10 point Design Manifesto – "my top 10 web design principles"
Posted on 11th October 2007 in Business & User Experience
When I first joined ProcServe one of the first things I wanted to do was get across to the development team I work with what my views on web design were. In a tongue-in-cheek attempt at this I wrote up the ProcServe Design Manifesto, printed it off and handed it round the team. While it started as a bit of a joke, it has actually gone down very well and has even made a bit of an impact outside of the dev team.
I thought I’d share it here and ask you, my readers, if you would change any of these principles or add any additional ones if this was your manifesto?
- Software is for real people not “users”
Userpeople centered design and development- Every task or process should be goal driven
- Just because we can doesn’t mean we should
- We’re selling an experience, not software
- Progressively enhance and gracefully degrade
- How something is implemented is just as important as how it works and looks
- If you can take a step in the process away and the goal can still be achieved, do it
- Accessibility is for everyone
- Software is a tool for helping people do a job
Comments (2 so far)
What’s the difference between people and users?
Goal driven = ? What task or process isn’t goal driven?!
8. conflicts with 7. Faced with implementing a feature, I can get it working and looking great, it just may not be implemented very well. The difference is of course that I can save a lot of time that way. So I can take away a tidy implementation, leave a messy one and still achieve a goal.
I’d change 9. to “Accessbility needs context”. People go on and on about accessibility, but you have to think of the context and think whether it’s worth it or not. The environments that our users, or people rather, use the software will be one where all can be expected to be able bodied, have their eyesight, and know how to use a computer. The applications are guaranteed to run at a specific resolution and on IE6. Alt tags don’t mean much to me. Supplying alternatives to javascript functionality is not a concern either.
James 'Smiler' Farrer on the 12th October 2007 at 3:31 pm
“What’s the difference between people and users?” – there are 2 differences: 1) people outside of the IT World would normally associate the term “users” with negative connotations; such as “drug user” or “he was using her”, and I’ve had more than one client tell me that. 2) In the IT World the term user has become an abstract entity that doesn’t really represent real people in the minds of developers.
“What task or process isn’t goal driven?!” – none, that’s the point. However, I’ve often seen designs for processes that loose sight of the original goals.
“8. conflicts with 7.” – sorry I should clarify 8 it should read; If you can take a step of the process away and the goal can still be achieved, do it.
“I’d change 9. to Accessibility needs context” – that’s an interesting one. The purist in me would argue that accessibility is just as important in all situations, but in reality there are some cases when the need is less or different. Though it’s worth noting that those needs could change over time.
Thanks for the comments.
James on the 12th October 2007 at 4:29 pm