> The elements that you use in your web design need to be presented clearly and dynamically so that your ideas and personality shine through and communicate to your audience.
> The five most common lexicon elements to a site include navigation systems, body text, images, page footers and forms. For Major Project 2 I’ll be focusing on at least three of these elements to enhance the look and feel of the Connecticut Campus Compact web site.
> When you combine these elements you’re able to provide a useful site that contains valuable information and content that will stimulate your audience to interact with each.
> It is important to remember that each element has to communicate to the audience. That means that your elements need to include specific information, be organized and relevant to one another.
> It’s always a good idea to include a footer to your web site. This allows your audience to easily find and contact your information without having them search through the site for the info. This will make it easier for you and them if you leave the important stuff on the bottom of the page.
> When designing the layout of your site you want to remember to keep your navigation clean and simple. An elaborate navigational system can clash with the rest of your site and confuse your audience.
> It’s also a good idea to limit the amount of navigation you include in your site. Too many methods such as a site map, search box and embedded links can overcrowd your site and not allow your audience to get to where they want to go swiftly.
> For the Connecticut Campus Compact site I know that I want to include a calendar, a few embedded links and a navigation system. With these three elements I should allow easy movement for the audience. I also will try not to add more than what’s necessary to the site.
> Text plays a huge role in the layout of your site. You want your body text to have readable font at a decent size and for it to be dynamically placed on the page. The body text should not be too long, but instead short and focused on the content. It also helps to create visual interest when using images along with your text so that your audience can see what you are informing them about.
> An element I won’t be including in the CT Campus Compact site are forms. Forms seem like a complicated system that can mainly be found in corporate sites. I want the CT Campus Compact site to reflect a more personable look and feel that is geared towards students and parents (and mainly not top officials).
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Revised Mission Statement for Major Project 2
For Major Project Two I plan to support the Connecticut Campus Compact website. The purpose of this site is to inform the overall public about the educational services and volunteer contributions that the organization is involved with. The site will stay with the look and feel of the national site by keeping the logo and the same color palette. The site will advance from the original one by including interactive elements, such as a calendar, events table and photo gallery.
Chapter 5: Site-Seeing
> Your personality determines who you are; it is a definition of your experiences and the way you interact with others. Web sites define experiences, reveal interactions and have similar aspects to a personality. It is necessary to include content and designs that will appeal to your audience and engage them to return.
> You want your site to leave a lasting impression with the audience. To do that you need to include a unique design and layout that is organized, supports and reflects who you are. You want your audience to have a positive reaction when they are done viewing your site.
> The look and feel of you site needs to be visually appealing with the design, typography and color palette you choose. These elements help to communicate to your audience the type of personality you have and how it is different from others (initially sites).
> Your site should be able to tell a story about its personality (every web site is a narrative). This makes the web site unified, meaningful and engaging, allowing your visitors to have an enjoyable experience. (Wroblewski)
> Web sites should always try to give off a positive impression; if it doesn’t then it’s a site that lacks in good design, layout and interaction.
> It’s interesting to think that your web site is indeed a product. You are selling your ideas and all of the visual elements to your audience. Essentially this is giving a brand name to your site.
> Wroblewski describes a brand “as an idea or impression made on your audience by the experiences with your goods and their presentation”. On the web, it is important that you present your site with an interactive interface that is informative and appealing.
> It’s hard to make your site unique from all the million others out there on the web. The design and content reflect strongly on the type of site you are distinguishing from the rest.
> Color and typography strongly set a mood and send messages. Colors can make you excited, comfortable or sad. These emotions all reflect upon the opinions of your audience. For example, yellow reflects energy and warmth while violet is associated with regal and sensual emotions. A typeface’s visual characteristics reflect how the audience feels about them. It’s important to use a typeface that is appropriate to the main theme of your site.
> Other visual elements that play a large role in the design of your site are shapes. It’s good to include abstract and organic shapes, textures and patterns that can set a tone and manner. This will interest your audience and make your site that more unique from the rest.
> You want your site to leave a lasting impression with the audience. To do that you need to include a unique design and layout that is organized, supports and reflects who you are. You want your audience to have a positive reaction when they are done viewing your site.
> The look and feel of you site needs to be visually appealing with the design, typography and color palette you choose. These elements help to communicate to your audience the type of personality you have and how it is different from others (initially sites).
> Your site should be able to tell a story about its personality (every web site is a narrative). This makes the web site unified, meaningful and engaging, allowing your visitors to have an enjoyable experience. (Wroblewski)
> Web sites should always try to give off a positive impression; if it doesn’t then it’s a site that lacks in good design, layout and interaction.
> It’s interesting to think that your web site is indeed a product. You are selling your ideas and all of the visual elements to your audience. Essentially this is giving a brand name to your site.
> Wroblewski describes a brand “as an idea or impression made on your audience by the experiences with your goods and their presentation”. On the web, it is important that you present your site with an interactive interface that is informative and appealing.
> It’s hard to make your site unique from all the million others out there on the web. The design and content reflect strongly on the type of site you are distinguishing from the rest.
