Archive for Web Design

As a fan of Jakob Neilsen and a skeptic of the “every design should be responsive” methodology, I have been frustrated with the criticism of Neilsen’s stance on mobile websites. Recently I published my thoughts on the two sides (mobile specific websites and responsive design) hoping to cultivate a discussion on mobile design and why [...]

Snippet: Mobile First is History Repeating

Most discussions of speed and websites focus on response time, download footprint and rendering performance. While all aforementioned elements are important, there is another aspect of site performance to be aware of— the speed of the human mind. It’s safe to say the human brain processes information faster than any computer, browser and of the internet, so it [...]

Design, Copy and Mental Processing

Earlier last week, I was pleasantly surprised when Jacob Nielsen posted a report on mobile web design which closely mirrored my own philosophy. The key takeaway of the article is that mobile specific sites are more effective than full content sites with mobile friendly presentation. After reading the article, I hoped the findings would put [...]

Clark is Wrong About Nielsen Being Wrong About Mobile

Over the past fifteen plus years of designing websites for other people, I have received countless requests to remove elements from a design because they are “redundant.” The perception is that if something is included on the page once, especially in an obvious fashion, there’s no reason to repeat it elsewhere. Further baffling, it’s my [...]

Redundant is Usable

Few websites are designed with bad intentions. If the designer or stakeholders care about the project you can be sure every element on the page has been analyzed, reviewed and tweaked. This sounds obvious, but it should be disconcerting. Let me explain further. If most websites have had thought and care put into them, why are [...]

Selective Disregard, Why It’s Causing Your Website To Fail