A Rebel’s View on Web Design Conventions

I’m quite rebellious.

Just ask my Dad.

He’ll tell you I’ve always done my own thing.

For instance, rather than study something useful like Medicine or Maths, I left home when I was 17 to study Chinese.

And then, unhappy with what my lecturers told me, I took a break to travel through China even before I graduated.

Eight months after the Tiananmen Square massacre I left with a one-way ticket to Hong Kong. Email or mobile phones weren’t available yet; and the only way to contact me during my five-months trip were the addresses of four post offices in China.

So, don’t try to tell me what to do. I’ve always done things my way.

But web design conventions are different. Even for me.

As usability expert Steve Krug suggests: Don’t make people think.

Your web visitors are passing by at high speed, so make things obvious. Like:

• Your logo at the top left, because that’s where people look to find out who you are;
• A navigation bar at the top or the left-hand side – on each page;
• Clickable buttons that look like buttons, because people know they can click buttons;
• Dark fonts on light backgrounds, because it’s much easier to read;
• Left-aligned text, because after finishing a line our eyes go automatically back to the left just like in a book;
• No creative wording – keep it simple.

Creativity is good. Of course! But it can make websites pretty useless if people want to find something quickly.

Sometimes even rebels have to accept that conventions exist for a good reason. 😉