Web design approaches
If anyone tells you there is one-right-way to design a website, distrust them. Nor is there one-right-way to build a house, to pray or to die. [This view is embodied in the essay on Zen and the Art of Websites http://www.tlc-systems.com/webtips.shtml]
Books on web design seem to be a battle of the mods against the rockers, the artists against the business men, the nerds against the geeks.
The famous web usability expert, Jacob Nielsen, is a Scandinavian-American modernist in his design approach 'I describe a very systematic approach to web design, with a sequence of methods anybody can use' (Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity p11). If they do, they will end up with websites like his: inelegant. He writes on p12 that 'You also need some design inspiration to strike'. This is an infantile view of the design process. But Designing web usability is a very good book - just don't take it as the whole story or even as a necessary part of every story. He should wear a white coat. If writing about sex, one could expect the following advice from Nielsen.
First, you should be smart and clean: go to the hairdresser, have your nails done, take a bath. Decide who is going to bed with you. She must have a high usability rating, no awkward bra clips. Remember that speed is of great importance. No woman wants to be kept waiting. Take her to your room. Have a definite plan of action but remember (p12) 'the scientific method can only take you so far'. Present her with a bunch of roses and a bottle of wine - red for passion. She will know what you intend. No problems.
Nielsen (p11) writes that 'there are essentially two basic approaches to design: the artistic idea of expressing yourself and the engineering ideal of solving a problem for a customer. This book is firmly on the side of engineering.' This is like saying 'there are only two colours, black and white'. The remark is as wrong-headed as it is preposterous. Has he, for example, forgotten that the most searched-for word on the internet is 'sex'. Is this 'expressing yourself' or is it 'solving a problem for a customer'. And in the first spring of the new Millennium the second most searched for word was 'pokeman' (spelt wrong). Which of his two categories would this go into? Web-books are blindingly coy on the subject of sex.
Metaphor as a design method is discussed on page 180 of Nielsen, somewhat sniffily. He sees it as a cute idea rather than a good navigational strategy. But what's wrong with being cute? It can win lots of attention, which is what most webmaster's want.
See section on alternative design theories and approaches.
