Erluvi - Web Design

It is rare to find a designer (of anything) who favors function over form. Most designers prioritize form over function, probably knowing full well that by the time the engineers get their hands on it, some of the style will have been shaved off to save money or to appease the market research findings.The gestation process is clear in the auto industry as we see the aggressively conceptual prototypes at the auto-shows morph into slightly (if noticeable at all) improved models by the time the cars come off the assembly line and hit the showroom. A similar process (thankfully) occurs in the fashion industry, where designers create hi-end couture that only 1% of 1% of the world’s population would ever wear (or fit into). And between Italian runways where they showcase these designs and the actual display rack at Nordstrom’s, much influence is transposed but very little else. Most people are just a bit too conservative to wear or drive prototypes.

What does this have to do with websites you ask?

Everything. The conflict between designers and engineers is pronounced in every field. Designers are aesthetically literate. They see in terms of: lines, negative space, color, font, spacing, size, etc. Engineers are functionally literate. They see in terms of outcome, practicality, usefulness and efficiencies.

When it comes to websites: the conflict is rarely as pronounced as the design of a car. Automakers must wrestle with far more – and live with far more compromise. They must juggle between horsepower and fuel efficiency, comfort and performance and any number of other factors that contribute to the nebulous feeling you have when you sit in a car for the first time, and contemplate whether you might spend $35,000 over the next 6 years on it. The stakes are high.

Our conflict is relatively simple: because it is based on a clear hierarchy that favors the engineers over the designers. We are pragmatists on this point -- if your website is not on the first 3 pages of Google (we shoot for page 1, but there is value on page 2 & 3) who cares what it looks like. This of course presupposes that you are utilizing your website as a marketing vehicle... a way to respond to people who are searching for you.

We believe you can have your cake and eat it two. We just prioritize performance. Once a website has achieved rank, which is to say once it has achieved first page placement, the look and feel of the site (what I have referred to in this blog as the “beauty”) can be tweaked and refined. Colors can be changed. New photos added. The lines and font can be rearranged. So it is not a natural “either or.”

If you have spent any time on the web, you have seen both extremes. On a regular basis, we come across great looking websites that look like they could hang on the wall in the Tate, complete with well balanced negative space, visually interesting hi-res photos and lines that observe all the religiously precise 1/3rd rules that they preach in art. Now if a site like this is buried on the 132nd page of Google, as it often is, what is the point?

The other extreme, is one you inevitably see more often.  I call this extreme the "flee market approach."  A website so packed full of links, ads, content, content and more content that it is difficult to look at.  It may be SEO friendly but not easy on the eye.

Clearly there is a balance.

At The Search Engine Guys we recognize that our clients have different priorities, different personalities, and work within different industries. We strive to understand the nuances of our individual clients and implement our proven SEO processes to achieve optimal rank.  Once we achieve rank, we are able to study the performance of the site in terms of how long people are spending on various pages, etc., from there we are able to test and refine both the content and the look and feel to maximize performance.

The challenge when it comes to content vs. beauty is to not “let the tyranny of either / or ruin the possibility of both / and.”