Beautiful Or Useful - William Morris on the Web

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”

This was written by William Morris 125 years ago & famously quoted by Terence Conran as the principle guiding his Habitat stores. Words & design are the two primary elements of a website and, being one of the most celebrated designer/writers ever to have lived, William Morris’s words translate nicely to the web:

Is Everything On Your Site Useful?

• Make sure there is a reason behind every element of your primary pages - don’t just include things because you can, include them because they’re useful to you or to your visitors
• Does everything on your site help you to reach your goals?
• Do you know what each of your visitor segments is trying to do on your site? Can they achieve that?

Is Everything On Your Site Beautiful?

• Does your text & your design resonate with your audience?
• A visit to your site should be at least simple, and you should really be aiming for it to be an enjoyable experience (In a recent Forrester poll related to Holiday websites, 20% of participants said that bad site usability had caused them not to purchase online)
• The bottom line here is: If your site triggers positive emotions in your audience, they will spend more time there, keep returning, and recommend you to others