We’ve all heard the phrase “Honesty is the best policy”, but how much awareness do you take to this when designing? More and more, I find myself coming back to the points of silent design and websites that ‘just work’ being a key to most online successful projects. The basic policy of honesty is being true to yourself of course and not doing anything your morals say is wrong. You can take this a step further and focus on your design ‘self’ and being honest to that. I’m not really talking about when referring to honesty of design and function, the areas such as ripping another’s work. I think it’s safe to say the mass consensus is this isn’t honest or good designer practice. Really, the ‘honesty’ I am referring to here links more into the brief, the design subject and the market.
Honesty of function
This is about being true to what you are designing for. If this is the web remembering it’s not print is a good starting point for being honest. This is the most basic level of honesty of function. Building up from this comes recognising the ‘needs’ of the client and users. What do both sides of the coin need from the website? At this point if you just do something on a site because it is a ‘wow factor’ functionality without a thought for the wider implications or even if it’s necessary – this is not being honest to the function.
You can think about honesty of function in terms of a piece of furniture such as a chair. A chair has to have a basic function – that of being able to sit on it. Anything that causes this function to not work would be not honest to the function. Say you designed a chair that had instead of the seat it had a mass of swirls and sharp wires coming out from the wood. Whilst this may look ‘cool’ it would render the basic function of a chair – to be sat upon – useless. Just like in this example, you can render the functionality of a website useless by pointless functionality. Anything you add should bolster and reinforce that core function.
Honesty of design
Harmonious designs are the most successful designs. I am not referring to you having to use a muted palette or toned down techniques – should the subject require it you can implement elaborate designs. The key here is letting the subject guide you and not just putting something on a design because it looks ‘cool’ or you saw a tutorial and thought you’d throw it at your next design without thinking of it’s relevancy.
I’ve posted in the past about a common mistake a lot of people new to design make. This is the problem where they throw literally everything and the kitchen sink at a design. There is a desperation in their design. They design like they will never design anything again. The true ‘art’ of design is where you become a filter for all you have learnt and select from that palette the elements and techniques applicable to the subject you are designing for. This comes with experience but learning to step back and select even from a limited palette is something anyone can do at whatever point they are in design.
Honesty of design also comes into play where you focus on the design supporting the function and not getting in the way. Usability also comes up as a subject at this point. Whilst you may get an initial visual ‘wow’, people will soon grow tired of a good looking website that is about as much use as a chocolate teapot to what they want. If a client has a good looking site that brings them no revenue as fails to work for their customers, you will soon find you have less and less clients. Getting the balance right is one subject I feel myself returning to a lot of times. It really is a case that good design is a balance – this is where the true sophistication of a designer comes into play.
In the end honesty is the best policy
You can think of it in terms of being ‘true’ to the form if you like in both function and design cases. Just like nobody likes a dishonest person, a dishonest design will be treated in the same manner. Most designers won’t consciously choose if a design is honest or dishonest – it is like with most things in design part of tuning in your designer ‘self’. That internal choice you make becomes second nature as you refine what you do. No matter how experienced you are though it won’t hurt to look at various points in the design stage and ask yourself is this design honest.
