Comments on: The Perfect Web Designer Should Not Exist

By: Sante boyd

Sante boyd — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:24:01 +0000

Nice article, i totally agree, even if i think that a good design can improve the overall function of a site, there has to be a balance, I mean that we shouldn’t forget about the main purpose of a website and get carried away with only the design.

By: Lauri

Lauri — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:14:08 +0000

Truly, a very fine reading! Thank you.

By: Markus

Markus — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:51:16 +0000

Great article! Surprising but true arguments.

By: arnold

arnold — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:36:24 +0000

Thanks, this complete my weekends. :)

By: David

David — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:51:36 +0000

Good stuff, it should be focused more on the users and not the designer

By: Martin Oxby

Martin Oxby — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:27:42 +0000

Thanks for this. As a developing designer, it’s good to take in people’s views and opinions on matters of design. I’ve always taken the view that functionality is usability is of primary importance, which is good because I come more from a developer (Perl, PHP, JavaScript) perspective and background, so sometimes, although the client is always happy (as I keep working if they’re not), I sometimes critique the ‘art’ of the site, rather than the ‘design’ of it. So thanks for tweaking my perspective on things.

@Adie – probably not a bad idea!
@Andy – thanks for that perspective on heart surgery, very helpful analogy.

By: Andy Colclough

Andy Colclough — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:05:30 +0000

This is an interesting article. Something I haven’t really thought about. Design is important, you want people to remember your site by the way it looks, but I do completely agree with the point of the website being easy to get around.

One thing that Craig Oldham said at a lecture I went to was “No designer should ever call themselves a ‘professional’. This implies they know everything about design.” Design is not something you can ever know everything about. We are continuously finding new things to develop creatively. There is no tried and tested way to design a website. Unlike a tried and tested way for a doctor to perform heart surgery. This is something we should always think about.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:05:59 +0000

Great Post!

I think the take-a-way from this is User Experience. This is key to any site design.

Designer should be thinking about the users all the time. By using scenario based design, “If a user clicks x, what happens, If a users doesn’t click x, what happens” design can get close to what an actual user might do on a site.

Once up and live, test it, do usability studies, If not, use Heat maps on sites to see where the users are clicking. Compare notes based on metrics gather. Then Adjust accordingly. Do this over and over until the goal of your design is met.

One more thing…

The perfect web designer Does exist.

This designer does not have to know how to code or, have some mad crazy design skills.

He or she just has to have the skills and ability to adapt to different design situations based project goals.

If you can do that, Then you are the perfect web designer.

By: Adie

Adie — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:38:04 +0000

What a great post. I may even force myself to read this every time i design a new site.

By: Marshall Baltzell

Marshall Baltzell — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:27:57 +0000

Great article!