I had a meeting with a client a few weeks ago and I shocked myself completely.

几周前，我与一位客户进行交谈，他的要求让我震惊。

The client requested that I design a Flash intro for his site. Before I could think twice the words had already come out of my mouth.

客户要我为他的网站设计Flash引导页。我还没有进行思考，这句话就脱口而出。

"Why do you want a Flash intro for your site?" I asked.

“为什么要设计Flash引导页呢？”我问他。

His response was that he wanted to outline his company's offerings.

他的回答是：希望突出公司的产品及服务。

So I responded "Knowing that most of your viewers are on dial up connections, you'll be cutting out over half of your possible clients by doing this. Doesn't the site itself tell the viewers what you do? Wasn't that the purpose of building the site in the first place?"

我的回答是：“网站大多数浏览者利用电话拨号上网，如果这样设计，你会失去一半以上的潜在客户。网站内容本身不能告诉浏览者该做什么吗？建立网站的目的不是宣传产品及服务吗？”

After much discussion I persuaded the client to stick with static HTML for this particular project. In a way I felt that I had turned my back on Flash. After pondering for several weeks now I know that I had made the right decision in not making the Flash intro for the client. I know I would have designed a great intro, but that's not what I was hired to do. I was hired to help the client send his message out to potential customers and in the bigger picture help him to make more business for his company. If I had decided to add the Flash Intro considering his audience, we wouldn't have fulfilled the purpose for the site.

讨论完成之后，我说服客户使用静态HTML页面。从某种程度上来说，我感觉抛弃了Flash，但考虑了几周后，我认为当初的决定是正确的。我知道我可以设计出精美的Flash，但这不是我应该做的。我的工作应该是把公司信息传递给它的潜在客户，从更大程度上来说，应该为公司增加更多业务。如果当初决定运用Flash，这个目标就不会完成。

Before you even start designing a site you need to take a look at what the project requires, the audience, and any other factors needed.

在开始设计网站之前，需要综合考虑网站目标、受众以及其它所有需要考虑的因素。

When I was in grade school I wrote a paper for my class assignment. After hours and hours of hard work I finally finished the paper and turned it in to the teacher. I remember Ms. Pennington saying to me "I can tell that you put a lot of work and effort into this paper, but what is the purpose for you writing this paper?"

记得小学时，我花费了几个小时写作业，交给老师后，我记得Pennington女士对我说：我只能说你努力地完成了作业，但是完成作业的目的是什么。

Being a child of 12 I responded, "Because you assigned it to us?" She laughed and then told me, which has stuck through writing into design, every paper that you write needs to have a purpose. You need to have a reason for writing, or else you're wasting your time.

12岁的我回答：因为是你布置的，我就要完成。老师大笑，然后告诉我：做任何事情都要有目的，你需要找一个写作业的原因，否则就是浪费时间。我想这句话也可以运用在网站设计中。

Now, before I even move the mouse to start designing a site, I pick up my pen and paper and just as I would write a story. I go through all the steps that you would if you were going to write a paper for your 2nd period English professor.

就像写作业一样，假设：要为第二学期的英语教授完成作业，那么现在开始设计前，我需要拿起纸和笔写下设计过程。

Now I hope you can see that a lot more goes into a site than just the "pretty" graphics. I hope the next time you'll do your duty as a designer and try your best to help make the Internet easy to use.

现在，我希望网站能够出现更多内容，而不是只有“漂亮”的图片。希望下一次，你能扮演设计者的角色，设计出方便用户操作的网站。

When you're building your site, or your client's site, ask yourself, "Is the site accomplishing its purpose?" If you say yes, then you've done your job as a designer.

不管是给自己还是给客户设计网站，首先问自己一个问题：网站能实现目标吗？如果能，开始设计网站。

Content comes first!
首先考虑内容

Now that you have your Purpose ready, it's time to look at your content and your design.

Isn't the point of web design to portray information for viewers? Each site has a purpose for being on the web (or should anyway). For entertainment, for business, for facts, for school, etc. The reason we design is to make information more accessible for the viewers of the Internet.

目标确定好以后，开始考虑网站内容与布局。网站目的不是为浏览者提供信息吗？不同网站有不同的目的，比如说：网站目的是提供娱乐，还是销售产品，还是提供信息，还是提供培训。其实网站设计目的就是方便用户找到所需信息。

It's our job to make the Internet easy to use.

