Information Interaction Design – by Nathan Shedroff – a conceptual and theoretical look at the design of information. Written in 1994, this is an important piece that is still extremely relevant in today’s industry.Blasting the Myth of Above the Fold – by Milissa Tarquini – a veteran of AOL, Milissa talks about her research in usability based on designs that extend beyond the fold of the traditional page. Be sure to read all of the reader comments at the bottom – comment yourself, on your blog. Search Engine Placement Tips – by Danny Sullivan – Search Engine Watch provides tips and information about searching the web, analysis of the search engine industry and help to site owners trying to improve their ability to be found in search engines.SEO (search engine optimization) although not stated in this article as called this, is actually something I use at my current job for my clients. Picking and positioning keywords is, no pun intended, key in website development. Creating relevant text within your website helps search engines to pick up on these certain key words that make your website available at the top of searches. I know that you can purchase keywords and phrases as well. For example, one of my current clients, and Medical System, utilizes this to ensure that they are the top hospital on Google searches. They purchase such names as, maryland nursing, maryland health, hospital….etc. you get the drift, and they are right at the top of search engines. The greatest thing about this, is if you want to pay for keywords, you can get analytics reports on click throughs and such. If any of my future clients have the money, it’s something I highly recommend. DREAMWEAVER Textbook: Chapters 8 and 9
Week 10 November 21, 2007
Think Outside the Box FontsTypefaces are tricky, and sometimes there are those fonts that you love, but they just don’t work out the ways you need them to. In this article, you need to pay special attention to how these typefaces look in different sizes. Also something to keep in mind when choosing typeface, fonts with serifs don’t look right enlarged, and using a sans serif can eliminate size problems. When enlarging type, something with a heavy weight can be enlarged easier. And of course, when type doesn’t look right with what you’re trying to do, adjusting the tracking, leading and kerning can help you achieve the look you’re going for. Dive Into AccessabilityPerceivable OperableNavigableUnderstandableRobust FW Lesson 9
Week 8 November 21, 2007
Dreamweaver Chp 6
Dao of Web Design
Interesting article, what I’ve pulled from it:
It’s interesting to know that TV was often referred to as ‘radio with pictures’, which looking back on how I imagined it to be, it makes sense. In this article the writer is trying to make the same comparission with the evolution of the web. Web is not print, and slowly is evolving from designers trying to make a web page like a print design, to become it’s own medium of just web.
Things to take into consideration, make your web pages adaptable and accessable. Meaning, let the reader chose what size fonts and how the page looks on their particular screen. Design in percentages and don’t look at pixels or points. Adaptability is Accessibility.
Be flexible, don’t constrain your proportions because you like the way it looks.
“The journey beigns by letting go of control, and becoming flexible”
Week 7 November 21, 2007
The Best Faces for the ScreenWhen choosing a screen text, its important to take into consideration certain things. The actual size of the text, to use a serif for sans, x-height, and extra tracking.The most helpful hints I was able to take from this article is the weight of the text is important. Something that is light tends to look better because it looks simple and cleaner. Choosing a face with a larger x-height is also helpful because if give you more pixels to work with for lower case letters. It says that for the screen it’s a good idea to have an x-height that’s one pixel larger than half the body size. Also in dealing with leading, collisions between characters when the leading is too tight can cause a lot of noise and make it harder to read. Principles of Beautiful Web DesignI actually printed out all 45 pages of this first chapter. There’s a lot of useful information that I’m going to take with me and use as a reference. The first paragraph about the discovery of your design states that all designs come from how your client/company runs their business. This is the only way to come up with an appropriate and effective design. The next step is to take what you’ve learned and use it to create the design. I do this in my everyday job, and it works. As far as defining good design, the author state that there are two main standpoints which most people determine whether a web site is good or bad. Usability: functionality and effective presentation of information and efficiency. And the second of course aesthetics. A few bullet points to keep in mind:
- You want to make sure users are pleased by the design but drawn to the content.
- Users can move about easily via intuitive navigation
- users recognize each page as belonging to the site
That’s the guts of the chapter. It’s so chalked full of information, it would be like me writing another chapter to get in detail. As all the other articles/chapters we’ve read, the most important thing and the thing that is reiterated over and over again is user functionality. Makes sense. What good is a website if no one can use it?
Week 6 November 21, 2007
8 Web Design Tactics to Help You When You’re StuckI like this article, it’s great advice on starting out your web designs. The article had these 8 tactics:1. Design from the inside out – basically says that don’t worry about the headline of the design, start with the guts, the text, and build out. Sometimes this helps to design around the meat of the site. 2. Sketch something – just what it means, sketch ideas before going to the computer3. Seek inspiration offline – look at other things besides other websites. Ideas can come from other designs such as publications.4. Learn to let it go – Let go of the things that don’t work with the current design you’re working even if you love it. It might work for a later design.5. Step away from the computer – sometimes staring at the same design you’re working on won’t let you see the imperfections. Stepping away for a few hours or the next day can allow you to look at it with a fresh set of eyes.6. Be absorbent – this means to look at other designs that you like and pick apart the things you like about it that make it a good design. Take these elements as inspiration.7. Don’t be a one-hit-wonder – for short, don’t take a design that worked really well for you in the past and re-work it to make a new design. I’ve noticed myself that I take what I’ve done before and made a new design and it very much resembles that last design I did. This is something I’ll have to take into consideration.8. Seek input from others – Get another opinion from someone who can give constructive criticism. I think this is a good thing that will help you see things that maybe you didn’t see. Fireworks Chp 3 & 4