> Color and typography strongly set a mood and send messages. Colors can make you excited, comfortable or sad. These emotions all reflect upon the opinions of your audience. For example, yellow reflects energy and warmth while violet is associated with regal and sensual emotions. A typeface’s visual characteristics reflect how the audience feels about them. It’s important to use a typeface that is appropriate to the main theme of your site.
> Other visual elements that play a large role in the design of your site are shapes. It’s good to include abstract and organic shapes, textures and patterns that can set a tone and manner. This will interest your audience and make your site that more unique from the rest.
Monday, October 09, 2006
CT Campus Compact Mission Statement
The purpose of the Connecticut Campus Compact web site is to inform the overall public about the educational services and volunteer contributions that the organization is involved with. The site will stay with the look and feel of the national site by keeping with the logo and the maroon and blue/green color palette. The information communicated in the site will include the purpose of the universities and the students’ participation as well as the different events, features and benefits there are with becoming involved with this institution.
Site-Seeing: Chapter 4
> Designing a website is also like creating a picture (whether it's a drawing or painting). Within every picture there is a foreground, background, objects and other visual elements that help you understand the message that it’s conveying. Web pages all have messages and it’s up to you to create an informative and organized visual layout that your audience can learn from and enjoy.
> It’s important that your audience can successfully navigate through your web page without any problems. To create a successful website there are many principles, such as proximity, similarity, and continuance, which help to create distinct visual groups that are differentiated and meaningful.
> An important way to visually organize information is by creating a visual hierarchy. With a hierarchy there is an order that will creatively and cohesively appeal to your audience, as well as keeping your site balanced and simple.
> Having a balanced layout in your site will help keep your viewer’s attention and create a system of unity between all of your elements, whether its design or technology related.
> I think the most important part about creating a visually organized site that can communicate all of the principles discussed in chapter four is to simply remember who your target audience is and what you want to express to them. By making your design and content organized, you are creating a website that will send a clear message to your viewer’s.
> It’s important that your audience can successfully navigate through your web page without any problems. To create a successful website there are many principles, such as proximity, similarity, and continuance, which help to create distinct visual groups that are differentiated and meaningful.
> An important way to visually organize information is by creating a visual hierarchy. With a hierarchy there is an order that will creatively and cohesively appeal to your audience, as well as keeping your site balanced and simple.
> Having a balanced layout in your site will help keep your viewer’s attention and create a system of unity between all of your elements, whether its design or technology related.
> I think the most important part about creating a visually organized site that can communicate all of the principles discussed in chapter four is to simply remember who your target audience is and what you want to express to them. By making your design and content organized, you are creating a website that will send a clear message to your viewer’s.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Atlantic Freedom Tour Mission Statement
The goal of the Atlantic Freedom Tour site for the Amistad America Program is to communicate information about the history of the ship and the educational program that students can become involved with. This site will include updated video of the crew, blog postings from the students, and the ship’s progress on its voyage. There will be an interactive map of the different ports that the crew will be visiting and content about the events at each port. This site will entice viewers with images, hands on stories from the crew, detailed story of the history of the Amistad, and a colorful nautical scheme. The audience of the Atlantic Freedom Tour site will include teachers, (most importantly) students, and any one else interested in learning about the historic Amistad and its current journeys.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Site-Seeing: Chapter 3
> The construction of your site is one of the most important elements that will either make or break your site. If the audience finds it hard to search for what they are looking or if, most frustrating, your site is slow with download times, then your aggravated users will not return to your site.
> The best way to ease waiting time for your audience is to use CSS, crop images to reduce their physical size and to compress photos by optimizing them. These three tips can make a big difference on minimizing download times for your web site.
> Web users love to browse/wander sites and gather information. To keep them anchored to your site you need to provide navigational tools, such as menus, links and search boxes. This will provide necessary interaction for your audience.
> It is important to let your users know the differences between your links and where they will take them. I was surprised to see that there are five different types of links, and probably more, that help us know their particular purpose. External, internal, download, inline, and action links all help your audience get to whatever content you want them to view. With all these different links it’s important to remember to keep them all short with words, provide a range of color (especially for you visited and unvisited links) and to make them descriptive.
> The site you build should contain navigational tools, content, a page title and header. You always want to have your audience’s attention focused on the content of your page and to do that, sometimes it’s easier to make your site simple, with not a lot of technology and fancy elements incorporated.
> The best way to ease waiting time for your audience is to use CSS, crop images to reduce their physical size and to compress photos by optimizing them. These three tips can make a big difference on minimizing download times for your web site.
> Web users love to browse/wander sites and gather information. To keep them anchored to your site you need to provide navigational tools, such as menus, links and search boxes. This will provide necessary interaction for your audience.
> It is important to let your users know the differences between your links and where they will take them. I was surprised to see that there are five different types of links, and probably more, that help us know their particular purpose. External, internal, download, inline, and action links all help your audience get to whatever content you want them to view. With all these different links it’s important to remember to keep them all short with words, provide a range of color (especially for you visited and unvisited links) and to make them descriptive.
> The site you build should contain navigational tools, content, a page title and header. You always want to have your audience’s attention focused on the content of your page and to do that, sometimes it’s easier to make your site simple, with not a lot of technology and fancy elements incorporated.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)