One of the hard and fast rules of web design has long been “thou shall develop for a screen resolution of 800×600.” Of course with monitors getting larger and larger (heck, this aging PowerBook runs at 1280×854) this maxim might be past it’s prime. So what’s a designer to do? Kyle Neath of Warpspire takes a look at this question in his post Jumping Ship. Basically, Kyle channels Kathy Sierra (check out her Safe is risky, risky is safe) and, well, Nathaniel Talbott’s keynote from RailsConf (check ScribeMedia for a link to his talk). While designing for the lowest common denominator can attract a large pool of customers, taking some risks opens you up to a batch of new ones.
I think Kyle hit’s it on the head when he says
“Making your users feel special is worth more than any advertisement could possibly cost.”
Sure, you can play it safe, follow the well beaten path, but will that inspire The Nod? Of course it takes courage - it’s not easy to try something different; while no one brags about their Camry, Toyota sells a ton of them.
So what is a designer to do? I’m with Kyle, give it a go! If no one pushes the boundaries, we don’t advance the field…
