What do the users want?

In a very interesting article, The Register/Rackspace discuss the findings of "What makes the perfect website". It makes for good reading, although it does require a sign-up, anyone that is involved in design of websites would benefit from reading this. The document can be found at http://whitepapers.theregister.co.uk/paper/view/318/rackspace-the-perfect-website. I seem to remember the company publishing a very similar article a year or so ago, but the findings are still as pertinent now as ever.

They conclude with, what I suspect is a slightly tongue-in-cheek 'magic formula' but there are some very important issues raised - and all of which are identified by actually speaking to the people that will use the website. What a novel idea!

What is web design?

This has always seemed a great paradox to me and most 'design' companies fall in to the same trap of assuming web design is simply graphic design (but with limitations such as web-safe colours and pixels wide/high).

Although it is starting to become more recognised in areas it doesn't seem widely implemented. I feel strongly that good website design is so much more, and ironically, the best people to bring this out are often the software engineers, not the graphic designers.

How does the human interact with the screen and input devices. HCI (Human computer interaction) or MMI (man-machine interface) is a complex area of work, something that software and systems engineers develop understandings for and is something large software organisations recognise.

I feel it's the combination of this user interface design, alongside great graphic design that makes powerful websites. I don't think it's something that 'web design' courses really deliver on and it's a case of graphic designers working alongside their software development (usability) experts to create something that works for the user and looks great too.

I suspect it might be an area that needs two mindsets - can someone be a creative designer type as well as being a systematic, logical usability expert. Perhaps it will always be a case of two heads are better than one.