Form versus Function

If you've navigated the Good Friends Babysitting Club site, you may have noticed that there isn't a flash, stylie Web2.0 user interface. I hope you're not too disappointed by this.

There's a couple of reasons for this. And I'll be brutally honest in sharing them with you:

1. I focussed on function in designing and creating the site. The majority of time I've spent on the site has been on designing the functionlity. I felt there was no point having a swish user interface with weak, bug-riddled functions.
2. I set out on the development of the functions in "vanilla" HTML pages. There was no colour or formatting. I just cranked out the functionlity. In fact, even in my most intense testing phase, the style hadn't been introduced.
3. My website style ability is not the greatest.

This is not to say that the website will look as it does today for the rest of its electronic life. I do intend to smarten up the site after its first anniversary. Heck, I might even make it look all Web2.0.

But I do believe that functionality comes first and form follows. You'll need to have become a member and logged on in order to make your own assessment of the value of the functionlity versus the lack of fancy form - all the site's best function is 'hidden' behind the logon screen.

I like what Andrew Ingram says about form versus function. And I like to think that my site is sitting somewhere above the red line on the right-hand side of the form v function graph.

What do you think?