NF WEB DESIGN STUDIO: blog of concepts

The difference between Web Designers and Real users

By Nick Fassolas

Web designers have a naturally, distorted view of how people see and understand websites.
The way we look at the web pages given the fact that we design them is very different from they way they are used in the real world by real users.

To create projects that will operate in the real world, we first must understand how they will actually be used.

How designers consider and view the websites:

• We appreciate the balance, depth, abundance, and surprises.


• We enjoy the designs, the graphic part of the site and general design.


• We appreciate the original presentation even if it differs from our own design style.


• We persistently look with intensity on the screen for some time.

How users use web pages:

• Users move quickly because they do not want to look at the screen for a long time.


• They are impatient - tend to click on the first promising link, and often do not wait for pages to appear before they decide to go elsewhere.


• They don’t want to read the entire text; they just scan around looking for indications on what they want.


• They look for things that will help them do what they want to do!

These are fundamental and massive differences!

The way in which we as designers approach websites is almost alien, if not weird, next to how a common user does.
This is probably the main reason why there are so many poorly designed web sites.

Whenever a web designer looks at a design his mind and opinion about it changes. In addition, we look! we really look, like we would look at a work of art.
We begin to observe the subtle differences that we had not seen at first glance and then we begin to appreciate the game played between different colors, materials and layers of which a design is made of.

If we stay there for quite some time (which usually happens) we will virtually stop looking at the websites content and to what it offers to the user and dive deeper and further into the design details of the project.
Here goes the classic saying, “I saw the tree but missed the forest!”.

What should we do?

To create more effective web designs, friendly to the public eye; we should become more sympathetic towards the World Wide Web users who see our designs.

These three points are essential and summarize what we as designers and developers need to do to users.

How to design for the World Wide Web:

We should design according to how users really see and use the pages we create and not the way we would want them to see and use them.
The essence of design should not be to turn users into designers but to help them find what they are looking for and by doing so we may succeed into educating them user on modern design.

Of course if a web designer does not want to accept this, I recommend that he creates what ever design he wants and present it in a personal portfolio! So the rest of us designers can check it out with our “deeper viewing style”, and be amazed for hours and hours on how wonderful and innovative this design is! And worry not for trivial things such us text and contact links.

Labels: concepts, web design

posted by Nick Fassolas @ Tuesday, June 24, 2008 | Permanent link here

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