Golden Rule of Web Design

Posted January 14th, 2007 by John

The Golden Rule of Web Design is … ‘Everything Must have a Purpose‘. This is an essential key to achieve a highly successful web property or web site. Every single element on the website and decision made concerning the website must help users achieve their goals and support the site’s goals. Whether it’s designing a simple navigation or optimizing above the fold on the index page to allow users to easily find your website with the use of search engines, everything put on your website must have a purpose.

Successful web design is not just about attractive visuals, though that helps. Success is primarily a result of good thinking and applying your concepts correctly. For me, structure, brand, page layout, graphic design, and error handling are elements geared to successful websites.

Using the Golden Rule for web design from scratch is essential. Following the Golden Rule helps you build a complete web site from clarifying your purpose, and creating a solution in architecture, layout and page design. Every step of the process rigorously applies the Golden Rule, and the result will be a web site that is a complete success.