Graphic Design vs. Web Design
Business owners want a website that looks better than their competitors for two reasons; 1. they think that having a more professional, better looking website than their primary competitors will give them the edge when it comes time for their potential clients to make a choice, and 2. because it’s measurable. This post intends to explore the differences between graphic design and web design, and put some of their subsidiary issues into perspective.
The first order of business is to think about the two afore-mentioned reasons that people place so much weight on design. Without a doubt, if your website looks better than your competition, you are more likely to land the big client. I can shoot no holes in that theory.
Measuring a Site’s Worth
Now let’s think about measurability. When you look at a website, you can say, “that site looks nice.”, “that site looks horrible.”, or anywhere in between the two ends of your aesthetic spectrum. It’s your prerogative. When you look at the code that a site is built with, you probably don’t have the same options. Unfortunately, that codebase is the difference between your site attracting unique visitors on it’s own, or only being viewed by the people you drop a business card off to, and ask to look at your site. To put it mildly…your code is pretty important. I’m suggesting that looking at a website from it’s visual perspective is not nearly as accurate a representation of the value of that website as looking at it from a coding perspective.
At the end of the day, it’s imperative that your website can be found by people searching for the information, product, or service you’re offering. On top of that, a properly coded website can always add a more artistic design style down the road. One of the most important fundamentals of writing good code is to make it flexible so you can add new features down the road without having to redo the whole site.
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
100% Right on!!