Week 5 Blog Assignment

Welcome back to my blog! 

This week's assignment is listing the top 10 rules of web design. After learning about building and designing websites in class and through my own research, I compiled  what I believe to be the rules on web design that everyone interested in this topic should know. 

Top 10 Rules of Web Design

1.    Simplicity

I can speak from experience that website users becoming quickly frustrated when pages are cluttered and confusing. When pages are crammed with information it takes longer for users to find what they are looking for. If users experience frustration, they are less likely to return in the future. 

2.    Keep your site updated

Ultimately, the reason users visit a site is to view and learn current content. If content is out of date and is not constantly being updated, users will no longer have a reason to continue visiting the site. 

3.    Consistency is key


Visitors shouldn't feel like they are visiting a new site every time they open a new page on a site. Consistence among the pages on a site makes navigation a much easier task and leaves the user feeling at ease and accomplished. 

4.    Easy to navigate

Pages should flow in a top-down layout and information should be listed in logical order. Over time, it has also become an expectation that the key navigation is either at the top or left side of the page. Do not avoid key conventions or expectations to make a website unique or different. Instead, make the site as easy to navigate as possible for the user. Their experience is most important. 

5.    Don't write a novel

Users don't visit sites to read, they visit them to scan. Keep information on sites brief, to the point, and precise. 

6.    Eliminate annoying features

Features including walking and talking images of a person, sound, pop up ads, and huge images are not only distracting and annoying to users, but they slow down the loading time for the page immensely. Without these features, users will enjoy their experience much more on the page and will be more likely to return and/or stay on it longer. 

"Fact: The average time a user will wait for a page to load before leaving is 4 seconds. Try it."   -http://www.askmepc-webdesign.com/11-Rules-of-Website-Design-Try-these-and-Succeed.html

7.    Browser Compatibility

Today, it is common that people use various Internet browsers. Therefore, it is very important that websites are able to load on any browser. Before making a site public, check that it works on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome. 

8.    Make contact a click away

By providing a link consistently (usually) in the site's footer to a Contact Us page, users will never experience confusion or frustration when trying to contact you for any reason. On the Contact Us page, multiple ways for the site users to contact you should be provided. These ways include but are not limited to: snail mail, small, and phone. By making it easy for the user to access ways to contact you, it communicates a personal and welcoming atmosphere and helps you or any site owner seem more approachable. 

9.    Quality Content

With a beautifully designed site that works on every browser available, a site is an empty shell without quality content. A good website is made up of both great design and great content. Before publishing your site, double check that every page on your website has unique, original content that makes them not only nice looking, but worth visiting.

10.   Learn from others

In conclusion, most of us learn best by good example. But with website design, there's a lot to be gained from closely examining websites that have been poorly designed as well. I hope these rules help you if you ever try creating your own website. I know they have and will continue to help me!

Sources:

http://sharpened.com/web_design_rules

http://www.nea.org/home/10-Principles-of-Basic-Web-Design.html

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/13-design-rules-that-every-web-site-designer-should-know-about/

Week 4 Blog Assignment

Welcome and thank you for reading my fourth blog assignment for my Emerging Communication Technologies course at Western Washington University! The topic of today's post is C.R.A.P. What is C.R.A.P., you ask? In better understood terms, C.R.A.P is a compiled set of basic layout and design principles.

Contrast

1. Make different things different 
2. Bring out DOMINANT elements
3. Mute lesser ones 
4. Create dynamism!

"Contrast creates interest by providing variety in design" http://www.slideshare.net/SherwinM/basic-layout-principles.

Size, weight, position, shape, and color are all various ways in which contrast is used. The links I have provided helped me better grasp the multiple possibilities for how to include contrast. Until doing more research, I always thought of contrast as big vs. little and dark vs. light. But the elements of weight, shape, and color all being intermixed and tied in to one another make contrast much more effective and successful.

Here is a helpful article about using contrast successfully in graphic design: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/contrast/ss/contrast.htm

Repetition

1. Repeat design throughout the interface
2. Consistency
3. Create unity

"Repeat action, performance, production, or presentation creates identity. For web design, often a layout element or the navigation is repeated for each page, so the user knows they are within the same site" http://www.slideshare.net/SherwinM/basic-layout-principles.

If I have learned anything from not only the research I did on the principle of repetition, but being a student and studying for quizzes and exams, it's that I retain information when I have seen/heard/spoke it multiple times. This is a key element to successfully communicating important information and concepts to viewers and potential customers.

 Here is a helpful article about using repetition successfully in graphic design: http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/designprinciples/qt/comfort_repeat.htm

Alignment

1. Create a visual flow
2. Visually connect elements

"Alignment is the placement of text and graphics so they line up on the page. It's one of the principles of design that help us create attractive, readable pages."

 Left, right, center, grid, visual or optical, hanging punctuation visual, and breaking alignment are all different ways alignment can be utilized in graphic or web design. I have found that details pertaining to good alignment are the small things readers or viewers don't recognize initially. Alignment helps the viewed text appear to flow naturally.

Here is a helpful article about using alignment successfully in graphic design: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/a/alignment.htm

Proximity

1. Group related elements
2. Separate unrelated elements

"The property of being close together, holding that objects or events that are near to one another (in space or time) are perceived as belonging together as a unit"http://www.slideshare.net/SherwinM/basic-layout-principles.

Here is a helpful article about using proximity successfully in graphic design: 

http://desktoppub.about.com/od/glossary/g/Proximity.htm

This video covers all the topics I have discussed in greater detail. I recommend taking the time to watch it!

I will implement what I have larned into my group website, my individual website, our newsletter, my business card, personal logo, podcast script, and all future projects I work on for both school and my career.