Developing web projects is always a tug-of-war between the wants of the graphic designer and the functional needs of the developer. Obviously the goal is a harmonious balance between the two. I was reviewing a post over on Design Reviver this morning which outlined this struggle in terms of Usability Problems and good design characteristics.
- Say what it does
- Keep homepages clutter free
- Be consistent and use conventions
- Navigation
- Response and load times
- Let your users search
- Test early and often
One area I always seem to be focused in on is #4, Navigation. I usually try and resist graphically heavy navigation or having navigation points that do not effect a change on mouseover. The ultimate goal of good navigation should be that the majority of end-users will intuitively understand the navigational scheme without pause.
Ease of use, from the CMS-users perspective, cannot be discounted either. A good navigation design should be scalable, allowing for the addition and subtraction of pages on-the-fly through the CMS without damaging the design.
Creating navigation that meets these usability criteria while maintaining a good relationship with the graphic designer is often a balancing act that takes an invest of both time and energy on the part of the developer.
