Creativity within expectations. That seems to be the the point behind this article, which puts forward the case for web design standards. The basis for it is named after the author, Jakob Nielsen:
Jakob’s Law of the Internet User Experience: users spend most of their time on other websites.
In visiting all these other sites, people become accustomed to the prevailing design standards and conventions. Thus, when users arrive at your site, they assume it will work the same way as other sites.
In our Web 2004 project, users left websites after 1 minute and 49 seconds on average, concluding in that time that the website didn’t fulfill their needs. […] With so little time to convince prospects that you’re worthy of their business, you shouldn’t waste even a second making them struggle with a deviant user interface.
Heaven knows I’ve skipped over non-business sites that seemed too much a bother to navigate (Flash interface, anyone), and I’ve even less patience with commercial sites that insist on doing something unique — which usually means uniquely irritating.
Think of it as real-world architecture. There’s a lot you can do to make a house, or even an office building, reflect your personality and style. But when you start violating certain expectations (e.g., light switches by the doors, doors that open inward, windows that slide up or across, which way to turn the faucet to turn water on, which side of the faucet is hot), the visitors are going to find your idiosyncracies less enchanting (and we’ve all been to homes and places of business — or, for travellers, countries — that did this).
Uniqueness for uniqueness’ sake is irritating. If exploration of the site is not your site’s reason for being, don’t make a visit there an expedition into the great unknown.