The Web needs to be intuitive, not just Flash

Good stuff (Comment, DW 28 January) until near the end, then you seem to miss the point…

The Web is about what people can do with it, not what it looks like, hence the runaway success of Amazon, Yahoo and bbc.co.uk, which all look dreadful. But all of these sites work.

Design in Web terms isn’t about what it looks like, it’s about functionality – the technology that you disparage. Your comments, if taken in the context of, say, motor racing, would have a Ferrari come out tops even if it didn’t have an engine in it.

Wit and personality are fantastic added values, but if the website doesn’t do the business it doesn’t matter what the graphics are like… well actually it does, ’cause they slow the whole thing down and piss people off…

Creativity is about developing solutions to problems. It is perfectly possible to come up with a creative solution without ever coming up with slogans or drawing pictures.

The Internet needs people who are technically creative, understand the medium and, crucially, see what clients need.

You’re right that Flash nonsense deters people from getting at content, and that gimmickry and lack of content are problems. But technology and navigation are the essential routes to functionality and content on the Web, at which point content, including pictures, can do whatever it likes!

Joanna Buick

joanna@buick.co.uk