我们的工作就是方便用户利用网络。

If we are too worried about how the design looks without giving much thought to the content involved we are cutting out the whole reason we built the site.

如果过分考虑网站外观，而不注重内容，我们就脱离了构建网站的目的。

To Share Information!

网站要与用户分享信息！

I notice myself designing sites, then looking back and them and saying, "um... that doesn't quite look like I want it to". After making a thousand versions of the same site I finally realized what I was doing wrong. I was paying more attention to the design of the site than the reason I had intentionally built the site - to share information. On every single design the content was difficult to read. The overall look of the site was nice, but I was neglecting the content.

我自己在设计完成之后，不断浏览网站布局，总认为外观不符合我的要求，变换了数个版本之后，我最后意识到自己陷入误区。我过分注重网站设计，而忽视了构建网站的原因——提供信息。每一种布局下，用户阅读内容都很困难。尽管网站整体外观很精美，但我忽视了内容。

There are thousands of sites out there that have great content, but lose viewers within the first 10 seconds because it's difficult to read, the page is loading too slow, they can't find the navigation or they can't understand how it works because it's not labeled, and tons of other "design" flaws. This has become much more common since the release of Flash. Flash Designers get enthralled in the site because they want to design something "cool".

很多网站虽然提供有价值的内容，但在10分钟之内流失了访问者，因为内容难以浏览、网页下载速度太慢、网站导航系统隐蔽或者用户不了解导航系统操作方法（因为网站没有标明）、大量设计错误。利用Flash设计网站，经常会出现以上问题，但Flash设计者为了设计出与众不同的页面，经常使用Flash。

Macromedia is right along with them. Not in the "cool" factor exactly, but now that the bulk of their site is in Flash it takes FOREVER to load. I'm on a T1 here in the office and if a page doesn't load pretty quick, then something is wrong and well, Macromedia is HORRIBLE now. It takes me like 50% longer to find something I'm looking for, and you can't copy links, or right click and open in a new window. It's very ，very， very frustrating. What's that old saying? Don't fix it if it ain't broke?

使用Flash的设计者经常利用Macromedia软件， 严格地说， 这样不能体现与众不同，而会导致大量出现Flash内容的网站，下载速度太慢。在办公室中利用T1上网，如果网页下载速度太慢，我肯定会离开网站。Macromedia软件现在并不受欢迎，它会增加50%查找内容的时间，并且让用户还不能进行链接，或者点击链接时，出现新对话框，这几点确实让用户很头疼。但你现在可以改进网站。

I'm so tired of finding sites that are 100% Flash with NO other purpose than to show a few neat little tricks. Or sites that take so long to load that you've already found the information in your second browser before the original site you were viewing has loaded. Or sites that are so bogged down with "crap" that you couldn't find the good stuff. What gives?

我很不高兴地看到：100%的Flash内容，除了能炫耀设计者的设计技巧外，没有任何作用。这样的网站下载时间太长，用户在等待内容下载时，在第二个浏览器中已经出现了需要查找内容。在充斥多余内容的网站中，你不会找到有价值的信息。那么这样的网站能提供什么呢？

Take a look at the most useful sites on the Internet:

你可以到网上浏览那些有价值的网站：
CNN.com - Yahoo.com - FlashKit.com - MSN.com - Google.com

What do they all have in common? The way they portray their content. They also all have a purpose for existing.

这些网站有什么共同特点呢？呈现信息的方法相同，存在目的相同。

So the next time you are working on your site take a look at your content and really consider if you are paying attention to content over design. Can you read the content easily? Does it load quickly enough? Flash is just a tool to help you be a better designer, so think about its use and how you can design more effectively.

因此，下一次设计网站时，多注意内容，仔细考虑是否更重视内容编排。你能方便地阅读内容吗？网站下载速度是否足够快？Flash可以帮助你成为更好的设计师，所以仔细考虑它的用法以及设计有效网站的正确方法。

Now I'll get off my soapbox and hope that FlashNewz readers will design for accessibility of information rather than just for "pretty" graphics.

文章结束时，我希望FlashNewz设计者可以为用户提供更多的信息，而不应该只是几张精美图片。

网站内容比布局更重要 有效设计网页的方法

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