Professional Web Design

If It Works - It’s Professional

The words "professional looking web site" are being bandied about a lot as if they have some special, standardized meaning. A professional web designer simply means someone that makes a living working with and creating web sites. It does not mean that a site meets certain criteria. Besides, what is professional looking to one person may be tacky to another.

Professional looking is a judgment call with no real meaning except it is your opinion. It is much like saying red is not a professional color. Depending on the profession and the location, you could be both right and wrong.

Just because you think a site should have certain features, placed in certain locations, and only certain colors should be used, doesn’t mean a site that violates those guidelines is not professional.

Profession design is about appealing to the desired customer group. A site that appeals to teens will not necessarily appeal to the 50+ crowd. A site that appeals to one ethnic group may be a turn off to another group.

One look does not fit all; otherwise, why so many shirts, shoes, dresses, cars, etc. Because people are different and want to look and feel different.

A professional design is any design that appeals to the desired customers. Why create a site that is attractive to the 50+ crowd if they are unlikely to buy the product?

As an example, suppose I have a site that sells toys. I want the site to be bright, cheery, and the navigation to be obvious, consistent, and intuitive. Why? Because I want to appeal to as many people as possible.

But, suppose I want a site that sells just puzzles, all kinds of puzzles. Now I could use the same design as the toy site but maybe I want the site to appeal to puzzle addicts, buffs, and fanatics.

On the puzzle site I could make the navigation part of the puzzle. Navigation could be much like a video game in that the visitor has to search for the links and find clues to find the links. Navigation would then be very non-intuitive and even frustrating to anyone that does not like and really enjoy puzzles.

In this way the site navigation represents the site’s product. Everything from Easter Eggs to invisible links could be used to make the site interesting. The site could be as entertaining as the puzzles and encourage repeat visits just to discover new pages, new products, and higher discounts.

I am sure a lot of web designers, at first glance, would say the puzzle site is poorly designed. But the site reflects the product and the type people attracted to enigmas. That is just the people for which the site was designed. Of course, the home page should offer a choice of navigation so those that want to buy but do not have the time or do not like puzzles could go the easy route.

Professional design is unique design - not cookie cutter design. Professional design is doing what the site owner wants, considering the purpose of the site, and designing for preferred type of visitor.

So before you judge a site as unprofessional, consider what the site is selling and who the site is targeting.

A professional design is an opinion - not a fact.