What Makes Web Design Complicated?
Monday, January 7th, 2008Some people think that they can throw together a website in a few minutes. “It’s just like putting a Powerpoint presentation together, and anyone can do that.” Well, no, it’s not at all like that.
Understanding how people approach a task
It is not just in the field of web design that this attitude is seen. However, because entering the field of web design is so accessible thanks to the widespread availability of computers and web design software (e.g. WYSIWYG editors), it is especially prone to being seen as an area where an amateur can match a professional. To understand this attitude, let us look briefly at how people approach a task. There are four stages of competence in a task:
- Unconscious incompetence
- Conscious incompetence
- Conscious competence
- and unconscious competence
(Read more about this psychological model)
Those that do not see that there is any complexity to web design are in a state of unconscious incompetence: they do not know that there is anything that they do not know. If they were to make a website at this point, they would make a very bad one, and would not realise it. If they reach the point of knowing that there is complexity to web design, they have entered the stage of conscious incompetence, as they recognise they do not have the knowledge and skills to tackle web design effectively. If they were then to go on to learn web design, they would enter the stage of conscious competence, where they can focus on web design using their new knowledge and skills and complete the task competently. The last level is reached after much practice when the web designer no longer needs to focus on each aspect that makes up good web design, but can still design websites well.
Beginners’ mistakes in web design
So what is it that is overlooked by someone whipping together a website using website creation software? Afterall, a beginner web designer may argue that they have a good level of expertise since they have browsed thousands of websites in their lifetime, and they can tell a good website from a bad one… The problem with this argument is that they are only seeing the end result of a website and not the underlying code or thought processes that have gone into creating it. One of the greatest difficulties in web design, and the one that is easiest for a beginner to overlook, is making the website look good for all possible users. Whereas a beginner will create a website that may look good on his/her computer using a particular browser, an expert will make sure the website looks good when viewed on a whole array of devices and using a variety of configurations.
Here is a list of some of the factors related to user access that a beginner may forget to consider:
- Different browser models
- Different user screen resolutions
- Disabled users screen readers
- Different user font size
- Importance of colour contrast
- Differing user download speeds
Other important issues
Usability is another key issue that will be overlooked by a beginner to web design. Knowing the best locations for navigation tools, content and headers must be learnt. Additionally, search engine optimization is an increasingly important factor that is a whole field of study in itself, and is something that should be considered in the design of every website. Making a website that is easy to manage and change is another consideration, which is often tackled using server-side coding. See this article about web design for more details about what distinguishes good web design from poor web design.
Conclusion
This blog article has not been aimed at discouraging people from taking up web design. The entry bar is very low for web design, and this is an enormous opportunity for amateurs to engage in and learn from doing web design. However, this article has been written to point out that web design is far from a simple subject. Making your first website is easy, and anyone can do it; making your first good website will take a lot of time and learning.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
[…] Find out why website design is probably harder than you think: what makes web design complicated. […]