Plea for better web design

Note: This is my reply to the comment raised by my writing on Elevant Studios a few posts back. Original comment archived purely for educational purposes.

Dear Roald-Henrik,

Living at the edge of the world where wind blows and misery prospers has its disadvantages. It is a good place to lead a life if you are into mean-spirited who are also harsh with words. We are impolite by nature, secluded by location and recluses by definition. I could as well elaborate on this alcohol problem we all Finns share, but I would be digressing then.

While I am ready the make amendments for certain issues, mainly regarding the tone of my writing, I will hold my stance in others. I see, you see, two things that differentiate my site from yours.

First, I could lose ten customers, readers, without the need to blink. If you were to lose the same, you could blink even twice, maybe thrice on a really bad day. Neglecting a small percentage of visitors for the sake of the experience might be maintenance-wise, but not necessarily business-wise. One neglected might be an important influencing person and tell of his or her bad experience to dozen others: friends, family, neighbour’s dog. Odds are against this, of course, but it is worth remembering in the craze on customer profiling.

Secondly, and more importantly, the layout does not matter. At all. It is all about the content. Internet Explorer, all versions, is the only browser that shows any significant degradation while rendering my site. Even then the content is intact and readily available. From a designer’s point of view this makes no sense, I acknowledge, but that is how it is. Looking at my reflection on the mirror does not help then.

I am an amateur, and quite proudly so, and a beginner too. But are you any better? Rendering the back button inoperable hurts the perceived user experience and placing the substitute at the bottom of the page is considered a dumb thing to do. We expect things to work like they have worked before. Spawning pop-up windows solely for the designer’s purposes was a vice in the past, like is using Javascript for the same today. That is why the back button is so important. It is the single most used functionality in any web browser and the absence of it makes surfing so vulnerable.

Individuals and corporations—or design firms for that matter—do not stand on the same level. Different laws are applicable to people and firms. Basically this means an entrepreneur must stand harsher criticism than is necessary. You survived this test, by the way, surprisingly well. If my semi-intentional writing has prompted any actions at your end, I consider it a success. Sometimes hard whipping gets your there when gentle stroking does not.

Maybe there is, after all, a lesson to be learned—for both parties.

Sincerely,

Lauri Seppänen