Design exists to solve problems—functional ones, aesthetic ones, or both. But sometimes, instead of improving things, it creates even more problems than it fixes. And if you need proof, just look at ...

When a design doesn’t work, it often draws more attention to itself than when it works perfectly. A wobbly shopping cart, a flimsy potato peeler, a puzzling highway sign: These are common nuisances.

Search engines want to provide answers to their users in one click or less. If you design your website with the idea of getting answers to visitors’ questions as efficiently as possible, your site ...