Design better websites by thinking about your kitchen cabinets

Reading time: About 2 minutes

For years I’ve been trying to fix a critical home design problem: How to organize the dishes in my cabinets. While fitting dishes into cabinet space seems like a simple design problem, it actually has many parallels with website design.

Design constraints

How does fitting dishes into cabinet space have parallels to web design? For starters it has the same design constraints: space and content. Somehow the dishes need to fit into limited cabinet space.

My cabinet organization design has users, too, and if my design isn’t working my kids put dishes on the wrong shelf. After a time the shelves turn into a chaotic mess filling what seems like a shrinking space.

Website designs are subject to the same problems. Somehow you have to fill website space with content in such a way that it “just works” for users. If your design isn’t a natural fit for its users, they won’t do what you want them to.

Iterative design

Because the design constraints of kitchen cabinet organization are more limiting than website design, I am forced to go through small iterative designs. I can’t make big design changes because I’m working with the same dishes in the same cabinet space. Should the beer mugs go with the tall glasses (both used to drink cold drinks) or should they go with the coffee mugs (both have handles)?

As I said earlier, website design is not much different. With each redesign we’re usually working with the same content in the same screen real estate. Unfortunately & fortunately, there’s a lot more design freedom with website design than there is with fitting dishes and cabinet space. Fortunately because using websites can be more engaging than grabbing dishes from a cabinet. Unfortunately because web designers tend to ignore the concept of iterative design.

Getting to the best website design for your users

About a month ago I finally found a cabinet organization that works. How do I know? Because my kids put away the dishes in the right place without my guidance. How’d I get there? Because of my design constraints I was forced to make small design changes over time with sufficient testing time. If I just randomly moved around dishes—the equivalent of a full website redesign—my kids would probably throw dishes at me when I entered the room.

To end at the most fitting website design you have to follow the same iterative process. Small design changes that are tested and measured. Don’t piss your users off by changing everything around. Improve.

13 comments skip to comment form

  1. kelowna web design said— 12 hours later

    I live in a 300sq ft apartment, I go out to eat at restaurants, I can’t quite relate to this article.

    #1

  2. Catherine Azzarello said— 23 hours later

    I love this analogy, Brian!

    We redid our kitchen 5 years ago–fully custom designed by me and husband and built by his brother. Talk about planning! As an avid cook with 7 to feed daily, organization and efficiency were paramount. (That, and lovely custom cabinets with the coolest art glass fronts.) ;-)

    Here’s what we did for glassware: everyday dishes & glasses nearest the dishwasher for ease of putting away; coffee mugs near the coffee/tea zone (pot, coffees, teas, sugar) also near fridge for cream; wine & beer glasses in ‘barkeep’ zone out of main work space and over wine cooler and wine stuff drawer.

    Basically, it’s organized like a website…like things together and easy to find. Oven mitts are in 2 spots–near ovens and near cooktop–you never have to ‘look’ for them. We established zones (groups of shelves/drawers/workspace) for cleanup, coffee, lunches, baking, salad/barbeque, entertaining, etc. You could say our zones function as menu items with the drawers & shelves the drop down selections.

    My spice drawer is like a large footer with over 80 links. And yes…it’s alphabetized!

    #2

  3. Unit B said— 1 week later

    Great: now I can’t decide if I want a beer or some coffee! Oh, and your analogy is spot-on. Nicely explained.

    #3

  4. Alan Takushi said— 1 week later

    I’ll never look at my kitchen the same way again. :)

    @Catherine You’ve inspired me to take a look at how we organize our kitchen. When we’re cooking, it’s chaos as I’m trying to find utensils, pots, pans, etc.

    Oh, back to the point. Thanks Brian for a wonderful analogy. I’ll keep that in the back of my mind the next time I get stuck needing a design solution.

    #4

  5. Catherine Azzarello said— 1 week later

    @Alan. lol! ;-)

    Two words: pot rack.

    Get in touch if you need any online sources. I’ve got ‘em all!

    #5

  6. Alan Takushi said— 1 week later

    @Catherine That would be keen. Will touch base with you soon. Thanks!

    #6

  7. Jim said— 1 week later

    in other words, don’t do what Facebook does.

    #7

  8. Shikeb Ali said— 1 week later

    Hmmm… lemme see my cabinets once again… :)

    #8

  9. David Hutchison said— 1 week later

    Also a good way to simply get the courage to tackle a project! A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step….

    Many folks starting something feel intimidated because of the end result they have in mind…think small steps and you’ll get there.

    #9

  10. stella said— 1 week later

    if it was like my current kitchen design, everything would be at eye level to keep it away from rats and mice.
    I suppose there is some geeky security analogy to be made there.
    8-$

    #10

  11. Catherine Azzarello said— 1 week later

    @stella Sounds like you prefer to keep everything ‘above the fold’. ;-)

    #11

  12. Stooryduster said— 1 month later

    On site training is a major solution for me. I have limited users that have to use a key to enter the site. And we have an ongoing training programme that ensures dishes are washed and filed in the appropriate manner.

    I use a carrot and stick training approach which works excellently except with the wife.

    #12

  13. John said— 3 months later

    Nice website and everybody should totally comply with the author on this one here. Its hillarious, thats what i should write about this post.

    http://www.bluemoosewebdesign.net
    kelowna website design

    #13

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