rob fitzgibbon — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:43:10 GMT

I dunno – I agree with the author that the fact that a client will “grok” familiar, designed elements faster; however, I’m my experience, it just provides the client an opportunity to rathole into issues such as “that’s not the right button” or “we’re changing that logo next week” or “that grey bar is so ugly.” When you introduce color and style into the content, be prepared for color & style content issues getting in the way of the usability and informational stuff you want to solve.

An equivalent might be forcing a civil engineer to replace his b/w blueprints with color versions, in which the grass is green, the the hay bales that rim the swales a bright yellow (of course with an fluorescent orange line representing the plastic construction fencing) the gravel in bluish gray and the asphalt in brownish black.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by rob fitzgibbon