February 03, 2006 @ 1:19 PM
The best web design tip I’ve read all week: “In design, if you don’t know why you’re putting something somewhere you’re likely making a mistake.”
Andy Rutledge does a terrific job examining Google’s interface from a design and architectural perspective. His solution, in my opinion, makes Google’s home page cleaner, more usable and less visually anemic. Using Google’s home page to make a point - a page that consists of so few elements to begin with - makes the design principles he cites easy to follow.
“If an element of the layout serves no specific purpose or if the visual or spacial properties of any element are chosen for no particular reason the result will be bad design. Don’t do that.” Words to live by!
Doing things right 80% of the time simply hands your competition a 20% window of opportunity. Thinking about design and usability on this finite level is what separates good home pages from great ones - good designers from great ones. Derek Powazek offers his own take on home page goals here.
Comments
I had this professor at college that always said something like this:"if you put elements on a surface without knowing what are they doing in each particular case, you are just serving a dish" He called that "diseño tipo bandeja" which means "tray design". I think it is another funny way to express what you have quoted.
Pati, well put, and fantastic site! I don't know what these little guys were for, but they rock! Check out Cabana Digital here!
Thanks Mark for visit our site and for your sweet words. They are different versions of a thumb, and his name is Godo 
Add a comment
