Form and Function

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.

1. Say what it does
2. Keep homepages clutter free
3. Be consistent and use conventions
4. Navigation
5. Response and load times
6. Let your users search
7. 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.