Contrary to an earlier post (Who said websites had to be square?) I’ve been reviewing some of my design choices and standards, particularly in view of some other sites I’ve been visiting regularly.

Yes, pushing the envelope can be fun and helps to develop new technologies, etc. However, sometimes it’s important to balance the needs of the user against the developers need to push themselves.

Here’s my design manifesto for the foreseeable future:

  • Readability - Websites are still largely a written medium, but some aren’t easy to read. Firstly, a website should be readable. That means no silly fonts, no clutter and good on-screen colours.
  • Navigability - Some websites are impossible to find your way around, it should be absolutely obvious to anyone how to get around my websites.
  • Human-linkability - Sometimes there are dynamically generated parts of websites that are hard to get to, that shouldn’t be the case. Everything should be linkable.

That means no circle based main site for TwinkleBob Solutions. The rest of the TwinkleBob sites need tidying up to, watch this space!