I am getting fed up of my own blog 
I need more design elements. But I don’t have the time. I want it too look prettier, but content is King and I know looks make it better sometimes but nowhere near as much as good content!! I want to get rid of the grey and have something fancy. I might too, LOL, too hard on myself as always, too critical of my own site. I want my site to load in less than 6 seconds on a 56KB dial-up line, this one does!! Try it but hey making an arty-farty site will look sauve but will it reach out to that many people? NO. Again content is king. I want to, like the rest of the world design my entire blog in Illustrator and then redev it. But that would be so futile an excercise… I do care about people on slow lines. And I respect their choice for not moving on to broadband — whatever the reason.
So let me ask you this? Does your site look beautiful? With border shadows like the rest of the 99 million sites? Right, soft transparent hatched lines? in the background that gives it a glorious beautiful look. You have committed yourself to mediocrity!.. With all that jazz in the look you probably have never heard about KEI and good usability and probably never want to give the less fortunate(in this case people on slower lines and less advanced technology) a fair chance… and you talk about beautiful valid CSS and Semantics and Web Standards… you have then, my friend, caught the bull by the tail! You really have.
Think CONTENT. Think Speed. Think load times. Think outside the speed at which you surf. Think both sides of the spectrum. Better still think why you have a site? Why do you want to write a page worth 5k of text and force your readers/visitors and spammers to download 50k of images! Isn’t that backward? What is your argument? You are an artist! Maybe you shouldn’t surf then only browse printed copies. Cause thats where your thinking has stopped!
We are all getting old. So are you! And you will have just as much difficulty doing things as the person next to you that you laugh at today. There is some truth in Karma! Scary I know! So if you are a web writer, designer, developer, programmer, think before you hit the keyboard. The Web is for EVERYONE. You and me alike. Your nearest disabled neighbour is not meant to be less fortunate than you. If they are, you make them so. Your unwillingness and inability to contribute to a fairer and equal world/web makes them so! Be a part of the solution not the problem!
3 Responses
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Your post hits home Amit which I think is a good thing even though you are probably condemning about 95% of website authors! I think using some graphical elements can enhance the user’s experience of reading content though. Also does everyone want to “read” content in depth? Perhaps some users prefer visual content or can’t read or don’t like reading?
Having a good looking page and having a fast loading page aren’t mutually exclusive though. Also I strongly believe that people perceive nice looking sites to be easier to use.
Personally I’m attracted to nice design and tend to spend more time on sites who’s designs I like. If a site looks nice I perceive the content to have more worth as the author has obviously spent time on presenting their content.
In general a well designed site makes the content easier and more pleasurable to read. There are a number of sites that I’m subscribed to that I only ever read through my RSS reader because of their poor design. Good design leads to good content comprehension.
Andy, I do agree the two are not mutually exclusive. But I am more talking about people who overdo the design or simply mimic whats going on with the rest of the blogs. Nice design is surely good an I like them just as much but not over good content. content is the skeleton and the ultimate foundation. It is the precursor to a good website. Visual design does aid the sighted users sitting on a broadband. Unfortunately even half of America is not on it let alone the nearly 50 million disabled. The Web needs a good balance, and that my point!