Your templates are killing the internet

 In the emerging realm of information architecture real data taken from carefully measured testing is used to help map out a user’s ideal interaction with a website. Over time we have learned that users scan web pages in certain ways, their eyes seeking out patterns that they have come to expect and so on. This information is used as the basis for making decisions about where elements will sit on a website and how the site will guide a user through a journey to achieve their desired outcome.

One of the great challenges for any serious web designer in the current age is to carefully marry the important and necessary aspects of user experience and information architecture with the right amount of creative freedom to really produce innovative design.

When you stop to think about most of the websites that you use on a regular basis, you will find that many of them have a very similar layout. In many cases layout and design is so similar that it is reminiscent of pre-fab kit homes. This is even more true in the era of the quickly skinned blog or site. MySpace pages and WordPress blogs lend themselves to being quickly “customised” with your choice of hundreds of templates.

 It’s this templated nature that is threatening to destroy the innovation that has been at the heart of web development since its inception. In responding to this risk the web designer needs to take care, as there is no point in innovation for its own sake. It is essential to remember to keep the user and their needs at the forefront of planning and structuring a site. New ideas must serve new approaches to user experience, or they are rendered meaningless.

This is the essence of good design, and it is foundational to great design. You can create great images and styles, you can create great information architecture, but it is in the careful balance of all of these that you have the opportunity to truly innovate.