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The Oxford English Dictionary describes a "mess" as "a state or situation of confusion or muddle; a condition of
embarrassment or trouble."
This is what you want to avoid.
You can best address this issue by looking at your project from the "mess" point of view in each of the
constituent elements comprising interactive design.
In terms of information design, discover first whether you have actually
organized your information in a logical or cohesive way. Does information in your "help" section, for example,
link to or otherwise integrate itself with your "contact us" information, or does the user have to return to the
main landing page to get there? Think logical groupings. If a hierarchical outline helps you, make one before you
start.
In terms of interaction design, make sure you actually have some. Odds are, if you have
in mind paths that you want the user to take when you design the site, you'll be okay. But make sure. If you want to
make too many things available to your visitors, whether it is at once, or spread about - they'll probably get
lost and drown in your mess.
A messy visual design is what people are going to notice first, and when I originally came up with this point, it
was visual design that I was thinking about. This is a tricky subject, since personal aesthetics vary a bit. However,
there are some things you can't go wrong with.
Let me give you an example of messy visual design. It will be this page, the very information you are looking at,
but with a completely different visual design. You may have to click your "back" button to get back here if it is too confusing. Ready? Okay,
Click here to effect the transformation.
So what what it that made that page bad?
It was an extreme case, certainly, but it illustrates some very common problems:
The text is difficult to read.
It contains stolen, unoriginal, irrelevant, and useless graphics.
It is off balance, containing no symmetry or organizational schema.
There are too many colors.
I'm certain you could probably come up with more, but you would be surprised
how many sites have the same problems, albeit to a lesser degree.
So, in short, if you think it's messy, it probably is. But if you're still having trouble, or just need
some guidelines, make sure you're not doing any of the above listed items, and look at the
"Principles of Decency" in the Visual Design area of this site.
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