We got a nice comment about the WebJunction site refresh from Chris Peters of the Washington State Library (one of our community partners), which he has kindly permitted us to repost here. We worry a bit about being just another pretty face, but Chris is setting our mind at ease: there really is a purpose to looking good:

Aesthetics is more important than architecture. Or you could say that to a certain extent, aesthetics is architecture, since the layout of the page is the entrance to the overall structure of the site. If the relation between elements makes sense at the page level, then users are much more likely to understand the overall site architecture.

On the old site I had trouble finding my place in the overall structure of the site because the key navigational pieces (menus, breadcrumbs, etc.) didn’t stand out. Partly this was due to the busyness of the page, and partly this was due to the color and design of the navigation modules. On the new site, there are fewer visual elements, and the navigational pieces are prominently placed and consistently placed on every page. I understand the purpose of each module, and I know where each one will take me. Moreover, I needed to do very little exploring or guessing to figure out the goal of each module – the labels are clear and reflective of the actual content. The five persistent links across the top are especially useful in keeping me oriented.

Thanks, Chris, for the nice comments and the insight.