Why Use JKD?
The Internet has become filled with literally millions of web sites with tens of millions of pages. Unfortunately, this has caused people to become desensitized to many of the more common sites. Companies who have a nice color brochure on the web rarely find this media form a driving force. So what do people want to see when they visit a web site? Here are some of the principles we base all of our design on:
Usability
In numerous usability studies performed to identify what aspects of a web page work (and which ones don't), time and time again the consensus is that most web sites are too cluttered. People want to be able to go to a web page and immediately find the information they are looking for. They'll put up with some amount of clutter, if they are still able to find what they need; otherwise, they'll simple move on to the next search engine listing.
So the question is not simply "How do I get people to visit my web site?" (Although that is certainly important.) But also, "How do I keep people on my web site and have them return in the future?" This question is surprisingly easy to answer - so much so that most web design firms ignore it completely. Simplify your site.
Lucky for us, simplifying your web site doesn't mean you need to take out any information. On the contrary, you want to have as much information available to the user as possible. The key is to organize the information in a simple, straight forward manner. This, at the core, is usability. Presenting information in a simple, intuitive fashion.
Of course, usability has many facets, read further to learn more.
Accessibility
No matter what size the company, everyone wants to reach the largest audience possible in their demographic. If you want to reach the largest community, you'll need to present your information to everyone equally. Luckily, with modern web technologies, this doesn't mean you have to sacrifice a stunning visual appearance.
Accessibility means more than making sure visually impaired users can access your information (although many web designers seem to believe this), it also means accounting for users of all different ages and backgrounds, and those users who might be a bit behind the curve of Internet techonology. If a user on a slow modem is trying to get to a site, but the graphics on the site take ten minutes to load, it is unlikely that they will wait around. And what about older users? While perhaps not completely visually impaired, many require a larger text size to read, when web designers limit text on their pages to a small font, it may make it impossible for these users to access your information.
What you may be thinking is that in order for you to accomodate all of these 'special' cases, you'll have to sacrifice a good look and feel to your site; however, this is simply not true. For example, while a very simple site, this page you are looking at is completely accessible to all users of the Internet.
User-centric Design
Ask yourself why your company needs a web site at all. Perhaps your clients need a place to find information, maybe your employees need a place to enter data on client accounts, or managers could be running reports on client activity. Whatever the reason, all of these people are users of your web site. They all have a vested interest in how the web site looks, feels, and works. In order to make the most of your web site, every piece of it should be centered around the user.
So how do you know what the user needs? Fortunately, that's what we can determine for you (with the help of your users, whether they be clients or employees). Why is it important to center your web site around the user? Its your company, why not make the web site work how you want? The answer can be many things, for your employees, a well designed site - centered around their process - will increase productivity. A site designed around your clients' needs will bring them back to use the information again, as well as bring in new business.
