Remember Your Audience, Not Yourself
By: John Vinson
We all have our preferences. Everyone has a certain way of designing that they’re comfortable with, and like to see done when creating a site. Guess what though? It’s not about you, it’s about me or your potential visitors. This can be an aspect of design that is hard for a lot of people. Especially those just entering the field. That’s why I wish teachers would force web design students to make them create things a certain way, instead of letting them open up. This isn’t painting, or drawing, it’s web design.
Designing for the web is all about attracting visitors, so what you enjoy has little to none effect in the grand scheme of things. If you’re designing a website for your personal use, then you can can ignore what I’ve said and am about to say. Tiled backgrounds, or bright and obtrusive colors are fine if you’re the only one that’s going to see it.
However, if you’re designing for others then learn about the wonders of white space and driving focus to certain parts of a page. Adapt to using soft colors, and ones that are pleasing to the eye and don’t necessarily have a creative use.
One of the most important aspects of design is focusing the user on the content. I also believe it’s one of the least taught functions of design. If you have a client, more than likely they could care less about how artistic you are. They’re concerned about if what you’re creating is bringing traffic to their site.
Always keep that in mind.
