Week 3 Web Design Readings

This week I was able to read both Chapter 7 Chapter 8. Chapter 7 talks about interface and navigation.

The interface design it's what's going to make the website visually interesting or ugly, enjoyable or irritating to viewers to move around. Interface refers to how the pages look, and also how the pages work and interact with the viewer. I found it interesting that a browser's interface design it's the one feature that makes people prefer one browser over another. Another interesting aspect of web designing is at the navigation design, which is the way people get around your site and understand where to go.

To create a good web design, the designer has to have a good plan. First, the designer should make a list of the information to be included on the site. Second, make an outline based on the list and organize the information. An easy way to organize the information is to create a flowchart incorporating the same information and using sticky notes to help organize the ideas.

The book also recommends to use the horizontal format when creating a web page. Also, it recommends using a display of 800x600 pixels. That way, the website can impact the majority of the visitors , whose monitors sites average 13 inch, which displays 800x600 pixels in a very nice way.

Good web designer concentrates on the navigation by organizing how the page navigates. Some ideas to help with the navagation design are navigation buttons, navigation bars, tabs, plain text links, fancy animated graphics, and more. Another idea could be using frames to help separate areas on the page. Frames can act independently, yet still interact with each other.

The designer should also consider repetition and consistency of the navigation elements from page to page. Good navigation system gives visitors a clue as to what page they are currently on.

Chapter 8 talks about the good and bad design. This chapter simply sums up the concepts talked about in this section of the book.

The bad web design looks crowded, confusing and boring, while a good design catches the attention of the viewer immediately and is easy to navigate and understand. It's good to notice that on a good web design a consistent feature of all the pages is that they all fit within the 800x600 pixels.