Thursday, April 25, 2013
Unit 4 Reading Response
Chapter 7: The first
step in recovery is admitting that the Home page is beyond your control
When designing your home page, the main thing is to be
simple. If you remember a few rules you can manage your home page well.
Right off the bat, the Home page must tell the users what
the site is for and why they are there. The home page also has to give an
overview of what the site offers. What can the user find here and I can do. Site Identity and Mission
Remember this: you want the viewer to continue on your page
and take a deeper look inside, so; entice them to do so. Tease the viewer and
make them want to explore your site by hinting all the “good
stuff” that will be inside. Tease and Promote
Home page space should allocate whatever advertising,
cross-promotion, and co-branding deals have been made. Deals!!!
The most requested pieces of content or regularly visited
should have their own link on the home page so people don’t
have to hunt them down. Shortcuts
please.
Another thing that will help your user from becoming
frustrated and leaving like you would if you couldn’t
find what you wanted in the store; most sites need to have a prominently
displayed search box on the Home page. Search
I like the way Krug explains that the Home page is like the
waterfront property of the web. It’s the most desirable real
estate, and there’s a very limited supply. One size fits all. The Home page has to
appeal to everyone who visits the site, no matter how diverse their interest.
3 Links related to the reading
Monday, April 22, 2013
P2 Research
Project 2
select a recent book release for design of a website promoting their book.
Possible book choices for P2
http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com/p/books.html
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9761771-pure
.jpg)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10345927-a-million-suns
3 Promotional book websites
1. http://onegraphic.com/book-promotions/
2. http://www.bookpromotion.com/
3. http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/free-ebook-promotion_b52130
select a recent book release for design of a website promoting their book.
Possible book choices for P2
http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com/p/books.html
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9761771-pure
.jpg)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10345927-a-million-suns
3 Promotional book websites
1. http://onegraphic.com/book-promotions/
2. http://www.bookpromotion.com/
3. http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/free-ebook-promotion_b52130
Unit 3 Reading Response
Street signs and
breadcrumbs: Designing Navigation
Response
It’s a fact: People won’t use your website if they can’t
find their way around it. If you go to a site and you can’t find what you’re
looking for or how the site is organized you’re not likely to stay long or even
come back. You must create clear, simple and consistent navigation.
Websites that seem so simple and clear are actually pretty
complex. If you think about it, trying to organize an entire website with
everything you want to showcase in it and allow the users to find those things
with only 3-4 clicks is pretty damn hard.
I’ve never thought of a website as a store that you’re
trying to navigate through, and how the signs need to be clear and organized. A
customer at a store that can’t find what they’re looking for can become pretty aggravated
quickly. I know I can be that way, especially at Costco.
I’m glad Krug really enforces this thought process of web
design and navigation; this has definitely helped for Project 1- Portfolio
website design.
3 Links Related to Material
30 beautiful site navigation
30 website that make you wanna click!
30 examples of attractive navigation
Friday, April 12, 2013
Unit 2 Reading Response
Chapter 3: Billboard Design 101 – Designing pages for
scanning, not reading
There are five different steps in order to make sure your viewer
understands what you are trying to display. 1) Create a clear visual hierarchy
on each page. 2) Take advantage of conventions. 3) Break pages up into clearly
defined areas. 4) Make it obvious what’s clickable. 5) Minimize noise.
To create visual hierarchy you can use size and weight to
depict what info is important in relation to everything else. HEADLINES and
BODY COPY below it. Taking advantage of conventions is helpful they can help
the users figure out a web page even though they don’t understand a single word
on the page. Breaking up pages helps users decide quickly what information is
important to them. Making it obvious to what is clickable is important because
users need to know the difference between buttons and the background.
Minimizing noise on a web page keeps the user at ease and reduces the
overwhelming sensation you get when things are too cluttered or noisy.
Chapter 4: Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Why users like
mindless choice
Users don’t mind how many times they have to click, in fact,
people love clicking as long as they feel they are clicking to get where they
want to be.
Chapter 5: Omit needless words
Writing concise paragraph with no unnecessary words helps
reduce the noise of a page and makes the actual useful information more
prominent. This also makes the pages shorter for quick glancing. Ruthless editing
is key. Get rid of half the words on a page and then get rid of half of what’s
left. Removing “happy talk” happy talk- when you explain how great the site is.
This talk is unnecessary and reduces noise.
Links related to the reading
Writing concise sentences
Mindless Clicking
http://www.tallmania.com/baseb.html
Visual Hierarchy
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Unit 1 Reading Response
In Steve Krug's "Don’t make me think.” Steve begins by talking about the title and the meaning of his book. He explains the concepts of designing a website and not allowing the user to think too much. Websites should be easy to navigate; buttons and links should be clearly labeled and obvious that they are clickable.
The second chapter Steve explains how we really use the web. According to Steve Krug, we don’t really read websites but merely scan them to find what catches our attention. Users also do not make optimal choices; we usually look for key words and click away. Websites should be designed for its users and clients and they should be clear as a billboard not like a novel.
Why Mood Boards Matter
Mood boards are sometimes called inspiration boards. When creating a website mood board its useful for establishing a feel for the website, you can show color palettes, typography and patterns that will help the client see the overall look. A loose collage is the best ways to create a mood board for big thinkers that don’t really care about the details and just want the feel. The second type of mood board is a refined template; this is for clients that have not worked with designers before or if they are not detail oriented.
Creating a mood board can be fun and will help the designer and client brainstorm the look and feel of their website. This also helps you get all the dumb ideas out and help you figure out what look and feel you are actually going for.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
3 Portfolio Websites
http://alexarts.ru/en/index.html
This is AlexArts portfolio website. Easy navigation and beautiful aesthetic feel.
http://www.hellomonday.com/
I picked this one simply because of the loading page. I though it was a great idea to show the loading of the week days rather than just a percentage of the loading
Another great web portfolio. Makes me excited about web and design.
3 Inspirational websites
This is a foreign website, and although I dont know the reasoning for this website it is still beautiful to the foreign eye.
http://www.iutopi.com/
Another awesome website with great navigation. This website is kind of like a game and it keeps you intrigued and excited for the next page.
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