The June 2007 "What I've learned about Web Design" Official List

Posted on Sunday, June 3rd

I first discovered and touched raw HTML in 2000. Now here it is, 2007 and I'm running my own web design business which just keeps growing. This is certainly result of my passion for the work I do and a commitment to doing everything better all the time.

I know that most of my visitors are not potential clients, but in fact other web designers. For this reason, many of the posts I add to this site are aimed at them rather than customers.

So all you designers out there, if you've come here in the hopes that you can learn something and profit from it somehow, here is my June 2007 definitive “What I've learned about web design”. Some of the items on this list may seem like they shouldn't be here, but trust me in the deeper realm of considering a user's experience, they should. At any rate, here's my attempt at some web design pearls of wisdom, worthy of writing on parchment and hanging in your studio somewhere:

  • Small fonts sizes are cute but hard to read.
  • As people get older, cuteness fades in all ways and becomes replaced by usefulness.
  • We're all getting older.
  • Whitespace is just alright.
  • The “no-scrolling” belief was a misconception. Scrolling is the web equivalent to turning pages in a book.
  • The path eye follows in print is the same on the web.
  • Animation is annoying, but noise is intolerable.
  • Flash is cute (see above) but sometimes handsome.
  • A catchy name can make old, worn out and mis-trusted practices cool and exciting again (Ajax).
  • Simple is as close to perfect as people can get.
  • Even though simple seems similar to easy, it seems to be hard for most people to accomplish.
  • Though I can create simple interfaces for the web, I find that I complicate many other “real” aspects in my own life. Go figure.

I'm sure that there's more little gems to be listed here, but that'll have to wait until July?

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Keep it Clean, Simple & Elegant

The web is confusing enough already.
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