I just read a fantastic article about “Why You Don’t Want Michelangelo Working On Your Website.” While the title pretty much explains what the article is about, I liked a couple of specific points they made. First, here’s a great analogy:

Your [website] visitor is waiting for dinner.

Imagine going to a restaurant hungry and ready to eat. Now imagine that before you can even order your meal, the wait staff delivers a 10 minute presentation about the restaurant, the staff, etc. Sure, it would be nice to know these things, but who wants to wait when it’s time to eat?

Here are the other key points I liked:

  • Most websites can and should be structurally similar. Just like people, most websites can and should be structurally similar. That doesn’t mean the same colors should be used, the exact same layouts, etc. It simply means that navigation should be on the top of the page and on either side, that the search function should be top-right, that links to your ‘About’ and ‘Contact’ pages should always be found in the footer, etc.
  • Animations and fancy graphic layouts can be distracting. It’s patently obvious, but there are a lot of web designers that just don’t get this simple point.

If you think of a website as a tool, and if you design your website to provide a certain function (say, lead generation), you will be successful. Check out our Principals of Business Website Design for more design suggestions.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 3:42 pm.
Categories: Web Design.

One Comment, Comment or Ping

  1. Steve

    Excellent points. Thanks for reminding us of these. Ya know, when a website starts off with a flash intro, for example, I generally close the window and move on.
    The point about “structurally similiar” is something that Windows Vista shoulda remembered when they ditched the “up one folder” button.
    The functionality is still there, but where? Frustrating to say the least.

    Jul 21st, 2008

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