I was recently listening to NPR about Vitruvius, a 1st century BC architect and writer. He is most famously known as the inspiration for Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci famous pen and ink drawing (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man). Vitruvius is best known for his De architectura, “The Ten Books on Architecture” in which he famously says that great buildings have the following 3 characteristics:

1. Strength
2. Utility
3. Delight

By strength, Vitrivius meant that a building should last for a long time and be well constructed. By utility, he meant a building should be well organized with the necessary space and layout to serve the people who inhabit the building, and by delight he meant that a building should give aesthetically pleasure to those who look upon it or walk within its walls.

It struck me as I listened, that this is really a lesson 2000 years later for great Web site design. We should build Web sites to be (1) long lasting, e.g. with application logic, data or services layers that last a long time, (2) with effective information architecture and user experience design so that the people who use the site can find what they need intuitively and effectively, and (3) with a design aesthetic that is creative and pleasing.

Isn’t it fascinating that good design principals from Roman architecture are entirely relevant today?