Here is how we are going to take you with our journey in discovery of a great web designer, what they believe in, how they do it, and then we shall provide you some fabulous links to some of the renowned work in great web designing.

Web designing in not just programming, it uses programming as its core ingredient, but the product which it provides differentiate it from the core development activities. When you see a traditional computer programmer, and a web designer you can feel the difference immediately even thou you don’t belong to the computer sciences.

But, what differentiates among the classes is something really interesting. Let’s have a look at some of the kick-ass traits that covers a good web designer into a great web designer:

They Empathize with the Users:

Great designers know their users. They don’t build something for granted and generic forms. They know who will be using their work. Quality of the work depends of the people who are going to use your work and these people matter.

Great designers create their work in accordance to their users. They even take care of the fonts, coloring, placement, functions, and even data that are going to be shown on their web designs.

Knows about the Data:

Great designers know about the data and its importance to the users. They build the websites on the basis of the usability and reliability of the website in terms of how it is going to handle and process the data.

On websites the thing which matter most is the search of the contents a user is looking for. Consider this as you walked into a fancy restaurant and there is not reception to greet you. Websites without proper search routines are like black holes, they can invite the users, but they will not let them in properly.

Don’t make Users Confused!

Websites built by the designers who knows their works, will never make the users confuses and let them think too much about what to and not do on the website. Steve Krug’s seminal book Don’t Make Me Think is something very revealing in relation to the user interaction designing.

If you make user thinking too much on the contents of your website and make them decide over the clicks and where to and not to go, they will not return to your domain ever again. Simplicity is what makes them great; tell me, have you ever read a manual for Google, Facebook or Amazon?

A great designer formulates a strategy for their designs.

They use laws as “Hick’s Law” to determine the shortest path on the menu to access items, to make the user work fast on their websites. There is also the concern for the UI patterns and the memory limits of the users. You cannot open page after page or links after links and feel happy about it. You need to consider the user as a human who is existing in not another context and can lost attention easily.

They Keep User in Front Seat:

Designers who build for their own personal satisfaction are not great designers. The keep their users in the front seat and let them drive their ideas. They understand the user’s business and then build their design in accordance to that business.

Curbing the Ego:

Great designers are not egocentrics. They know about their importance in the website, but they keep two things first. Number one is the user of the design and the other is the team they are working with. If they keep their ego ahead, then what they tend to build are actually their representations not the users.

White Space Canvas:

Great Designers uses white space as their canvas. They don’t tend to fill the available space with everything they can get. Instead they keep that white space for the user to move around freely without creating an extra load on their mind. This also keeps the contents very clear, and provides the website with a cleaner look.

Appearance and Functionality:

According to Don Norman, an aesthetically-pleasing site actually relaxes the user. There are two terminologies which we normally use, one is Functional and the other is non-functional. The functional aspects of a design are no doubt very critical to look after and sought for, but the non-functional aspects are something which actually gets the attention.

The out of the ordinary coloring, graphics, buttons, animated menus or the backgrounds which comes alive are some of the features which give the edge to the appearance and makes that user stay there.

Emotionally Interactive Designs:

Great designers know human psychology. They know if the emotions are hit with the right amount of force it can transform the contents of a website into great human contents. The world in its context does not behave logically. They are not flocks of birds moving along the crowd. They do what their feelings and context tells them to do.

The use of powerful images, contents, texts, and coloring the effect of the emotionally intelligent design is awesome. Don Norman links this to human evolution – thanks to the life-or-death situations of mankind’s prehistory, we’ve adapted to make split-second decisions based on our emotions, or “gut reactions.”

Build Rapport with Developers:

Great designers build rapport with developers. They know that whatever they are conceiving will be built by these computer geeks. So they understand the importance and power of this relationship. They make the developer understand the importance of the design with what customer is asking for. This way the developer knows where and how to put in their efforts and time.

Think of this relationship like, you have a great idea and wish to show this to the world, and without developer, that cannot be conceived.

Conclusions:

Some of the aspects which great designers keep in their minds are also considered as the critically important factors a user look for in the website. For example the website responds to the users when they really in need of the help. They tend to make them feel relax and not make them angry when a page is not found.

Great designers always go for the right ideas not the best ideas there are. The right ideas make the things works for the users and what they really want.