Web design
Designs websites and web apps: their structure, their look and how people navigate them, on any screen size.
What problem it addresses
People don’t read a website, they scan it looking for something. If they have to think about where they are, they leave.
Principles
Don’t make them think
What is obvious needs no explanation.
Made for scanning
Clear headings, short blocks and visible hierarchy.
For every screen
The same website, adapted to phone and computer.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Test whether someone understands what the page is about in five seconds.
Avoid
Filling the page with text nobody is going to read.
Don’t fall for it
What is clear to the team is not clear to someone arriving for the first time.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2000
Steve Krug
Argued that a website should be so obvious that it doesn’t make its users think.
- 2010
Ethan Marcotte
Proposed that a single website should adapt to any screen.
Sources
Original sources
- Krug, S. (2000). Don’t make me think: A common sense approach to web usability. New Riders.
- Marcotte, E. (2010, May 25). Responsive web design. A List Apart. View source: Marcotte, E. (2010, May 25)
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