I have an annoyingly persistent penchant for unexpected functionalities, which tends to lend itself more to creative endeavors than business ones. With the former, challenging the user is less a problem than a goal. In the latter, the goal falls more in line with Don Norman's idea of an unnoticed interface ("The computer of the future should be invisible!") in that the user should never need to question what she's doing.
I stand by the notion of websites as collaborations between designers and users, or maybe as opportunities to share experiences as well as information with users. But that's definitely a creative notion, and is the polar opposite of the practical mindsets that have to prevail in business. There, the customer is always right, and the customer usually wants to get their information as easily as possible.
That's why I've loved working on Kasgro Rail Corporation's new website. I hate showing my greenness, but this is the first large corporate website I've worked on, and it required that I shelve my notions of experiential design (or at least back-seat them) in favor of a design that was immediately useable and innately comprehensible.
The company prides itself on the durability and dependability of its cars, and I wanted to ensure the design echoed that. So, I stayed away from particularly modern, flashy trends in favor of a more web-formal* design. (*Technical web art term. Or something I concocted to sound hifalutin. Currently undetermined.) No huge photos or parallax funnybusiness; just a central column with a menu and logo at the top. Immediate comprehensibility.
Overall, I think the design speaks for itself. It bears many elements of my frequently minimal style without seeming overly sparse (I hope). And I (again, hopefully) avoided any disorienting functionalities — with the exception, maybe, of the header slideshow, whose expansion and contraction features (and manual navigability) is only subtly divulged, and hopefully pays some small incentive to the curious visitor.