Thursday, February 01, 2007

Good Design or Pretty Design

I have been doing a lot of reading on Web 2.0 technologies and design traits because of my project. I have come across several sites, some pretty, some ordinary but very few well-designed. Also several times, people(even designers) mistake pretty for well-designed.
Take this site for example, looks great doesn't it? But the minute you click 'enter site', it opens a pop-up, you click, 'launch' it opens another pop-up. Three windows!! Its bad information architecture, navigation and extremely bad web design. If only the developer had spent as much time thinking about the user interface as much as to prettify the site! And this website was declared 'site of the day' by this one.
And plain sites do not fare any better. Check out this very famous source for whitepapers. Can you figure out how to log into this portal? I could not, the information design is atrocious. If I am going to pay for this site, I might as well be able to navigate!!
The internet is growing, but it is also getting to be full of trash.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Anisha Malhotra said...

A valid question raised...

haha.. as rahul explained me the other day... look at the frequency of visits to the site...

if the site is being designed for one or two time viewing all the YO! web 2.0 stuff is okeh... but as soon as it goes for a mass audience... designers need to understand and come out of the beauty parlor shop which hides the functioning and focuses on the not to be missed form...

well, thts why we have entered the industry.. all this sensitivity is gud for us and for the users too...

All the best for the world of better substance designs and not just beautiful designs...

10:40 PM  
Blogger Aditi said...

yaay! the blog's first comment!! its lives...
and thanks Anisha that was a very insightful comment:)

10:43 PM  

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