Or, you can just upgrade to Panther, where everything looks quite spiffy :-)

While I think I understand the gist of your point, I wouldn’t phrase it as such. I would never claim a well-designed site is inherently anything. It’s chances of being more usable are more probable than compared to a poorly designed site. But beware the assumptions that must be made on the part of others to infer that well-designed somehow equals simple. I do agree with you BTW, but when preaching to heathens, one must sympathize or be cognizant with the way they view the world. 8^)

I wrote up an article on my own design process that is somewhat tangental to Didier’s. You can find it here. I don’t get into specifics on what criteria or types of data I use in the exploration phase, which might be a good thing to write up at some point.

Generally speaking, though, my starting points usually rely heavily on structural concepts, things that have to do with the nature of the object I am working on. For example, when working on Photoshop, it was more important for me to understand everything there was to know about how pixels and raster images worked before I got into anything else. I really feel the research phase, of both technology and the audience, on any project is easily the most important.

This is not to say I ignore other factors listed in this article. It’s just I find that I get further along in the exploration/generic factors phase when I have fully come to understand the nature of the thing I am working on. It’s like taking apart a stereo, or a remote control, or a car engine, and really getting how the thing was put together to make it operate.

Once I have a grasp on this, then I find I can tackle design issues. Without it, I tend to wander, stumbling in the dark.

BTW: This page is not hosed in Safari and Panther. 8^)

“In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.” -Antoine de Saint Exupery

In regard to the aesthetic quality of a given interface, I believe that a well-designed site is also inherently usable — if only for the fact that usability consistently grows from simplicity.

That’s what designers do. We take highly complicated things, and communicate them visually in the most simplistic manner possible; which, in itself, is beauty.

BTW: Great illustration. The page is hosed in Safari (Jaguar) though.