10 things a web designer would never tell you : Boagworld web design podcast

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10 things a web designer would never tell you
Published on: February 5, 2009 by Paul Boag
These arty-farty web designers are alwaystelling you how your site should look. Don't listen to them! Don't theyknow the customer is always right? Here are 10 things a 'good webdesigner' would never tell you about choosing the perfect design.
Working with webdesigners is a nightmare. You will never meet a more opinionated bunchof snobs. They are always going on about 'white space', 'composition'and how they went to art college (like that counts as a propereducation!). When it comes to choosing the design of your site, theyare the last people you should listen to.
What follows are 10 things you need to know about managing a web design project, that no web designer will ever tell you!
Please Note: This post has been written with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek!
1. Always request speculative design up front
Before you pick which web designer to work with make sure they submitsome designs for your site upfront. Whatever you do, don't pay for thiswork. If they really want to work with you they will swallow the cost.
Some of them might start bleating about not doing 'speculativedesign' and that only designers desperate for work would do design forfree. Personally I ignore this BS. If they are 'so successful' thatthey can't spare the time to do unpaid work for me, then I don't wantto work with them.
What is great about speculative work is it is not constrained by'understanding the business' or 'user feedback'. Its all aboutcreativity. Surely a good web designer can come up with great work outof thin air, even if they don't know who the target audience is andhave never spoken to the client. I want something that makes me go wow.Who cares if it 'fulfils my business objectives.' The more bells andwhistles the better!
 
There is actually a campaign against doing speculative work on projects. Can you believe that!
 
2. Don't get hung up on end users
Web designers are always obsessing about the end users. They worrythat users won't like this or that they won't understand that. Itspathetic.
People like to be told what to do and they will ultimately followyour lead. I once had a web designer complain because I wanted tocollect users phone numbers on a sign up form for our newsletter.Apparently 'users' don't like being asked for unnecessary personalinformation. Can you believe it! How the hell am I going to cold callthese people if I don't have their phone numbers. Sometimes you wonderhow these idiots survive in business.
Instead of focus on user needs, focus on what you can squeeze outthem. Times are tough these days and so you need to maximise yourreturns on every one of these sheep. You have to be tough in business.
 
You have to admire these people. Before users can watch a demo of their product, the user has to provide contact details.
 
3. Rely on your gut instinct, not testing
Talking of users - what is this obsession with user testing? Justsounds like a way for web designers to charge more money if you ask me.
After all you have probably been working in your job for years. Youknow all there is to know about your audience, right? Even if you didrun user test sessions, stakeholder interviews or whatever other madeup technique is the latest fashion, its not going to tell you stuff youdo not already know.
Admittedly, these sessions occasionally turn up stuff you might notexpect, but can you really trust the results? Surely your years ofexperience count for more than a few hours of testing.
Of course, the other problem is that user testing is massivelyexpensive. I heard from a friend that it involves usability labs,videos, two way mirrors and 'facilitators' (whatever those are). Thatall sounds pricey to me!
Some web designers will tell you that they do it by going intouser's homes and talking with them in their own environment. Theyjustify this by saying you learn more because the user is relaxed andyou can see where they live. Personally, it doesn't sound veryprofessional and if it isn't expensive, how could it possibly give goodresults?
 
useit.comis the website of usability expert Jakob Neilsen. If usability testingproduces websites that look like this you are best avoiding the wholething.
 
4. Form a committee to provide feedback
Admittedly I maybe sounding a little arrogant, but I really am not.I think it is important to get the opinions of other people. I justthink web designers are not the people you should be asking. They livein a techy bubble and do not understand what it is like to be anordinary user like us.
I suggest forming a committee to approve any designs produced. Afterall web designers keep telling us that design is subjective. That meansyou shouldn't rely on the opinion of just one person (especially ifthat person is a designer). What you need is a committee to thrash outwhat the site should look like.
Ideally you would call a meeting with the designer in the room andget them to produce something there and then under the direction of thecommittee. However, most designers tend to get 'emotional' when yousuggest that. So instead I recommend giving them the freedom to producesomething themselves and then discuss it as a group.
Now inevitably this will lead to disagreement. Some people will likethe colour, others will hate it. This is natural. What you need to dois seek a compromise that will please everybody. If you can have thedesigner on hand to try out new ideas in the meeting this will reallyhelp. Before you know it you will have a design everybody can tolerate(although admittedly not everybody will like it).
 
The best way to produce a design is to work together as a committee to reach a compromise that everybody can tolerate.
 
5. Become obsessed with detail
"The devil is the detail they say. Nowhere is that more true than ona website. Unfortunately you cannot rely on a web designer to have thatattention to detail. Its hardly their fault. They are 'arty' peopleafter all and their brains just don't work that way.
If you want your design to be 'just so' you will need to micromanage every aspect of the design process. Don't be afraid to tell yourdesigner exactly what you need them to do. Be as specific as possible.After all, they call themselves pixel pushers.
 
Web designers love you to tell them how to design. They even refer to themselves as pixel pushers.
 
