Web aesthetics Vs function

It’s the age old debate about what is more important should it be sexy and sleek and will you give up some of the functionality to have it so! Well I guess the same thing goes for a beautiful car, firstly everyone has a different car in mind and everyone thinks of a car differently, but what if that car drove slower because of its looks, or the looks made it not drive as well? Would you then still think it’s a sleek and sexy car? What if the fastest car around looked like a few welded pipes, rusted but man does it get results. Mmm.

So a lot can be said for the sleek and sexy, obviously the prettier the card the more interest to buy, and the faster the car the more sales I guess? Let us take a deeper look into this analogy and make sense of a few things. I believe you need a little bit of both let’s bring in some requirements to the equation.

In the modern field of design advertising and marketing, there is a couple of expected requirements i.e. just push your site through a google mobile test and see how that requirement might affect your web traffic, or what is your web score on the site speed test.

So firstly the general viewers or future customers have l believe there are pre-requisites that you have to abide too and this is the world isn’t what it used to be. In the early 2000’s and so every design and website wanted to look so unique and different and that was the first step to true differentiation. But that has changed considerably.

Today if you don’t abide by the pre desired look and feel you might get a website drop off. So yes UI and UX professionals do this all the time standardize the navigation or you get drop off. Very interesting! So if your cars steering wheel doesn’t appear where it is supposed to appear some people might not want to drive it. That is a valid point one for Function.

If your site is too heavy it will load slowly but a slow site or bulky design may be sleek still, however, I have to say A Ferrari as good as it looks when it can go on the high way for it’s too slow will probably not get sold so another one for function over design.

What about the ads that you run to your site if they are not very attractive and have all the characteristics of a great ad it will probably not drive click through or won’t get noticed in the social media news feed? One for Aesthetics.

Well let’s get to the point I think that in most instances function should be placed as a top priority for one reason and one reason only customer satisfaction. Today you have to ensure that your customer comes first if they prefer the hamburger menu to the nicely done scroll menu then it is done. No questions asked. If your customers prefer a clean slate look to a busy bustling look then let it be. It comes down to you knowing your market and your customers’ requirements again. So does aesthetics not play a role?

I think it plays the biggest role ever in making sure that whatever suit you put your website in that it’s the best one there is, for your customer.

I hope you enjoyed my rambling and please share your thoughts below and check out more articles on my website: www.magic-e.co.za