Last week I finally got around to changing the air filter in my central A/C unit. It was way overdue for a new filter. Changing the filter is a task that I absolutely hate. It’s something that I have to prepare for both physically and mentally. Physically because I have to dress for the journey, wearing pants and an old shirt with long sleeves to protect myself from the unknown. Mentally because if I don’t put myself in Indiana Jones mode, I may not return from the Temple of Doom that is the crawlspace under my house.
My house is a single-story ranch style home, with no basement. The plumbing, air ducts, the A/C unit, and other miscellaneous household necessities are in a space underneath my house…unless you’re under 4 feet tall, you can’t stand up straight and you’re forced to waddle like a duck to get around down there. Worse, it’s the hottest place on earth during the summer, and the coldest during the winter.
As one could expect, the central unit where the filter is stored is right at the center of the house. To get there, you have to snake over and under various pipes and ducts. Needless to say, the air filters usually last a little longer than the recommended time before they get replaced. I understand that since my house only has one floor with no basement the pipes and everything else has to go somewhere, and I’m definitely thankful for the air conditioning. But there’s got to be a better, more convenient way to change out something that needs to be replaced several times a year! I’ve seen homes built similar to mine where the air filter is in a more convenient place, tucked away in a utility closet. It’s all about the design, and the devil is in the details.
What does this have to do with web design?
My point here isn’t just to gripe about doing a chore that I hate (though it is a bonus). The way the unit in my house was built ultimately is a poor design in my opinion. I’m no expert on how these things work, but as I said I’ve seen places where it’s much easier to access the air filter to replace it. The A/C units do the same thing, and mine may even work better than others, but the design is flawed. If it were easier to get to, I wouldn’t mind replacing the filter, and it would even get replaced on time, every time.
A good web designer considers what its users will need or will want access to within a site, and they will hopefully make it easy for them to get to these features. With a good web design, users can easily find what they’re looking for, even if it’s something that they rarely need access to. Access to things like privacy policies (eh Facebook?), account/profile settings, user controls, etc. doesn’t have to obstruct the “meat” of the site, but it has to be easy to get to. There is much more that goes into a good site, but without making it easy to use, users will end up either moving on to another site that is easy to use, or at the very least they won’t use the features that could make your site stand out above the crowd, if it were built properly.