Web Design and elegant simplicity

Where Web design is concerned, there's a lot to be said for the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. There are just so many things that can go wrong that are beyond your control, why introduce potential problems deliberately?

There are two main areas where over-complication can occur. One is technological, one is visual.

Look at any of the big sites on the Web, the ones that get millions of hits each day. The technology behind them may be awesome, but it's usually tried and tested. When you have the responsibility of catering for a huge audience, you can't afford to take flyers with cool new plug-ins.

Also, big sites don't look complicated. In fact, you might well ask why they don't try a bit harder. Here, simplicity means 'simple to use'. Hand in hand with the negative aspects of 'boring predictability' comes the more positive attribute of 'intuitively familiar'. It's usually novices who 'rush in where angels fear to tread'. The more experience you get, the more likely you are to try to avoid trouble!

This month, I'm going to show how to create Web page drop-down menus that are 'boringly predictable'. They work in exactly the same way that drop-down menus work in just about every operating system and application program you encounter.

What's wrong with that? If you want them to look a little different, that's okay but the functionality isn't to be messed around with. Why complicate matters by trying to reinvent the wheel? Keep it simple! Nobody has every complained about anything being too easy.

Source:http://www.wpdfd.com/