Designing a Web Site with a Purpose in Mind

April 7th, 2006 by Allen | Filed under Web Design.

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Web developers (yes, even LDS Web developers) need to be concerned with how usable their sites are. Key to that consideration is designing your site with a purpose in mind. Sites that try to be all things to all people rarely succeed. The correlary to that truism is that if you can design your site so it is more targeted–more focused on achieving a specific purpose–the more chance you have of achieving that purpose.

I read a great article in this regard the other day entitled Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction.

Let me know what you think.

-Allen

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4 Responses to “Designing a Web Site with a Purpose in Mind”

  1. Allison Kendrick | 14/07/06

    I agree with what you are saying–an easy to use web site makes the friction less. I even read the article–good one. When I was working on my M. Ed., I took an interesting class in design, that helped me to also understand web page design. Here is one fun site I found on what NOT to do: http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/main.htm and a couple on to aim for:
    http://www.webstyleguide.com/
    http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html
    http://www.cameronolthuis.com/2006/01/75-helpful-web-design-resources/

  2. Janet Hughes | 29/04/07

    (No Web site–yet.)

    Yes. Forethought in design creates a usable site. Consider the number of links required, as the article specifies. The number of links are the hurdles that stand between the seeker and the goal. Too many hurdles, the seeker looks for another path, another resource, another site. It’s not a treasure hunt, not a video game, it’s an information resource. And we want the seeker to find the information.

  3. Janet Hughes | 29/04/07

    (No Web site–yet.)

    The author is right, the number of links create hurdles that the seeker must overcome before reaching the goal. The more hurdles, the more likely the seeker will turn to another path, another resource, another site. It’s not a video game, it’s an information resource. And we want the seeker to reach the goal, to find the information.

  4. Janet Hughes | 29/04/07

    Final comment: the Web site, the ISP, the portal, the connection, or my system is unstable. Please excuse the duplicate post.
    : )

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