{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "createdAt": "2023-12-04T17:30:00+00:00",
  "description": "Is there any point in making websites look good, beyond their normal ease of use? And if so—who are we doing it for?",
  "path": "/stream/does-web-design-matter",
  "publishedAt": "2023-12-04T17:30:00+00:00",
  "site": "at://did:plc:swxoj3wjlwodcqs5ipmvgnug/site.standard.publication/3mnv7gbn3czno",
  "tags": [
    "Web",
    "Design"
  ],
  "textContent": "From Dan Mall:This past week, I finished making a small website for a family member’s business. I had an idea I liked for a subtle header animation. As I sat down to do it, I couldn’t justify how that animation would make the site any better at its job—attracting potential clients—than the static, non-animated version would.It got me thinking: could I justify an animation for any website’s header?There's this tense relationship between user-experience and design I've noticed a few times before: there's overlap between the two categories, but they're not the same thing:good link text is good user experience, but not always good design;animated headers might be good design but not good user experience;proper colour contrast is both.Although: Dieter Rams's says that good design is aesthetic. Spinning headers are aesthetic but it's hard to make a business case for them because they're not functional. And Dieter Rams isn't like the final arbiter of these things anyway.Then again it's often hard to make a business case for art. Are websites art?As other forms of media rise in popularity, what I’ve observed is websites being relegated to one of two purposes:The website is the business, or a major part of it. Think e-commerce behemoths like Amazon and eBay, publishers like Dotdash Meredith and Buzzfeed, or social media companies like Facebook or Twitter.The website as a glorified business card. Someone people have square business cards, some spring for the gold foil and extra-thick card-stock, but they all do the same job in answering these two questions: are you legitimate and how can I contact you?I like Jason Miller's application holotypes but this feels like such a cleaner way of conceiving of websites—and no less true. Much more easily grasped. Is your website itself a product, or is it an identifier?Is this a dichotomy, or a spectrum? Where do blogs lie?",
  "title": "Does web design matter"
}