. I hope your week is going well.

I just finished reading an article in eWeek on good web design. What is it? It’s ease of use, its usability. Does it do what it’s supposed to do?

The article reminded me of a seminar I presented last year entitled “Introduction to Good Web Design”. I spoke about keeping uniformity and simplicity in the design. Here are four basic principles on good web design I spoke about:

C: Contrast – Something needs to stand out from the rest of the stuff. For instance, if every word was the same size, you wouldn’t know what word was more important.

R: Repetition – “Repetition is the mother of skill.” Anthony Robbins told me that one. Repetition is the logo in the same place throughout the website. Repetition is navigation on all the pages, same color scheme, same theme, etc.

A: Alignment – My personal favorite. Aligning text with an image, border or margin can display many dramatic effects. Try justifying everything left, instead of centering everything.

P: Proximity – The importance of grouping like items together. For instance, adding a caption near the corresponding picture.

Notice the acronym…that’s right, good design is C.R.A.P.

P.S. These suggestions are my own but the principles I learned from Robin Williams (No, not the comedian). See my post and reviews of her books.

Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.”

Photo by gdtography on Unsplash