Top 10 Web Design Principles
- Simple interface
- Have a purpose
- Minimize pop-ups
- Straightforward purpose
- Display important information first
- Avoid irrelevant information
- Have a purpose for your website
- Easy adaptability
- Focus user attention
- Visual hierarchy
Malcolm Sciandra
Dr. Chen
IST250
18 September 2016
Critical Web Design
Designing a website is a task that needs to factor in many principles in order to develop an acceptable website. Factors may range from the visual hierarchy of the website to its actual purpose. The user must be kept in mind during design as even though the designer may thoroughly understand the website, the website is new to the user. There are many principles to guide the designer when they begin their process. Most of these come from previous and current websites.
For every website there are some good and bad design principles that can be identified. The cotf.edu website displays solid modern web design principles, however there is room for improvement. This site is straightforward with its purpose, but it doesn’t really explain the topic. Also, it’s readability isn’t easily suitable for specific needs. For example, if the user was tasked to visit the website to view specific information or register, it may take a few clicks before that can happen. The website has a login feature, but it does not have a register feature. The website is very well simple and easy to adapt to, but it can be improved to assist the user in carrying out specific tasks.
Another website that carries out great modern web design principles, but can be improved in some aspects is psu.edu. Penn State’s website is fairly simple, but it isn’t easy to adapt to if you are browsing from site to site.The website seems to have no intention to direct user focus, the user must navigate through certain components to get to their desired location. In that case, it’s hard to say if the information within the site is relevant to the user. However, with this website’s visual hierarchy, specific information can be fairly easy to find. Fortunately, the website has no popups, making its visual hierarchy even more appealing.
There is one website in particular that ranks the lowest from the websites aforementioned in terms of user interface. The site eslcafe.com can be improved using a variety of modern web design principles. At first sight the website does not have a simple interface, information is cluttered everywhere and is condensed at even paragraphs at a time. This makes it difficult to differentiate relevant or specific information. It is also uneasy to adapt to due to its condensed and cluttered information struggling to fit on the page. With this in mind, the website isn’t trying to focus user attention, it rather displays its contents, and it is up to the user to focus their own attention. Although the website can be improved in those aspects, it has no popups, a purpose that is straightforward and a decent visual hierarchy.