Designing home page:
First of all design of a home page should be appealing, it should attract attention and interest.
Secondly designing home page we have to provide clear hierarchy, do not confuse visitors by providing too much unnecessary information and ad banners.
Navigation system can be different than other pages, let's say it can have horizontal format instead of vertical.
But the difference has to be not too big. The consistency is still important. Especially links, titles, categories and grouping should be absolutely identical.
Tag lines. They should be clear and provide some information about the service and tell visitor why is this site so important and how it can help visitor in his needs. Having abstract tag lines is nothing like bad idea. In addition the can not be too long.
Categories and links can have some description. Although home page can not be overloaded with information or too busy looking. To save some space designers use pulldowns and rollovers. There are some issues with both of them that can confuse and frustrate though. So they have to be used carefully.
So looking at the nicely designed and constructed web pages we can see that they have:
1.clear titles so visitors now where they are:
2. nice tag lines(not too short, not too long);
3. noticeable starting point, so viewer sees where he can brows, search, sign up. etc:
4. nice navigation system and consistency in all the titles and grouping.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
week3 reading assignment
Speaking of usability of web sites it is crucially important to provide great navigation system for users.
Which means they need to understand where are they located and how to find whatever they are looking for.
To achieve that the web site structure has to broken into sections or main parts of web sites, and utilities that are less important like downloads, about page etc.
Hierarchy helps to organize everything and helps to see what is more important and what is less.
The viewer always wants to know where is he or she located at the moment. So all the pages should be titled, home page has to be noticeable and easy to find, so they have to be located in a right place.
All the links should work properly. The titles of the links and pages should be named in a proper way and bring visitor to the rights location.
Nicely built navigation system gives users sense of scale, sense of direction and locations.
Another important step in building successful web site is persistent navigation, which means navigation should be consistent on all the pages and give the user confidence in his expectations.
Searching should not be complicated: it should appear in a way that most of the users used to see.
"Breadcrumbs show where you are". They are indicators that helps user to navigate through the site. The are more noticeable if they are located on the top.
http://websitetheme.com/archives/12-Key-features-of-a-good-website-navigation-system.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Design-a-Good-Website-Navigation-System&id=4247466
http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/website-navigation/
http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/navigation.php
Which means they need to understand where are they located and how to find whatever they are looking for.
To achieve that the web site structure has to broken into sections or main parts of web sites, and utilities that are less important like downloads, about page etc.
Hierarchy helps to organize everything and helps to see what is more important and what is less.
The viewer always wants to know where is he or she located at the moment. So all the pages should be titled, home page has to be noticeable and easy to find, so they have to be located in a right place.
All the links should work properly. The titles of the links and pages should be named in a proper way and bring visitor to the rights location.
Nicely built navigation system gives users sense of scale, sense of direction and locations.
Another important step in building successful web site is persistent navigation, which means navigation should be consistent on all the pages and give the user confidence in his expectations.
Searching should not be complicated: it should appear in a way that most of the users used to see.
"Breadcrumbs show where you are". They are indicators that helps user to navigate through the site. The are more noticeable if they are located on the top.
http://websitetheme.com/archives/12-Key-features-of-a-good-website-navigation-system.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Design-a-Good-Website-Navigation-System&id=4247466
http://www.webpagemistakes.ca/website-navigation/
http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/navigation.php
Monday, October 18, 2010
Reading assignment 2
To make reading easier for user the page content has to be well organized:
1. visual hierarchy
2. conventions
3. breaking up pages into clearly defined areas
4. make it obvious what is clickable"
Visual hierarchy helps a lot. Headers and titles should be bolder and bigger. Content should be organized properly by placing them under right categories and groups. If content is nested it should be clearly defined what belongs to what group. etc.
Conventions helps to improve "readability", make the reading, searching and watching process much faster and convenient
Breaking the pages into defined ares and getting rid of the unnecessary content is "must to do" when working on layout and improving organization of content.
So site should be very easy to navigate, with nice layout, not too busy, with text broken into paragraphs and text that does not carry any extra information. All the titles and categories should be clearly defined.
Users we don't have time to read to long and make unnecessary choices that could be eliminated by web site creators. Having too many options which existence is not that necessary frustrates users. The "making of choices should be mindless".
And another important step is we have to get rid of noise and " happy talk and instructions". In case if instructions are have to be presented they should be short and clear.
