How To Balance Usability and Design When Building a Website

It is all about perception when we talk about ugliness and beauty in web design. My ‘ugly’ may be your ‘beauty’ and vice versa, but how does it happen that many usable websites are ugly for the majority of users? ‘Usability comes first’ is a true rule of website development, but design plays not lesser importance in creating great user experience. Website designers make a huge mistake when focus around usability alone, just because it is thought to be more important for users. Usability and design should go together as CSS and PHP, as Header and Footer, as content and layout. A fast website with a friendly entry form yet colored in unsuitable color palette and with old-fashioned fonts would never succeed among users. Finally, the goal of webmasters is to achieve lasting collaboration with users, but design and usability can’t make this if taken separately, no way.

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Rob Cowie

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