A question to web-designers: What are the metrics with which you test your design experimentations?
Does it pass the test if it aligns to a grid, contains a pleasant color palette, has enough whitespace, hierarchy, and contrast? Or is there something more fundamental you strive for?
I think a formal design education would be much less concerned with the former, and more concerned with the latter -- what are your most fundamental first principles as a person, and how can you instill those into your design and/or design process.
You are right, there is something more fundamental to strive for: purpose.
Alignment, whitespace, hierarchy and contrast are elements of visual syntax. You internalize the rules so much that when you're designing you're not thinking about it; you are thinking about what you are trying to achieve.
Say you need to design a sign-up page for a newsletter, you need to:
1. Tell users what the newsletter is about
2. Say how often it's published
3. Make them feel comfortable giving out their e-mail
4. Give some demonstration of value
As you are designing, you are thinking about what is the best way to accomplish each of these goals in a visual manner. You often don't even think where to align stuff, it just falls into place because you know where it's supposed to be.
If I were to make a parallel to code, it would be clearly internalizing the syntax of the language. You no longer think about where to indent your code, or of a comparison operator in javascript is == instead of =, you have achieved enough fluency to stop thinking about how to write code and actually achieving something.
It's always about conversion. More people, less bounce.
The former is introductory design (and the focus of the article). The latter is advanced design & expression - applying one's voice towards different fundamentals.
Does it pass the test if it aligns to a grid, contains a pleasant color palette, has enough whitespace, hierarchy, and contrast? Or is there something more fundamental you strive for?
I think a formal design education would be much less concerned with the former, and more concerned with the latter -- what are your most fundamental first principles as a person, and how can you instill those into your design and/or design process.
I want to see more articles about that.