1. visual hierarchy
2. conventions
3. breaking up pages into clearly defined areas
4. make it obvious what is clickable"
Visual hierarchy helps a lot. Headers and titles should be bolder and bigger. Content should be organized properly by placing them under right categories and groups. If content is nested it should be clearly defined what belongs to what group. etc.
Conventions helps to improve "readability", make the reading, searching and watching process much faster and convenient
Breaking the pages into defined ares and getting rid of the unnecessary content is "must to do" when working on layout and improving organization of content.
So site should be very easy to navigate, with nice layout, not too busy, with text broken into paragraphs and text that does not carry any extra information. All the titles and categories should be clearly defined.
Users we don't have time to read to long and make unnecessary choices that could be eliminated by web site creators. Having too many options which existence is not that necessary frustrates users. The "making of choices should be mindless".
And another important step is we have to get rid of noise and " happy talk and instructions". In case if instructions are have to be presented they should be short and clear.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Web site description
Elena Aryshtaeva Website
Project Summary
Web sight-portfolio for myself as a graphic designer.
Purpose: self-promotion
Theme:
graphic style that shows personality and design style
I will create design, menu navigation, layouts, digital file production and preparation, and post provided content structure and sample content to their respective sections
Style: Inspired by Russian Constructivists, Grunge, Graffiti. bold. edgy
Theme: Wheel, color wheel, newspaper, construction elements, architecture elements.
Colors scheme: red, black, and white, grey, brown.
Font style: bold, Grunge fonts, Helvetica
Sight structure:
Home page
Portfolio Resume Contact
Home page: visual element or design plus links to other pages
Portfolio page contains thumbs linked to the pictures of my works
Resume page contains my resume
Contact page: contact info
Project Timeline
I will begin week 1 of Fall quarter. I estimate a total time to produce this project from 5 weeks from week 1 when was assigned.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Reading Assignment 1: Usability
Designing Web sites like designing anything else for users is the process that involves creating the structure that works for an user in a best and easiest way.
To make this structure work a designer have to bare in mind basic principles of usability.
The best way to do it is start with analysis of problems of existing site or analysis of client's task.
What is the need? Sell, promote, inform, entertain? All this purposes have different ways of achievement.
Now when the target audience and task is defined a designer has to create a structure that is understandable, convenient or easy to use for audience. According Steve Krug in his book"Don't make me think" the usability is a strategy that helps users to find whatever they are looking for without spending long time on that. The task of a designer is make this process as easier and as faster as possible. There are some basic principles of design that can help in this situation:"
1. visual hierarchy
2. conventions
3. breaking up pages into clearly defined areas
4. make it obvious what is clickable"
So site should be very easy to navigate, with nice layout, not too busy, with text broken into paragraphs and text that does not carry any extra information. All the titles and categories should be clearly defined.
During the process of design a designer has to think of user's previous experiences, his "predictions". If he used to find listed categories in one area those categories should be listed all together in one area. Home button, search window, contact information- all of that should be located in easy to find places where user usually find them on other sites. User usually scans Web sites and as soon as he finds what he was looking for he focuses on this category or area of Web site. The task of a designer is to put some marks or incorporate in site smart and simple navigation system that helps user achieve his goal.
To make this structure work a designer have to bare in mind basic principles of usability.
The best way to do it is start with analysis of problems of existing site or analysis of client's task.
What is the need? Sell, promote, inform, entertain? All this purposes have different ways of achievement.
Now when the target audience and task is defined a designer has to create a structure that is understandable, convenient or easy to use for audience. According Steve Krug in his book"Don't make me think" the usability is a strategy that helps users to find whatever they are looking for without spending long time on that. The task of a designer is make this process as easier and as faster as possible. There are some basic principles of design that can help in this situation:"
1. visual hierarchy
2. conventions
3. breaking up pages into clearly defined areas
4. make it obvious what is clickable"
So site should be very easy to navigate, with nice layout, not too busy, with text broken into paragraphs and text that does not carry any extra information. All the titles and categories should be clearly defined.
During the process of design a designer has to think of user's previous experiences, his "predictions". If he used to find listed categories in one area those categories should be listed all together in one area. Home button, search window, contact information- all of that should be located in easy to find places where user usually find them on other sites. User usually scans Web sites and as soon as he finds what he was looking for he focuses on this category or area of Web site. The task of a designer is to put some marks or incorporate in site smart and simple navigation system that helps user achieve his goal.
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