those minuscule details

… polish them or not?

It is tempting to go over every little detail in a design, and fine-tune and “polish” them down to the last screen-pixel.
May make for an OK pass-time activity, but I'm not sure how much there is to gain by such improvements, or if indeed they are improvements.

The answer, as always, is that “it depends” … mainly on what one wants to achieve.

improving visitors' experience

Some like it rough and square, some like it soft and curvy, some like it plain and light, and some like it colorized and crowded. Also, when it comes to web designs a large number of visitors simply don't care – especially not about details.

Right, visitors' preferences are all over the place, and there is no way to please them all with one design. So, one may as well start by picking a target-group, and try to figure out how to make as many as possible of them feel welcome enough to engage in whatever the site is about.

Marketing of products does in itself set the direction a design must go, as it doesn't make much sense to tailor a design for one group while trying to sell products to another. Clear and simple messages work best, in design as well as content.

When it comes to those pesky details, not having too many in view is at least as important as making each of them look just right in context. Certainly doesn't hurt to bring out the erazer along with the polishing cloth, as visitors to sites that sell stuff aren't there to look at design, but to decide whether, and if so what, to buy.

creating and selling an image

What image businesses, groups, and individuals want to present via design, vary at least as much as visitors' preferences. A common factor is that it rarely ever is about what is there, but rather about what one wants visitors to believe is there.

It is all about selling an image.

Presenting and promoting a brand is serious matters in the business world. Most businesses want more than any web design can deliver in sensible ways – especially on small screens. However, it's the same for all, so…

Regardless of whether it is presence only, or online sales, finding the best way to present products and/or services, must take precedence over all else. The “trick” is to remove as many distracting design ideas and elements as possible, and balance and polish what is left to fit the business profile and intended target.

On personal sites we have more freedom to design “wild”, but erazing unnecessary and disturbing details usually works well for all sites. “Plain and simple” may not win many design prices, but they sure beat overdesigned sites when it comes to delivering content to the public.

a web carpenter's opinion

The devil may be in the details, but there most certainly is something else there also: tiny pieces of ones own personality. Do we really want to polish ourself into something unrecognizable?

A certain degree of “rawness” left in here and there, in both design details and content, may lift a page/site above average by its authenticity. So, when looking at those details again, even though we can, maybe it isn't necessary to refine and polish them more.

The many years spent on web carpentry have taught me one thing: slight imperfections are like beauty-spots – they can make all the difference on the world wide web. Regardless of how perfect a visual design may appear, it risks not being recognized without those minuscule “spots”.

It is of course entirely possible to add well-placed “beauty-spots” later on, i.e. fake it, as in the real world. Authenticity may suffer, but who cares…

sincerely georg; sign

Hageland 02.nov.2017
last rev: 12.sep.2020

do as we say, not as we do !

From time to time one will get unsolicited advices about this and that regarding web design. I've received my fair share…
You know, everybody and their cat and dog has a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts, and so on and so forth, and there are quite a few with strong views on design out here.

Here, as in all walks of life, those who most often insist on telling us what to do and how to do it, are those who have little to no intention, or ability, to follow their own advices. Funny that‽

Those who really know how things work – and what doesn't work, leave fellow designers alone unless we seek them up. Lots of those fine people out here, and I'm a frequent user of search engines.

simple design philosophy

There are no set rules or superior methods in web design, only more or less successful results.

The only rule I, sometimes, try to follow, is to avoid messing up designs too much everywhere. There's a limit to how stuffed and confusing a design can become, and still appear to be designed by a somewhat sane person.

Although sanity isn't a requirement in web design, tiny doses of this somewhat rare mental condition can at times be quite useful. Too high and/or too frequent doses has on the other hand a tendency to dampen creativity, so watch out.

Choice of design theme is most important, as it pretty much defines the frame that everything that goes into the site at a later date has to fit within.
Provide plenty freedom within the design theme for variations in content and mood, as shoehorning deviating content into a too narrow, or simply wrong, design theme, is bound to appear odd to visitors.

One tip to go, is to never design for designers. Apart from being a too small and varied group to bother target and attempt to please, most designers pretty much ignore other designers' work.

down to design basics

Most web pages have an upper and a lower part – header and footer, where a site's and its owner's identity can be designed in.
Design in between these two extremes – the content area, should, in my opinion, be restricted and kept simple, as it is important that the design doesn't draw attention from the content.

As visitors we may look a design over once or twice while figuring our way around, and after that it is the content that has to carry us through and make us come back for more. Only specially interested come back for the design, no matter how good it looks.

distractions…

Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting a different result
— Albert Einstein

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
— Albert Einstein