Web Design theory: web design style

Article: Jeffrey Zeldman

My father was an amateur painter, and my childhood was shaped by his art books. Like many children, I was fascinated by the "pure reappearance". Those monumental prints-wrestling gladiators, picturesque villages, the ruins of Rome at sunrise-often make me dumbfounded and speechless. At that time, my understanding of art was to "paint well". In that young and ignorant days, the more details, etched lines more dense, more leaves, the artist will be better. Later I met the comics and then the gallery. Maffee Parry (Maxfield Parrish) made me want to be a drug, and I knew I could never be a painter. Paul Cley (Paul Klee) seems to me to be a bad artist who can't draw. Andy Warhol was a liar because his work was done by assistants.

Today I am still afraid to say that I understand what art is all about, but I do know that my early ideas have nothing to do with the nature of art, but only with pure visual stimuli. Art, like a Disney or a circus, is a spectacle. But jingting see a lot of also epiglottis, cotton candy eats more also will be greasy, I also gradually from sensory stimulation to the style level. Steve Dico (Steve Ditko), Spider-Man. Pop Art. Rock and roll, and soul music, and then the cover of punk albums. I became addicted to "style". I can't tell the difference, but I know something is cool.

Today many young web designers look at their craft in the same way that I used to view pop culture. It's either cool or rotten. They mistook style for design, but in fact the two are completely different things. Design is the communication that occurs at all levels. It tells you where you are, what you can do now, and make this process as easy as possible. Style means repetition, it is about "style feeling" communication. In terms of visual vocabulary, style is one aspect of design; in business terms, style is a communication about brand identity.

Style sometimes conveys the designer's aversion to design subjects. "It's too stuffy, so I've got some stripes here, and here's a pull-down menu," he said. Anyway, you know, it's more than enough to do this little job with my ability. "In this sense, style is an underground language that can only be passed between peers and is irrelevant to the visitors or purposes of the site." Indeed, this style of the pattern may also be inconsistent with the purpose of the site. Then the master of usability will appear and blame the design for the consequences of the fetish style.

Designer-style designers who are lucky enough to pick up jobs that match their style preferences are not unsuccessful, but most web designers do not have this kind of treatment. However, they are still keen to apply the style of top designers to the items at hand. So we see an e-commerce site like a Reebok party leaflet, or a Web site that delivers information for a reason that is rife with strange introductions. (A handful of these leads are pretty cool to read, but they're usually wrong and inappropriate.) ）

The World Wide Web used to be like a phone book. Now it's more like a piece of design. More accurately, like the works of 20 well-known designers. Young designers make their own disciples and copy their style over and over again. The boundaries between visual design and "communication-designed design" are lost on these designers. Similarly, they do not understand the difference between the real style and the cottage style: The former is derived from the nature of the project, and the latter is like a prosthetic limb that is hard to connect to the project.

A fetish-style site can confuse visitors, hurting users and companies that pay for the site. If the designer is not from "this site is to be used for who?" "and" What do they use it for? "We can only get a beautiful appearance without meaning," he said. It is this design that makes "beauty" dusty--at least in some circles.

The problem is that our society is obsessed with appearances (and afraid to peep at what is beneath the surface). People will be cool for a pair of sneakers because it's extravagantly, Beck's song can be used as an advertising soundtrack. In such a consumer culture, dazzle and cool are the highest priced goods.

For some customers and too many young designers, the use of Flash Multimedia station has become synonymous with web design. It's not going to be so much better if you don't have the ring and the action on the page--that's not to mention the cool stuff. Projects made with Flash (SWF files) are so frequent that they have finally become the darlings of all kinds of awards-especially the old High-profile awards. In those awards, "digital work" is always arranged in front, behind the millions of dollars in the stack of TV ads. The judges ' expectations of television commercials over the concept and production level outweigh the commercial films. Naturally, they also want the site to have the power to overturn them.

As long as the judges are using the latest version of browsers, widescreen G5, Pentium processors and T1 lanes, the groundbreaking fancy experiments made with the newest technology will continue to win prizes. Of course, the premise is that they must meet the requirements of the award at Visual design and programming level. We're not talking about bad design, we're talking about the highest level of design, but it's just a category of design.

Most of my colleagues are designing websites like this. I was amazed at their achievements. They deserved the prize, and I cheered for them. But I also have my worries.

I worry because this type of design, while applicable to certain situations, is not appropriate in more situations, and it has become the only web design that can be won. Because of this, it has also become the target of young designers scrambling to imitate. They are not only imitating personal projects (great personal projects), but also doing business projects. For the latter, this can cause harm.

I am worried because the young designers who are not clear about style and design have learned the skills and style of the masters, but may not have learned how to use the media to communicate with the website. The "Bullet Time" in the matrix is great, but it's not appropriate to use it in a documentary. Since most Web pages are designed to convey information (at least that should be the case), the mass porting of others ' styles in an information-type Web site does not promote the media, but rather makes it more confusing.

I worry because some designers will never be able to form their own style, let alone develop a brand-appropriate style for different projects. This is because recruiters tend to lack critical vocabulary and arrange jobs that are completely unsuitable for those who look cool in their resumes. ("With your talent, you can completely cover them up.") Because, traditional designers who understand brand-building, know how to use design to communicate, know the difference between style and design will enter the market sooner or later. Young designers who have no chance of understanding web design will lose their jobs.

I am also worried about the media itself, because there is a big middle ground between beautiful appearance and high availability, most of which are in this category, but there are few web designers in this category. The benefits of focusing on this kind of design are also getting smaller, because while it makes the user happy, it doesn't get the industry's certainty that the designer has nothing to gain except a cheque. ("Day, load fast, and so easy, and in my father's old Dell computer, IE 3 to see all right." "Have you ever heard of a judge say such a thing?" Well, neither have I. ）

What worries me most is the user. Commercial web development has been developed for more than more than 10 years, but users can not easily and effectively find the things they want, they still do not understand why it is so uncomfortable to read on the Web page, while reading is most people's main online activities.

This situation will not improve as long as our society puts its style on the design and puts it on the surface of substance. Of course, every four years, when I walk to the ballot box, I think of the same problem. (translation: Li Ru one)