Also insist on consistency across all browsers. Web designers tendto be sloppy in this area. It might look great in Safari (apparentlythis is a browser - who knew!) but in Netscape 4 it looks awful. Theywill give you some rubbish about not all browsers being capable ofrendering modern design. They will say that as long as it is usable onall browsers, that is what matters. The hell it is! You don't put upwith that kind of rubbish in print design, so why should you on the web?
6. Enforce corporate style guides to the letter
Your organisation has a corporate design guide for a reason and yetweb designers think they can flaunt the rules. They will talk about thedifferences between print and the web. They will go on about colour onscreen, web typography and dots per inch. However, the real reason theywant to ignore your guidelines is because their egos will not allowthem to work within limitations.
You must take a firm hand over this issue and stick to the letter ofthe law. Enforce pantone numbers and ensure they use corporatetypefaces. They might mutter something about limited fonts on the webbut this is just not true. I know for a fact that sites built in flashcan use any font you want. With that in mind I always recommend thatsites are built entirely with Adobe Flash.
Oh yes, and watch out for abuse of the logo. Most style guides saythat the logo must have a certain number of millimetres around it toallow ample white space. I recommend taking a ruler and measuring thespace around your monitor on screen. Better still, print out the designso you can be even more accurate.
Renowned web designer Jason Santa Maria is brazen in his rejection of Branding Guidelines.7. Fit as much on the homepage as possible
Let's take a moment to discuss the design of your homepage in particular.
Without a doubt the homepage is by far the most important page onyour site. If I look at my own website statistics the majority ofpeople who come to my site never get further than the homepage (I haveno idea why this is the case!) This is a problem.
The solution is obvious when you also consider the importance ofminimising the number of clicks a user has to make to reach content -Put as much content as possible on the homepage.
This also solves the problem of everybody within your organisationwanting homepage real estate. Instead of endlessly discussing whosecontent is most important, simply put it all on there.
Of course with so much content on the homepage people might complaintheir content is lost in the crowd. The best solution in suchsituations is to either make it bigger or animate it. I find flashingtext particularly effective.
 
HavenWork reduce the number of clicks by putting all their content on the homepage. An effective use of space.
 
8. Ensure all content appears above the fold
Unfortunately you are limited in the amount of space available onthe homepage. This is because all content has to sit above the fold.
The fold refers to the point where users have to start scrolling. Aswe know users do not scroll. In 1994 Jakob Nielsen found that only 10%of users would scroll when presented with a web page. 15 years on I seeno reason why this would have changed.
Some designers will tell you that the fold is a myth. They willargue that it does not exist because different browsers, resolutionsand toolbars all effect the vertical available space. All I know isthat on my computer I have 470px of vertical space before I have tostart scrolling. I am a fairly typical user and so you should ensureall content is within this area.
The only exception to this rule is if your boss has a differentamount of vertical space. If he is going to be looking at the website Isuggest designing for his browser. Alternatively simply print out thesite for his approval.
 
This clearly disturbed individual is encouraging other web designers to protest against the fold!
 
9. You only need to test in Internet Explorer 6
Web designers like to claim they need to spend hours testing onevery browser combination. However, in reality this is just another wayto extract more money from you.
All you really need to do is build the site so it works on Internet Explorer 6.
Internet Explorer is the most dominant browser having by far thelargest market share. Although there are different versions of IE mostcompanies run IE6. As corporate customers are the people with the realmoney you should concentrate your testing on their browser. Also surelyif it works in IE6 it will work in IE7! You can trust Microsoft not tobreak the web.
If you want to be super cautious, add a message to your site tellingusers it is optimised for internet explorer. Users can then downloadthat browser if they want to see your site.
Why waste time testing in different browsers? Just instruct your users to download Internet Explorer.
10. SEO is more important than design
Getting the design of your website right is important. However it isno use if nobody sees it. Your number one priority has to be drivingtraffic to your site.
The best way to do this is through search engines. Fortunately thereare a plethora of tricks and techniques to fool Google into ranking youhighly. You can use hidden text, cloaking pages, redirects, doorwaypages and keyword stuffing to force you up the ranking. Google kindlylist these techniques in theirWeb Master Guidelines.
The problem with some of these techniques is that they undermine thedesign and content of your site. They can also affect the usability andaccessibility. However, this is a sacrifice worth making in order tokeep those new users rolling in.
Some web designers place a higher emphasis on repeat traffic.However, in my experience it is hard to get a user to return a secondtime. This is almost certainly because they have seen everythingalready. Why would they come back? Concentrate your efforts on creatinga steady stream of new users.
BMWmaintained their high quality design (left) by sending Google to aseparate keyword heavy page (right). Although this technique eventuallyled to their site being banned from Google it did prove very successfulfor a time.
Conclusions
If I could leave you with a single thought from this post it would be this - your web designer does not work with you, he works for you.
You need to take control of the design process. Its your site andyou should get the design you want. The role of the designer is toimplement your idea. Do not allow him to drag you down into endlessdiscussions about 'users needs', 'accessibility' and 'usability'. Theseare all distractions from the primary aim - to impress your boss andearn that next promotion.