First impression matters!
- Posted by Tengku Zahasman on May 21st, 2007 filed in Web Design
- (366 Views)
I’m not saying that you need to develop creatively stunning design for your web app. I mean hey, look at MySpace… it was once regarded as the ugliest web app ever. But the amount of users they have scrolling over their ugly, full of ads website every single day is overwhelming. What I actually mean when I say “first impression” has nothing to do with beauty, but more towards the strategy that you use for your site’s look-and-feel. It’s the type of layout that you want to use, the fonts, where you place your login form, the logo, the theme colour, where to use Ajax or Flash, ads placement, user-friendliness, etc. Different types of web apps will have different style of interface and user-experience, because how your app should look and behave is largely dependent on what it is used for and the target users. ImageShack, an image hosting application have a minimalist design to impose the “easy & no hassle” look, while Netvibes has a more defined design to give the impression of “we have many features for your favorite feeds!”. Invest your time more on defining what’s the most effective design for your web app. For what is worth, simplicity and cleanliness always work in most apps so you can start off with that mindset. Even after you have launched your application, you can continually tweak your placements here and there to analyze the differences that it makes. 
Talking about look-and-feel, I have just finished sketching the mock up design of one of my current web app project using Fireworks - my favorite graphics tool. I am not going to show you guys yet how it looks like but I will when I think its time to have them uploaded. Anyway, you can also adopt this practice when designing your app. Sketch your whole website in a graphics tool first because it is faster and it gives you an idea of how you your site will look like in the end. Only after you have satisfied with the mock up will you start coding the layout and placement on Dreamweaver (or any other softwares that you use). 
If I've provided some info that you find to be useful, don't hesitate to 
May 29th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Am into web apps development too.. and the most fun part is strategically designing the front end!
It really helps sketching the pages first, and how things will be put in place.. It saves time of course in your coding. Lol. ^-^
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Thanks for the comment by the way. Aja! Aja! Cheers for more web apps to come!
May 29th, 2007 at 2:27 am
You’re right Cai. Besides, it also gives you some kind of moral momentum when you see how cool your site looks like on the drawing canvas.. u just can’t wait to make it happen and see it in action
May 29th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Hello Tengku - While I agree that MySpace is popular in spite of itself, you might want to consider, when designing/building a website, the audience you’re trying to attract. For example, if you’re trying to market to the 20-30 crowd you wouldn’t want your design to be stodgy, whereas if you were marketing to the 40-60 audience, you would be best served if the site was clean and not too cluttered. Yes?
May 29th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Hi MorganLigther.. exactly! The age range of the target users does have a major impact on how the site design should be crafted. Thanks for filling the part I left out.