November 04, 2003 | View Comments (8) | Category: Design
Summary: Why it is important to also focus on the aesthetics of your sites.
Many people have openly asked and I am sure many more have kept to themselves wondering why would anyone start another Best Design Site or CSS Resource Repository. I did so for many reasons and one of them has to do with the importance of aesthetics.
There are many great looking websites on the web. Many people use these sites for their own inspiration. There are many CSS-based sites on the web and many people use these to learn CSS techniques. But how many sites showcase great looking CSS-based sites? And if there are any sites that do this how many of them actually look good? Having a list of sites that use CSS and validate are great to show a group of web geeks, but what about the real world people who really do care about the way a site looks? You don't think they do? Well let's look at some real world examples.
Some may argue that Apple is far from death because they use an innovative operating system along with innovative products. I say they are still alive because they create the nicest looking products that attract people's attentions. OS X is beautiful and can almost make anyone switch to it simply based on its looks. There are many mp3 players in the market, but how many look as sleek as the iPod? Don't get me wrong, the functionality of Apple's products are what keep people, but to attract people you have to have something that looks good and Apple has plenty of products that do.
I am sure you must think I am crazy by now. How does Amazon fit into a conversation about aesthetics? Well I argue that if Amazon was to start today looking like it does now, it would have no chance of surviving. It is hard to pull people into something that is not even attractive. eBay is at least trying to change their image some and if you look closely you can see Yahoo making a transition.
It doesn't cost that much to make, yet it sells for hundreds of dollars and people never stop buying it. Some buy for the name brand envy and others buy it simply because it looks better than normal clothing.
Think books don't sell simply based on their attractive covers? Right and people buy Maxim and FHM because they knew without looking at the women on the covers the excellent content that was inside.
Being a web designer today requires you to be knowledgeable about CSS and XHTML, but you must also be aware that aesthetics play just as important a role as usability. When Dave Shea created the CSS Zen Garden he did so knowing that creative artists would be hesitant to move to CSS because of its perceived complexity and idea of only creating "boxy" sites. So he created a showcase for the creative people to show them what can be done with CSS (I am sure Dave will correct me if I am wrong about all that, but it makes sense). I decided to create a realworld showcase to show the world what can be done with CSS.
You can preach the values of CSS like reduced bandwidth, quicker development and whatever else, but if you can't create a nice looking site then what is the point? Sure some clients will care about standard compliant sites, but all of them will care about their site looking good. As a designer it is my responsibility to care about standards and aesthetics because that is what the job of web designer entails today.
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I have such great loads of guilt based on the fact that my personal website is in no way up to standards. However, CSS and semantics and webstandards are my new passion. I've been working hard to rectify that in my job as a web designer, but have not had the time to address my personal site.
One of the reasons it took me so long to realize the inherit goodness in all that is holy CSS was the fact that there were so few real world examples for me to see this put into play. Amazing people like David Shea and Douglas Bowman and Jeffrey Zeldman have certainly provided much in that area. I have also started collecting bookmarks of sites that use CSS for my own point of inspiration, so I'm ridiculously excited about the CSS Vault.
Gah, Amazon.com is so ugly. Functional and user friendly, surely. Innovative in so many respects, including the top tab navigation that everyone and their granny has copied... but it is still designed to an aesthetic popular 5 years ago, which is practically death to any website design. I can't believe what they did to CDnow. That site used to be so gorgeous. Kvetch, kvetch.
I just thought I'd unload since you were so sad about lack of comments. :)
Alanna (http://www.virginmoistness.com)
meetings. meetings. meetings all day.
kill me now, please. Another meeting yet to come....
I'll read your post and give a realc omment later. :-)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I just want to add on the point you made about designer clothing. People buy high-end fashions because of the name and style of the clothes, yes. But what I find most powerful is the inventiveness used in the advertising of designer labels.
Gucci, Prada, Versace, Polo, Donna Karan et al are master at presenting their styles in the most attractive light from a layout perspective. I get so many ideas for web site concepts by flipping though an issue of GQ or Esquire and looking at the ads. Even the homepages of designer labels, while not always W3C-compliant, are very inspiring to look at.
I know this comment has very little to do with CSS, but I hope you guys find it useful (or at least entertaining).
Louis (http://www.clotman.com)
Very interesting point Louis. However, it still goes to show that its how you present something that can make the world of difference.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I just wanted to say "I love the CSS Vault!". I think it's a great idea and well worth the effort you're putting in.
I noticed you can submit your own website but what about submitting other peoples websites? For example... I love the 37Better Series of designs that 37Signals has put out and though they aren't in use they are surely worthy of praise and recognition. I didn't want to submit it on CSS Vault because the wording makes it look like it has to be my website to submit it, which it's not.
And BTW, White Space and Css Vault are vaulable resources to me.
- Joshua
Joshua
Joshua: You can submit any site you want. It definitely doesn't happen to be your's. I guess I need to change the wording around or add some to the site.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
Referring to Louis:
I'd like to add there's maybe a even more cruical point to the sucess of designer clothes. They sell you an image - your way of life. I don't mean they are forcing you to do so but that they are offering you something. When you wear their clothes, not influenced by brand-envy of course, you feel like those clothes were made for you and not for everybody. You could say they act as some kind of substitute for custom-made clothes.
Gerrit
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#1
I have concluded that there are 3 reasons nobody has commented yet.
1. I am so completely wrong that no one feels that they should respond to such drivel.
2. I am so utterly right that no one wants to waste the time telling me how right I am.
3. Everybody is wondering why can't I design like the sites shown on CSS Vault :)
Oh well, guess you can't post something good everyday.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)