Jan 8th, 2007

The other night I was flipping through Roger Black's book Websites That Work (1997) and found some timeless concepts that are often overlooked. His resume is an impressive backwood forest of clients that include The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Esquire, and Premier magazine.  Here's a few of his thoughts.

"Good design means pertinent information." "Good design means content." (p.16)

"White, Black, and Red. They're the best colors - striking, readable, in perfect contrast - and have been used since day one." (p.34)
[ The image is from the Gutenberg Bible, circa 1450-52. ]

"Don't have lots of text. Nobody reads anything anymore." (p.57)

""Clearly structured sites hold your hand all the way through with consistent, clear navigation tools on every page." (p,81)

"Don't design pages that require scrolling. Just as 75 percent of people will only read the top half of a folded newspaper, most browsers will never scroll." (p.54)

"You must entertain and inform them and allow them to jump from one thing to the next with the greatest of easy. Otherwise, they don't come back, and the circus folds its tents, and all the acrobats, jugglers, and clowns go back to their day jobs." (p.15)