Must Design

I like this article's approach. Alice Rawsthorn makes understanding what good website design is easy. Good web design makes finding information easy. Love this idea, 

"...the most important purpose of most Web sites is to enable us to access information, helping us to find it effortlessly is essential."

As website designers if we were to put that sentence on a wall and check every new design element against it we would be better off. We don't check ideas against the real reason we created the website in the first place, Rawsthorn speculates, because:

* Technologyitis - love new tech without understanding it.

* Lack of imagination or too much imagination.

* Designers easily get lost in a "Curse of Knowledge".

This last bullet is true to my 7 years as a Director of Ecommerce. We looked at our website for hours every day. Our ability to "see" it was zero. What we thought was "easy" could be hard. What we thought was "hard" could be easy. We had, as the Heath brothers describe in their excellent book Made To Stick, the curse of knowledge.  

My team created an important rule. We called it the "Because Rule". Our because rule stated that BECAUSE you CAN do something doesn't mean it is the RIGHT thing to do. RIGHT = helping people find our content and intent (what we wanted them to do) faster, with less effort and with more fun. 

Here's the rub of our Because rule. Every website communicates in overt (click this next) and covert (we are easy to work because you can find what you want) ways. Our "Because Rule" like this article from Alice helped check the inevitable mission creep every Internet marketing team experiences. 

What is your "Because Rule"? How do you craft great website design?