Is breaking the rules okay when a design calls for it?
This 10 web design rules that you can break article, made me realize that “Rules you should break” or “Standards you shouldn’t follow” articles appeal to everyone rebel side. Some of you guys may wonder what Jakob Nielsen would say to “Breaking the rules is okay when a design calls for it”.
I think rules #4 “Make your site’s goal obvious”, #5 “Navigation should be easy to figure out”, #7 “Don’t put animation in the way of your content” and #9 “Don’t have a splash/landing page” can be broken for personal portfolio or some entertainment sites, where a more creative approach might be appropriate, but not so much for e-commerce, news or corporate sites.
#6 “Use different colors for the text and background” should be “Use Contrast between Text and Background”, not different colors. Most of the examples here use variations of the base color, and use contrast to make the text readable, just like it supposed to be.
#8 “Stick to web-safe fonts”: I’m getting into using Cufon and Typeface.js (I used it for 2 projects), they offer a great solution in terms of progressive enhancement (better than sIFR), and think this is one area where the old rules no longer apply.
I also liked the tables joke and the tone it sets to encourage designers not to be so serious all the time!