Remember when the internet was new and websites were often plagued by horrible design choices by people who had no idea what they were doing? Nowadays people actually have eyes and know what looks good and what doesn't.
I mean, no one makes it a mess of text and images, right?
Okay, but at least most people have some concept of color usage these days.
Alright... So the purple on blue and yellow on blue-green isn't the best choice for this webmaster. Surely people have learned that animated gifs are not what makes the internet awesome... right?
I spoke too soon.
At least I haven't seen an under construction logo while surfing these bad websites. I mean, I think in 2012 we've all realized that websites are living things that always evolve, hence the logos are unnecessary.
Maybe I should just give up on hoping that the internet will look pretty. It looks like people are still going to be making these amateur mistakes. Whether it's trying to use complex features that make it impossible to navigate your site or disgusting color choices, these people make their companies look bad. The only advice I can give is to look at the website I mentioned earlier in this post and compare your site to the ones displayed. If it looks similar, there's something wrong with it.
I think your post may be a little unfair. I agree, good design is crucial and bad design is all over the web, but it's not like we were born knowing how to design.
ReplyDeleteDesign is something we learn through use or specific training. On a more extreme scale, think about architecture. Architects spend years in college learning how to design buildings. By no means am I saying this is comparable to web design, but it's something that is learned (although some people naturally have a good eye for design). So how can we scowl at them if they have no idea what they are doing wrong?
Before I picked up my Professional Writing minor, I was able to note when something seemed off in a website, but I wouldn't be able to pinpoint all of the things that were wrong, let alone be able to fix it.
That's why our class/learning about the web is so important, so we can learn how to effectively design websites, etc.
Oh my, the one on the bottom hurts my eyes. I can see your point, but I do agree with Sarah a little. Design is an art of sorts, one that it takes time to master. This doesn't really excuse bad web design but at teh same time you can't exactly crucify those who aren't the wiser either.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I think this goes back to the fact that most people publishing things on the web these days AREN'T professionals--that is to say, they aren't trained to be able to do these types of things well. So this kind of thing should be expected, really.
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