"Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that Web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression," according to Dr. Gitte Lindgaard of
Personally, I think that there is far too much emphasis on website and design. “We’re doing a redesign” is a common turn of phrase meant to convey a complete restructuring of the intranet or website, but it in fact emphasizes the look-and-feel. In my experience, the user, your target audience, determines what is important.
Most users ultimately are after content and it’s the navigation and content structure (information architecture) that determines their success in finding and using that content. Ensuring successful content, navigation and structure requires very strong planning and resources. Design and layout are key influencers, but they are not as critical as content and structure.
Prescient’s Catherine Elder writes that “design is meant to facilitate understanding in communicating a message. Therefore, design has to be strategic and not just for the sake of being cool. In Design III: Making and sustaining a good first impression, Catherine spells out some of the key elements and rules for effective web and intranet design:
- Good design – effectively using color, fonts and graphics
- Mind your manners – follow your brand and style standards including use of logos, typeface, color, use of photos and graphics, and position.
- Be consistent; even if you break the rules do so in a consistent manner.
- Understand your users.
- Follow your site strategy to fulfill set business requirements that you are measuring.
Read more of Design III: Making and sustaining a good first impression.
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