So, I finished a website project today. And, it wasn’t design focused, rather Function focused.
And, after finishing the work, I sat down and was browsing other sites as well, and they were nicely designed, but it was hard to tell what their purpose/function was ?
WHAT ARE FUNCTIONALITY BASED WEBSITES ?
Well, to be explained in simple terms, a functionality based website is one in which there is a primary focus/purpose of the very existence of the website, rather than just the look and feel or the conversion rate of it.
Not to mention, one must not become that engrossed in the functionality, that the usability decreases. The right amount of design is required.
ONLY FUNCTIONALITY …
No, a website is actually a combination of many things; And, it is not to be forgotten that usability of a website is as important as is it’s functionality.
A highly functional website is as useless without a good user experience as is a site not designed.
So, a really good thing to look out for is that you do not skip the user experience of a website while you enhance its functionality, else you might end up ruining the end user of the site.
THE HYBRID SOLUTION: FUNCTIONALITY + GOOD UX
So in the end this conversation will boil down to this: if your site is a functionality based one, a good user experience will only improve it, not degrade it. So, the next time you’re building a functionality based website, try to keep the user interface as simple as possible.
SOME CASES FOR FUNCTIONALITY BASED WEBSITES
I thought that it would be something nice if we were to end this post with some nice use cases for functionality based sites:-
1) GOVERNMENT WEBSITES
Well, I guess, government websites are the biggest example I could have given for functionality based websites. Although, they always break the user experience, their main focus to provide the service they are willing to the people.
2) SUBMISSION BASED OR USER GENERATED CONTENT WEBSITES
Another great use case! Well, fan submitted content based websites are generally able to pull of the plug on user experience. Personally, I have never encountered a problem while using a commercial company’s website.
3) Something unexpected
Well, this is something unusual. Everyday, more and more people are coming up with greater and greater ideas. Not to mention, they definitely include functions/purpose.
CONCLUSION
So, in the end, I would like to conclude that functionality based websites are not an afterthought these days, and many sites are only functionality based.
The fun part will be to see more and more use cases of such functionality based websites.
Until then … š
Sho..tlin. to artcle: (even short spellings! ): http://wp.me/p3KGN4-jC
Web-Designer Arsenal 
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