Philosophy? Of web-design? Sure! After all, without a ‘unified theory’ of how a discipline should be approached, it’s just hit or miss…
The LightSites design philosophy is one of simplicity. As a musician, I have always been awestruck by the music of Mozart. What the heck does Mozart have to do with web design? Everything! You see, the thing that sets Mozart’s music apart from everything else is its ‘elegance of simplicity’. Put another way, if you take away a single note, the whole thing unravels. In a work of art, and make no mistake – a web site IS a work of art – there is no room for the superfluous. Redundancy without purpose equals confusion. Style without substance is nothing more than clutter.
On the other side of the coin, there’s subtlety, taste and currency – intangibles which are essential to good web design (and to Mozart!) but never at the expense of common sense. A website’s primary function, then, is as the client’s representative on the Internet. For the potential millions of viewers whose first if not only exposure to the client is the website, the adage ‘you never get a second chance to make a good first impression’ never rang more true!
– McNeil Johnston