Design Like You Care
December 23, 2008 Filed in: Rhyme &
Reason
Being a closet design junkie, I happen to think good
design is an essential part of creating anything – a
website, a resumé, wedding invitations, birthday
cakes, presentation slides, etc. The point is that
design matters in visual communication, whether that
communication be iconic, pictorial, typographic, or
any combination of these. Thinking like a designer
helps you be a better communicator in the long run.
Design, however, is not simply taking something
and making it pretty. Good design is not about good
looks. Good looks may result from good design, but
this is not always the case.
Case in point: The Drudge Report is an example of good design that is not pretty. It's a site that is easy to use. It's visually distinctive, and it quickly communicates various messages through an organized clutter. Do I subjectively like the site? No, but I can't deny the design work behind it. Jason at 37signals has a great post about his belief that the Drudge Report is one of the best designed websites around.
Design is about communication. It's about uniqueness. It's about combining form with content. It's about changing how others think, and it's about connecting with others. Most of all, I believe, design is about caring. You care about the content for which you are designing, it shows.
It may be the snowman.
The difference is more visible when you visit a product page. For Dell, the product page is where they sell you stuff. For Apple, it's where they inform you. In fact, Apple's storefront is a separate part of the site.
Dell's product pages are cluttered with text, ads, and tiny product images. An Apple product page, in contrast, is full of large pictures of the product with small blurbs of text that will take you to more information. Dell's site says, "We care about you buying stuff." Apple's site says, "We care about our products." Of course, Apple wants you to buy their products, but their site allows you to get to know the piece of hardware or software you are buying first. This approach demonstrates a care that makes Apple's site stand out.
As if baiting the Mac/PC feud with the last comparison isn't bad enough, now let's look at the campaign pages for Barack Obama and John McCain. (I know I've been blogging about Obama a lot here lately, and I promise I'm almost done.) The Obama campaign site exudes attention to detail, and that same level of attention has been applied to Change.gov.
The team designing the Obama site pays careful attention to color use and font use. The layout is uncluttered, and the design team pulls off the difficult task of utilizing red, white, and blue without seeming patronizingly patriotic. The McCain site follows many of the same principles as the Obama site, but his site never seems to feel a unified whole. Cartoonish icons combined with a dark color scheme with obvious instance of stock photos. To misuse the Arizona senator's own words, it looks like someone phoned this one in.
Elections are about issues in my book, and the Obama team did a great job making it easy to quickly grasp and investigate the candidate's stances. Each issue page starts with a quick overview of Obama's plan in that area, followed by a table-of-contents and a comparison chat between candidates, followed by an extensive overview of Obama's plan, followed by a synopsis of his career record in that area. On the other hand, McCain's issues are presented as plain blocks of text. There's nothing wrong with this, but the care and work that obviously went into Obama's site makes it stand out.
Case in point: The Drudge Report is an example of good design that is not pretty. It's a site that is easy to use. It's visually distinctive, and it quickly communicates various messages through an organized clutter. Do I subjectively like the site? No, but I can't deny the design work behind it. Jason at 37signals has a great post about his belief that the Drudge Report is one of the best designed websites around.
Design is about communication. It's about uniqueness. It's about combining form with content. It's about changing how others think, and it's about connecting with others. Most of all, I believe, design is about caring. You care about the content for which you are designing, it shows.
A Couple Website Comparisons
Compare Apple's website to Dell's. On first glance, the layouts of their main pages are nearly identical. For me, it's hard to quantify exactly what makes Apple's page better. Is it the typeface? Is it the use of simple product categories rather than usage categories? Is it the absence of stock imagery? From my novice background in design, it's hard for me to say, but the Dell site feels more clinical.
It may be the snowman.
The difference is more visible when you visit a product page. For Dell, the product page is where they sell you stuff. For Apple, it's where they inform you. In fact, Apple's storefront is a separate part of the site.
Dell's product pages are cluttered with text, ads, and tiny product images. An Apple product page, in contrast, is full of large pictures of the product with small blurbs of text that will take you to more information. Dell's site says, "We care about you buying stuff." Apple's site says, "We care about our products." Of course, Apple wants you to buy their products, but their site allows you to get to know the piece of hardware or software you are buying first. This approach demonstrates a care that makes Apple's site stand out.
As if baiting the Mac/PC feud with the last comparison isn't bad enough, now let's look at the campaign pages for Barack Obama and John McCain. (I know I've been blogging about Obama a lot here lately, and I promise I'm almost done.) The Obama campaign site exudes attention to detail, and that same level of attention has been applied to Change.gov.
The team designing the Obama site pays careful attention to color use and font use. The layout is uncluttered, and the design team pulls off the difficult task of utilizing red, white, and blue without seeming patronizingly patriotic. The McCain site follows many of the same principles as the Obama site, but his site never seems to feel a unified whole. Cartoonish icons combined with a dark color scheme with obvious instance of stock photos. To misuse the Arizona senator's own words, it looks like someone phoned this one in.
Elections are about issues in my book, and the Obama team did a great job making it easy to quickly grasp and investigate the candidate's stances. Each issue page starts with a quick overview of Obama's plan in that area, followed by a table-of-contents and a comparison chat between candidates, followed by an extensive overview of Obama's plan, followed by a synopsis of his career record in that area. On the other hand, McCain's issues are presented as plain blocks of text. There's nothing wrong with this, but the care and work that obviously went into Obama's site makes it stand out.