Activity 601
I used XML and CSS to redefine some of the basic rules for HTML.
Because I’m that interesting.
http://tenshi3.com/3142/601.xml
http://tenshi3.com/3142/xml.css
Activity 304 : Advanced CSS
I was interested in the use of “floats” in CSS layout. Particularly how to control their positioning and the layout of other elements. More details can be found on the following link
Link.
edit: link was case sensitive, doh!
Activity 103
These are my thoughts on good web design.
- Useable
- Simple
- Aesthetically Pleasing
- Distinctive
- Consistent
I consider the most important aspect of web design to be “useability”. No matter what kind of site, the single most important aspect is that it is useable. This encompasses various things, but mostly concerns clarity. People should be able to work out how to retrieve the information they require from the website, whether it is buying a cd from Amazon, viewing someone’s favourite music on Facebook or viewing an artists gallery, the navigation should be clear and intuitive, simplifying the process as much as possible. If it takes more than four clicks to find what you’re looking for, it’s not as useable as it should be. Simplicity is a key word here, the structure should be clear and simple to use.
After being functional, the website should be aesthetically pleasing. This doesn’t mean it has to have lots of high quality images and fancy graphics or flash, but It needs to look good. Various things are important, but it should have its own “style” including a limited amount of colours, consistent fonts and clear headings etc. Sensible use of images, preferably understated to add to the overall style and should avoid dominating the page. Generally the content is what people are coming to your site for so the style should reflect the content, rather than overwhelming it.
As an aside from being appealing, it should also be distinctive. Brands like Google have their own visual style, as does Amazon, BBC etc. As one of these pages appears you should be able to recognise it as their distinctive brands, and if they were to release anything new you should be able to identify it as that brand. It’s not vital to be unique, but a good design is memorable.
Other than that the design should remain consistent, it should remain similar throughout the browsing experience. If at some point, the entire style of the site changed it would cause confusion. An example of the importance of this is for things like Google’s selection of tools, all of which have a similar look and feel. Their online applications like google mail, documents or maps all share a similar interface and so you feel right at home using which ever application you use, even if you haven’t used that particular one before. Similarly this also applies to any websites in competition, such as the various online stores. Much like windows applications, they should have a vaguely consistent style for purchasing products. The shopping cart and checkout systems are quite similar whichever store you use which helps you to buy something from Play if you’ve only ever used Amazon before.
For an e-commerce site, the key is for it to be useable and consistent. A simple distinctive style will help it stand out from the crowd, but it’s how easily and effectively they can sell products that will be how they are judged. Other sites, such as blogs or galleries may have a higher emphasis on style and aesthetics, but neither should come at the cost of useability.
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