More than a pretty face

July 20, 2010

One of the first things I assert in the book is that design is so much more than how your site looks. If you’ve been doing programming for even a few months, you’ll understand that design is about both form and function. You design things to solve problems. If a site looks good but has weak content or broken functionality, it’s a failed design.

Unfortunately, many technical people tend to completely miss the point. A pretty face is important, but I have seen applications with serious usability flaws praised for their excellent designs. I have seen applications win awards when the actual promised functionality doesn’t even work.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is why saying something looks pretty doesn’t have much meaning. I personally don’t enjoy the way the 37Signals applications like Basecamp and Backpack look, but I recognize that they are extremely well-designed applications. And when I am actually using Highrise to get things done, I don’t notice the colors, fonts, or design elements because the interface and application work really well. It’s really important to remember that design is about the look and function.

Check out Myth #4: Design is about making a website look good (via UXMyths) for some interesting quotes about this issue.

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