Web Design

1) Throughout this article Flanders is constantly stressing the concept of user-focused design over firm-focused design. He states that, “too many organizations believe that a web site is about opening a new marketing channel” when in fact they should be focusing on aiding the viewer to gain any and all company related information.
This idea not only applies to web design but to all product design in general. When commenting on the color contrast, Flanders observed that a page’s designer can read the page even when he/she can’t literally read it. This concept, in my opinion, is the hardest obstacle to overcome when designing a product. Too often a “well designed” product is only well designed from the designer’s point of view; never was the customer’s viewpoint considered during the design process, making it terribly difficult for the final user to properly operate the product.
Consumer-focused designed is a key element in creating an easy to use, well organized product or webpage. When users can easily and efficiently use a product they are more likely to consider it a “good” product no matter how high-tech its components are.
2) Expanding on the notion of consumer-focused design, Flanders also touches on several other webpage design concerns including: the four second rule, layout/contrast, and navigation. All of these concepts are vital in the design of a consumer-friendly, easy to use website. A top-notch website utilizes the dialectical relationship between each key component noted by Flanders.
The four second rule is the foundation of a consumer-focused design; if the viewer is not able to quickly understand what they’re looking at, they’ll probably leave. This doesn’t necessarily mean the website can’t be creative and unique, but it is crucial to develop that creativity in an easy to understand way. Again, the point of a website is to further the viewer’s knowledge about the company; if they’re at a company’s website they’re attention has already been gained. At that point the viewer needs nothing more than the information they’re looking for, no further marketing is needed.
A seemingly obvious, but often missed aspect of design is the layout and overall look of the page. Too often do viewers come across illegible contrast or distracting graphics. It is difficult to understand how this mistake can be made, but it does in fact happen. Ultimately, a website’s user is unlikely to take the time to decipher a nearly unreadable page. This point comes back to Flanders thoughts on the designer being bale to read his/her website no matter how poorly it is designed.
Navigation is an underlying aspect of a webpage’s layout. Without clean navigation, a well laid out page is impossible to use. A site’s navigation need not be complicated; a simple navigation system is all that’s needed to allow someone to easily browse the site. Well labeled, properly positioned buttons, each with their own destination, make navigation a subliminal task. Again, the idea of navigation is one that is too often over-complicated, keeping it simple will keep users happy.
3) 1. Organized
2. Only necessary information
3. Few or no videos and/or animation
4. No introduction video
5. Simple navigation