Uniqueness vs. Usability

Sep 18, 2006

I think everybody loves to rebel every now and again, and this is especially true in the realm of web design. When creating a new website there is always that desire to create something that is completely new and original. The unfortunate result is that many times usability suffers as a result of trying to be unique. This ends up hurting a very important group of people.

Think of your Users

So you’ve created a design for your website that makes art majors blush. The design is radical, unique, and pushes the boundaries of design in the digital medium. The only problem is, your visitors get so lost in the navigation that they can’t find any of the content. So they make note that the site is nice to look at, but then promptly head back to their Google search to try again.

When creating a website the highest priority should be the users needs, not the artist merit of the design or the originality of the site.

What is needed? A steadfastness to stick with tried and true conventions in web design.

The Familiar isn’t Bad

Tabs, sidebars, breadcrumbs, blue and purple links. These are all familiar navigation elements to users. They are easily recognizable and allow your users to feel rewarded when your site behaves in the manner they expect. This positive feedback causes them to keep exploring your site. This is what we want, meaningful traffic, not just quick visits.

But the things I’ve just mentioned are boring. They aren’t fancy flash widgets, they aren’t custom scroll bars, and they aren’t daring color schemes that skirt the normal hues of the web.

So what can be done to find the right mix of creative expression and good usability?

Make the Familiar Unique

Using common design elements does not mean you need to make your website boring. Focus on uses of color, typography, and layout to make your site visually interesting. Work on developing stylish visual cues to help lead your readers’ eyes along the page content.

Usability and creative design need not be conflicting goals. It is merely a matter of integrating your artistic goals with common design elements to develop a successful website.

Further Reading

Jakob Nielsen gives a good summary of standard design elements in The Need for Web Design Standards.

If you find Nielsen’s writing a bit wordy (as I do), I highly recommend Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think which distills a lot of good design conventions down to about 200 pages.