Bad Tags

No means no!

Most tags that are today concidered “bad”, are concidered so because they are outdated, or downright stupid (i.e. <b> is outdated, since <strong> works better, and <marquee> is just damn stupid). CSS gives far more control with the way information is displayed.  The old <font> tag is bulky and unnecessary, when just a few lines of code in CSS can apply the same <font> modifications to a larger amount of information, and seperated from one another [classes].

Meaningless words are often necessary to buff a word count.

Organizing A Website

a) What is the fundamental principle for organizing website design?

To meet the user’s needs.

b) List the five basic steps to organizing information.

1. Divide the content into logical units

2. Establish a hierarchy of importance

3. Structure relations of the units using the hierarchy

4. Design the site around this information structure

5. Analyze the function and aesthetics of your system

c) Briefly describe the three essential structures for organizing websites.

1. Sequences

Used mostly in rigid tutorial sites. Gives the users a single path of navigation: forward. This simple structure helps when teaching the user something completely new to them, thus they would have to learn each sequential step in order to move on.

2. Hierarchies

Most common here on the net, a hierarchy structure goes from a single home page to several different branches, then onward for each branch individually.

3. Webs

Webs are used mostly when working with an audience that already knows the material you are providing. In this sense, the web structure allows these users to go from one page to another on the site in a completely free-form manner. Used as reference mostly.

d) What is the risk of “eye candy”?

Eye candy, as the name implies, is visual graphics that are quite pleasing to the eye. The risk of “eye candy” is the tendency to create a page that is gaudy and removes thhe user’s attention from the webpage itself. Large amounts of “eye candy” also get annoying after a while, thus also losing a potential customer’s attention.

e) How might programmers utilize site diagrams as they move a new website project from planning to production?

 Uhh, they can use the diagrams to their advantage when choosing what a particular site structure should look like for what purpose.

f) How does the concept “above the fold” impact page design decisions?

Well first: “above the fold” is relating a webpage to a newspaper.  Anything that is most important should be at the TOP part of the front page, so that users can see that immedietly, as opposed to having them at the bottom where some users with small [crappy] resolutions would have to scroll down.

The Importance of Web Standards

Web standards are used to make sure every webpage you create, any web browser can display it [in more or less the same fashion]. Without these standards, your site might not even show up on Internet Explorer, but show up perfectly on Firefox. Now, one could argue that they don’t want anyone using IE on their site anyhow, but thats besides the point. Without these globally accepted web standards, web design wouldn’t match up from person A with person B.

Color Scheme for a Landscaper

 Text-Color: #000000
Background Color: #ccae8f
Main color in the banner and other images: #bf9060
Navigation Color: #806c59 [white text]
Main content background [apart from the main background of the page]: #e6dacf

The reason I chose these colors, and mono, is because it gives a kind of down-to-earth feel thanks to the wonderful earthy color of brown.  Brown is real, ya know?  I kept the colors mono simply because it seems, to me at least, more professional to keep one nice [somewhat muted] color, rather than having a more vibrant alternative.

Color Theory in Web Design

1. 256
2. Red, Green and Blue
3. 216 [the other 40 are used to display icons/ backgrounds]
4. The web-guide suggests images be dithered to work better with 8-bit colored computers. These “dithered” images have the same general look of the original picture, however, they run only 256 colors, making it pixilated.
5. No, most people with color blindness have red-green deficiencies. It’s actually fairly rare to for someone to have a complete lack of function in the cones of their eyes.
6. The key concern when using colors to convey important information is that often people ONLY use color to get their point across [map legends, etc.] This is highly problematic for anyone that is incapable of seeing those colors, thus everyone should use other methods of getting their point across [or in supplement of colors].

Three Design Principles

Though I feel like a kissass for using this as my example, the West Hills website was designed beautifully. Contrast wise, the site does so in a few areas. You can always tell what page you are on, since the current “tab” from the navigation is a different color from the rest, and appears above all the others. Hell, any main events going on at the school are easy to find, since they are seperated from the rest of the content in their own little box. As for repetition, all the pages are consistent in general design and colors [except the event page... but thats just a calendar], making each new page feel like it has blended into the past one. All the content is aligned in its own little area, and the entire page itself is centered to the middle of the window, much like most of the Web 2.0 designs.

WolfPack Web

Proximity

The space between elements. If most of the page is close together, and you leave something far off from the rest, its going to draw the attention of a user.

Google

Well, the main features of the site, the title image and the search bar, are completely seperated from the “other” content of the page.  Different functions and signing in are removed from the main area.

Alignment

Alignment.. well, naturally you have the 3 settings of alignment, left, right, and center, but alignment also means more on a page. Just because everything is aligned to the left, doesn’t mean they have the same starting positions [pixel-wise], and it is this similar starting area that can be concidered “aligned”.

Web Design From Scratch

As you can see, all the main-elements of the page are equi-distant from the right edge of the left navigational region.  Everything is put together nice and clean.

Repetition

Repetition is the continual use of a theme or element of a web page throughout the entire site.

w3schools.com

Well, all the main navigation of tutorials, etc, are all done with the same black text while more specific parts of the site are labeled in red on the right side. The site is consistent and is a good example for most webpages out there [as it should be... concidering they validate coding].

Contrast

Extreme changes in color, size, or appearance of different pieces of a webpage that is used to draw the users attention to specific, more important, areas. i.e.

Stylin’ Stalin

Well, honestly this example is a tad bit obvious. The picture of Stalin [stylin' as usual], is completely contrasted with the all black background. I’m not saying its a useful site, but it does have contrast.