The problem is that while web design incorporates graphic design and illustration elements, it does not translate to these disciplines. Typography might be a preferable choice if comparing the web to other media. A web design, like a typeface, provides a setting for someone else to express themselves. Stay with me, and I’ll tell you which web site’s design is similar to Helvetica.
Architecture (the sort that employs steel, glass, and stone) is also a good analogy, better than poster design. The architect develops planes and grids that allow people to move about freely. The architect relinquishes authority after designing. Through time, people who utilize the structure add to the architect’s design’s significance.
Of course, by their very nature, all comparisons are gruesome. What is television’s “London Calling”? Who is the automotive designer Jane Austen? Madame Butterfly isn’t any less lovely because she doesn’t have a car chase scene, and peanut butter isn’t any less delicious because it can’t dance.
WHAT EXACTLY IS WEB DESIGN?
Web design is not the same as book design, poster design, or illustration, and it does not aspire for the finest achievements of those fields. Although websites may distribute games and films, such delivery methods might be attractive; they are examples of game design and video narrative, not web design. What exactly is web design?
Web design is the process of creating digital environments that ease and promote human interaction, reflect or adapt to unique voices and content, and evolve gently over time while maintaining their identity.
Let me say it again, absolutely:
Web design is the process of creating digital environments that ease and promote human interaction, reflect or adapt to unique voices and content, and evolve gently over time while maintaining their identity.
SHE WALKS IN GORGEOUSNESS
Great web designs are like great typefaces: some, like Rosewood, imbue with personality whatever material they’re applied to. Others, like Helvetica, blend into the background (or strive to), magically complementing the tone set by the content. (We can debate if Helvetica is true as neutral as water tomorrow.)
Which website design is similar to that? For example, Douglas Bowman’s white “Minima” Blogger style is used by millions of authors and seems like it was developed just for each of them. That is a fantastic design.
Great web designs are similar to great structures. Lobbies, restrooms, and stairwells are found in all office buildings, no matter how unique they are. Websites, too, have a lot in common.
A superb site design is unique, but it is comparable to other site designs that serve similar jobs. The same can be said for exceptional magazine and newspaper layouts, which differ from those in a slew of minor things. Few people applaud brilliant magazine layouts, yet millions do, consciously or unconsciously, and no one complains that they aren’t posters.
Too many websites utilize grids, too many sites employ columns, and too many places are “boxy,” says the rookie or inadequately conscientious designer. Since 1995, attempts to prevent boxiness have been made; while some have been successful, the majority have resulted in visually dreadful and unnecessarily useless designs.