‘Form And Function’

I’ve coded a lot of websites for a lot of different designers and a common problem I experience with each one is something that should really be natural to them in the first place – the idea that form follows function. Most of this problem stems from the fact that they are not web developers. The most overlooked areas that I’ve noticed are those in SEO, usability and in page load time.

Web Fonts
A well-known fact about non-developing designers is that they love to use not safe for web fonts. This becomes more of a problem when they specifically request that a webpage looks exactly like their design. The truth is that no matter how you slice it, web developers are limited in options when it comes to web fonts. We shouldn’t use sIFR, because that can cause serious load time problems. Even with @font-face our hands are tied because we are limited to only free fonts due to redistribution clauses in font licenses. The last resort is to use images to replace all of the good quality content that should be on the page. An alt tag only does so much for search engines so we are really shooting ourselves in the foot in the form of Search Engine Optimization by using this method. What is the purpose of producing a website that *looks good* if no one is going to see it in the first place?

Page Titles
Another problem I have faced not only with web designers, but clients in general is that they like to use their page titles as cheesy marketing devices rather than for keyword optimization. In a perfect world, I’d like to use something like Works by Jared Lunde | Design Simplified, but the reality of the matter is that I am much better off using a page title like Logo Design & Web Development | Madison, Wisconsin because those are the key phrases that I am looking to get visits from. Again, what is the purpose of making it look good if no one is visiting?

Background Images
A major pet-peeve of mine is when I see a website that doesn’t take into account screen resolution sizes or load times with their web pages. A designer should always be aware of typical screen resolution sizes and plan accordingly. I’m also a firm believer that a background doesn’t need to be elaborate or textured and in some cases it definitely shouldn’t be. While the background may look *cool* it is entirely possible that you are in fact doing harm to the experience by a) increasing load time by a lot or b) distracting from content that a visitor should be paying attention to. I mention the former a lot because it really is the most important thing you need to consider when designing a web page. You never want to direct a visitor’s attention away from where they should be looking and with proper background usage, we can actually point them in the correct direction. For instance, you’ll see a lot advertisements in magazines where something as subtle as lines in sand can be directing your eye attention to a specific phrase on the page. It is entirely possible to harness those same techniques on a website and you should definitely consider it if you are going to be using a background image.

Javascript
One final annoyance of mine is poor use of javascript effects. Not all javascript effects are bad, in fact if used correctly they are amazing and can add a real wow-factor to the UI. Some designers just don’t know how to use it correctly, though. I’ve been on a few projects where a substantial amount of good information is hidden from a user’s view for the sole purpose of using javascript fade ins/outs. The last thing we want to do is hide something we need the user to see from their eye line. Another downfall of hiding information is that there is a possibility that hiding enough will actually start to harm your search rankings. Because of this (and because some users have it turned off) there absolutely needs to be a no javascript backstop on the page where ever it is used.