Back in high school, you probably learned the Scientific Method. It probably looked something like this:

(quoted from sciencebuddies.com)

When I first got started with web design, I thought it was an art. That was bad news at the time because if you’ve ever met me, you’ll know I’m not the most artistic or coordinated person in the world.

In reality, however web design, and most web-oriented business, is more akin to a science. Thoughtful, analytical research will drive much better results than pure artistic talent will any day.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some incredible artists in the web design community, there certainly are, and I envy them, but the ability to draw is not required for our craft.

In fact, lifting the scientific method right off the pages of your high school textbook can be a great way to apprach web design.

1) Ask a Question

The question is your client’s business goal. Why did they bring someone in to build a website for them? More sales leads? Higher sales? Increased subscription rates? Launching a new product? There’s a measurable, defined goal that your client has in mind that defines “success” for the website you’re being asked to design, and your first job is to figure out what that is.

2) Do Background Research

Your next step is your market research. Look for best practices in their industry, talk to the target audience about what they want in a site. Do your research and find out how best to meet the needs of your client.

3) Construct a Hypothesis

Your hypothesis is your best guess at the first design. It’s your gut instinct, and it’s both good and bad news.

• For novice web designers, your gut is usually wrong, but you code it as-is anyway.
• For experienced web designers, your gut is usually close to the mark, but you test it to get it right.
• For veteran web designers, your gut is almost always correct – and you test anyway.

Don’t ignore your gut instinct. Gut instinct is your subconscious mind building connections and patterns of the various data points you’ve experienced so far on the web.

But like anything else, don’t rely solely on gut instinct. Good science is based on multiple points of documented evidence. The more you design, and the more experience you get in the field, the better your gut instinct will be.

4 and 5) Test -> Analyze -> Repeat

This is the heart of good web design. Here, you test your hypothesis against the problem from step 1.

Your tools for this are mockups and user testing. Do some wireframes. Put them in front of people that resemble your target audience, and carefully watch their reactions.

The question you’re trying to test isn’t “do they like the design?”. The question is “do they meet the goal criteria set out by the client?”.

Are they clicking the “Buy Now” button? Are they successfully getting through the shopping cart? Are they quickly finding the information they want? Are they successfully entering the contest?

Whatever that call to action was – the goal your client’s trying to achieve, that’s what your design has to accomplish.

Iterate. Build on your idea based on the feedback you receive.

While your first idea won’t always be right, it doesn’t mean that you’re a failure as a web designer. The standard by which good web designers are measured is results. Are you solving the problem your client gave you? If so, move on to step 6; if not, try again!

If it takes you five tries to get a design that works, that’s a success. You meet the goals laid out in Step 1, and your client is happy.

If you sell a client the first thing you think of and it doesn’t work, your client won’t be coming back.

6) Publish your Results

Once you’ve got a working design, build it. This part you should be familiar with.

Conclusion

Web Design is a beautiful science. You start with an idea, and create something beautiful as an outcome. A little bit of science can go a long way towards making that beautiful thing more successful.

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