Web Design:
The Good, The Bad, and The Truly Horrible How to succeed where many fail.
Matthew Carroll
The Basics of Web Design
The Internet is all about Information, and the World Wide Web is a means of expressing that information. • Content is Key. • People need to be able to find information; Its easy for the surfer to look elsewhere. • Appearance establishes/ destroys credibility. • Real estate is limited; if you use it, make it count!
• Design for the lowest common denominator.
More Good Design Tips
• Simplicity should be the goal of Web design. • Design should facilitate the page’s content, not confuse the viewer. • Writing on the Web should be short and concise. • Pay attention to the design basics: Color, Font, & White Space
So How Should You Design?
• Start with the content!
• Think for the Web.
• K.I.S.S. • Who’s looking? Why? Design for them.
Sites in Action
(For Better or Worse)
Dangerous
Personal Homepages: Gone Wrong http://www.geocities.com/sassy_ angel_kisses/index.html
http://www.jimjacobson.com/
Poor
Professional Sites that lack critical elements -
Better
Professional Sites that work -
Microsoft Yahoo Visive Explosion TKO Gear Clay Planet Designs
Apple Google Adobe Sapient Net Effects Fitch Pergo Derrsign
http://www.homestead.com/20S uRgE02/1one.html
http://www.geocities.com/cutie_a zn_timothy/Da_AzN_RaVeR.htm l
Last Semester: J50 Sites to See
• http://www.unc.edu/~jhickman/ • http://www.unc.edu/~linm/
• http://www.unc.edu/~clord/
Getting Started
Sites to Look At: • Adam Fuller’s Web Design 101 for J50 http://www.ibiblio.org/team/howto/web.design/ • UNC-CH Webstyle Guidelines http://help.unc.edu/?id=642
• Becky Morphis’s Tips and Tricks for J50 http://www.unc.edu/courses/jomc050/design/design.htm
• Coming Soon! My website on design and usability… http://www.ibiblio.org/mcarroll/gschool/jomc50/
Some Web Resources
Sites to Look At: • Cool Homepages http://www.coolhomepages.com/ • Webpages That Suck http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
• Really Bad Websites http://www.reallybadwebsites.com/archive.htm
• BunnyFoot Design http://www.bunnyfoot.com/freestuff/articles/general/branding.html
Some Web Resources
Books to Look Into: • Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed http://www.useit.com/homepageusability/ • Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity http://www.useit.com/jakob/webusability/
• Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency http://www.useit.com/jakob/constbook.html