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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: February 26, 2003 Are guidelines useless? (Elegant Hack) -- "You know what? I think beginner designers are the ones who should be kept away from guidelines, as far as possible. Instead, they should work on looking at usable designs, and designing, and seeing their designs tested and retested (in the words of the great homer simpson, "lather rinse repeat. always repeat.")." (Comments: Christina, it is Dr. Nielsen; never forget! Wink wink, nudge nudge.)
Reader Comments...
"Are guidelines useless" does a very efficient job of burning straw men. In large organisations beginner designers do not operate alone, they have mentors - and probably lots of guidelines as well, so that their designs fit into a small range of familiar patterns and the users don't have to spent time solving puzzles. The majority of sites designed by individuals and small companies would better if they observed some sensible guidelines. The point of guidelines is mainly to help people up the learning curve - eventually they'll learn how / when to bend the rules, but until then guidelines can save them from a lot of mistakes.
There's nothing wrong with a guideline here and there. It's a great place to start the conversation about a particular feature, addition, usage, element, etc. There's also no reason to reinvent the wheel each time. As long as you realize that there are exceptions to every rule then you should be fine. Posted by: Jason Fried on February 27, 2003 03:38 PM
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