Growing a Business Website: Fix the Basics First

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/design_priorities.html


The article "Growing a Business Website:Fix the Basics First" was full of great ideas and insight. I enjoyed how Jakob Nielsen just highlighted some of the biggest problems and explained why these were web design problems. This article was written for the new wave of web developers. It seems like web designers got caught in a trend of trying to do to much for the websites own good. Jakob explained that we need to return to basics. My favorite part of the article was when he listed the biggest flaws to web design which were:
* Communicating clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them that the site's worthwhile.
* Providing information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.
* Offering simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.
It is so important to remember that we as web developers are the abnormal users of the internet. I can go to almost any site and it doesn't matter wither it has a good layout or not i can figure out where to go. This is because i spend a large portion of my day online and I also am an experienced web user. However, the average user needs to be able to interpret the information easily. We need to give the users what they are looking for and make the experience enjoyable and not just usable.

Top 10 Best Designed Websites in The World

http://canvas.instructure.com/courses/22132/modules/items/18130

This article went over what Ben felt was the top 10 best designed websites in the world. Ben mentioned why he felt each one was in his top 10. Most of Bens choices were simple websites as far as layout and concept are concerned. Color balances and the flow of the website also seemed high on Bens priorities for websites.

In my opinion this is not a very overated list of websites. I don't feel like the article is well written simply because he didn't justify the choices enough to convince me that they could be considered in the top 10. If you are going to make a statement like these are the top 10 best designed websites then you should backup your choices with why you feel these websites qualify. I can think of several websites just off the top of my head that could qualify for this list. #7 on his list was because it had "Big text, simple nav, high usability, all wrapped in strong colour and finished off with nice graphical touches. " I am sorry that sounds like a junior high kid trying using simple words to describe a website.

Even though i do not feel that he justified his choices he did have a reason to put these websites on his list. They do shed light on concepts that should be thought of while designing a website. Ben pointed out several times that the websites that were easy to read were reasons he choose them.