Darwin and the Art of Web Design

Once upon a time there was a man called Darwin. This man came up with an idea that has come to be known as ‘the survival of the fittest’.

This is probably one of the most misused terms in history, but the concept is based on his theory of natural selection, and it is natural selection that I believe can be applied to web design to create better and more usable websites and web applications.

Natural selection is the idea that something (in Darwin's case, some population of animals or plants) will change, as environmental conditions change.

Change in this context means they are somehow better adapted to that new environment, which then means that they can reproduce more and so propagate their traits (or features and elements in the case of web design). This then ultimately results in that changed version of the species becoming successful.

I believe this fundamental concept of adaptation to changing environments making more successful, better-adapted species can also be applied to web design.

This is not an article about how to design your website and which design elements to use, it is more about an approach to web design, based as much on science as art.

Applying Darwinism to Web Design

Constraints and Trade-offs

Just like in the natural world, a number of variables constitute the ‘environment’ in Darwinian web design. Within any environment there exist constraints. These constraints result in a trade-off in one way or another.

A brilliant example in the natural world is the tail of the peacock. While his extravagant tail attracts many prospective mates, making it easy to pass on his genes, at the same time that heavy, flashy tail is a serious burden when it comes to eluding predators.

There is a trade-off between the tail's attractiveness for females and the survival of the bird itself.

In the digital world these trade offs are built around design variables. You need to understand what these variables are so you can work to optimize them against each other and any other constraints. Map out what makes up your current working environment before beginning your design outline.

The Variables of Design

The most obvious variable you need to define is your audience. The demographic of an audience can dictate various aspects of web design, including the level of accessibility and tone of the copy. Your audience may constrain the design.

For instance, a very young audience may dictate the tone of your copy. Other variables include the technical constraints of the underlying application (if you are building a web front end) or the limitations of HTML itself and your editing tool choice at the time of design.

Further variables might be the types of devices you need to consider in your design.

For a project aimed at high-end designers, you may be able to focus on desktop / laptop sized screen sizes. On the other hand, if you’re designing for a broad, mass market site, then you really need to be responsive to all kinds of devices and connections. The recent mobilegeddon debacle, where Google has begun to rank responsive websites more highly has also made responsive design a must.

Whatever your particular design criteria, know them first so that you understand the constraints and advantages of your ecosystem.

Otherwise you'll be the prettiest dead peacock in town.

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by Martin May via SitePoint