The real meaning of the word design in the English language it comes from is quite different. The design here translates into concepts such as design, design and planning. Design is much closer to engineering than to design. The decoration is only small, not the most essential part of the design.
This is where the misperception of web design as a web site design comes from. Of course, there is also a decoration in web design. However, the design goes far beyond the purely visual presentation of web pages. It is no accident that information architecture is a fundamental part of the overall web design process. Indeed, the most essential part of the whole design process in a web site is precisely the organization and structuring of the information, not its “beautification”…
Web design is the closest thing to architecture. Just as the main purpose of architecture is to design a building that fulfils its functions (living, production, office needs, etc.), so with web design, the main purpose is to design a site that performs its functions – to inform, to advertise and sell.
This is where the main problem for most web designers comes from: most of them are former artists or graphic designers. They can make a perfectly refined graphic original, but have never dealt with real business and have a hard time understanding concepts such as marketing, efficiency, navigation, usability and intuition. They have little interest in the commercial side of the site, and the old truth is that a good site is one that sells, and a good designer is one that remains invisible. Remaining invisible is often an impossible task for many graphic designers!
There are perfectly designed graphic design sites, however, where visitors ask themselves questions that should not be confronted by the visitor at all. Questions like:
⦁ What exactly does this company do?
⦁ Does he manufacture or only sell these goods?
⦁ Can I buy the goods I see?
⦁ At what cost?
⦁ Where?
⦁ How can I pay? …
There are also sites in which the “beauties”, animations and colours are so many, aggressive and confused, that one does not come to him at all and comes to mind to read and understand something from the content of the site. Tired and depressed, he just clicks and goes somewhere else. Too bad for the money, effort and time invested in such a site!
