In Search of the Elusive Interface
By Molly E. Holzschlag
Predictable left navigation. Top-heavy pages. Lack of consistency. Lists of links instead of well-written content. These are some of the symptoms of today's Web site woes.
There simply is no good excuse for bad visual design. Oh, there are plenty of attempts. Here are a few:
- Who cares what a Web site looks like? The point is that it should function well.
- The objective isn't to look good, it's to use the latest technology.
- Hey, I'm just doing what everyone else is doing.
- My Web site is accessible, that's why it looks so boring.
I don't buy 'em! Today's savvy Web developer can create functional, technologically sound, and accessible Web sites without sacrificing good design. The answer lies in the integration of an effective user interface with well-written, compliant HTML code on the client side, and intelligent server-side development on the back end. This month, I will focus on helping you find methods of creating engaging interfaces for the Web that really work.
Dressing for Success
No doubt you've heard the axiom "dress for success." People judge you according to the way you present yourself to the world. If you appear at a corporate job interview in tattered jeans, a large nose ring, and pink dreadlocks, you're probably not going to be judged very positively (unless of course you're in San Francisco). Certain situations simply demand that the outside image match the desired end result.<>
