Balancing between usability and aesthetics of Web design

Web visual aesthetics and its usability play very important roles in determining the success of the Website. It is difficult to decide which aspect needs to be given more attention when it comes to designing a Website as aesthetics is focusing on the `look' and `feel' while usability is stressing on its functionalities. There is no perfect answer which aspects of the Web design are more important than the others. In addition, it is also difficult to have a balance of these two seemingly contrary objectives of Web design. This research focuses on how to balance the aesthetics design and the usability of Web design. This study also investigates methods to evaluate Web page's usability and aesthetic appeal, the role of these two aspects play in the Website design and also the relationship between these two aspects. The results of study provide a tangible concept on how the Web usability and the Web aesthetics design affect each other and methods to balance between the Web usability and aesthetics design. The contribution of this paper is to provide guiding principle to the Website developer in order to develop a Website which is wellbalance in usability as well as its aesthetics aspect.