simonlife

As an amateur web designer, I take a somewhat unorthodox and arguably stupid approach to designing the layout for a page. Initially, I obey the most intuitive and common practices, and so like any other designer, I first try to visualize in my head the overall aesthetic effect I want to produce. Depending on a myriad of arbitrary factors, like my mood and personal setting and choice of music, this can either be a quick and painless ordeal, or it can last for days without a glint of inspiration. Finally though, I happen upon a mental image of what I contend to be a suitable design candidate.

Malpractice

Everything after that first realization of what I intend to create is chaos; it manifests itself as an tormenting maelstrom of conflicting design decisions swirling around in my head, each one struggling to win out over the others to make it into the finished product. Sounds bad, right?

It isn’t really. Turns out that this just happens to be a symptom of creativity in motion.

The real problem is that I never really take my stockpile of ideas to the drawing board and examine them enough to filter out the good from the bad from the shamefully impractical. I take no steps to sketch, diagram, or prototype my ideas, and in the great wide world of design, this negligence stands as a criminal offense in the highest degree.

Recognition of the Fact

“So what’s the problem?” you ask. Surely, if I am able to make note of this vice so explicitly, then it should be just as easy to resolve. I don’t disagree with this belief at all, but I think the reason why I haven’t addressed the issue outright is because 90% of all the interfaces or layouts I’ve ever designed have been for my own homepage.

Why I’m Still A N00b

Homepages are in a class of design principles all their own. They can get away with being almost completely user-insensitive simply because they usually provide no form of service. At a very basic level, they’re a mode of self-expression, and to that extent, they aren’t required to do much more than to convey meaning and opinion. Granted, I’ve equipped my blog with things like menus and categories and comments with the belief that they would provide a less aggravating experience for anyone intending to stick around longer than five minutes, but consider the following:

• simonlife logo

  The lone leaf and the reflected style of text are two of the most overused graphical elements in the amateur design community. I knew this to be true, but that didn’t stop me from taking advantage of the visual effect that they produce. I liked how reflecting the text against a black background gave the image some notion of depth, and quite honestly, I thought the leaf was kind of cute.

• BabbleBox

  It’s at the bottom of the page! What were you thinking?! Well, I wanted it to be a secondary element of the page, and I decided that I didn’t want it to be within the viewable portion of the window when the page loaded. But now I have to scroll down or click on that stupid link (hint: alt+x) whenever I want to see it! Yes, that’s right. You do. Cry more.

• Those… those… line thingies…

  What are those diagonal lines doing at the top of the page? I don’t know. I just thought they looked sort of spiffy.

Totally arbitrary, you see.

The traditional web service (web-based e-mail, photo sharing, etc.) impresses its target audience by providing as best it can the features it promises. Utility is key, and the necessity for it imposes limitations on the designer that turn creative expression into a secondary pursuit. Of course, it is the nature of the designer to manifest personal style through other, more subtle means, but ultimately, a cosmetically driven interface says nothing about the achievements of the application.

These web services. I rarely ever design for them.