We are standing on the precipice of a new culture? Sceptical, questioning
connected with the world, thirsting for information and change. Technology is
driving society at a pace unparalleled in history creating new attitudes,
interrelationships, and global awareness. A new consumer is emerging, suspicious
of traditional media sources, incredulous of advertising, and contemptuous of
the contrived the hyped, the false. This consumer is not easily persuaded by
clever graphics or manipulated by fads in design. In order to integrate all
aspects of a ‘brands’ presentation on a web-site, the designer must move
beyond form, colour and type and embrace the comprehensive impact of design.
Enhanced awareness of the world; deeper, broader thinking about problems and
opportunities; a respect for the historical roots of and formal conventions of
design; planning and diligent study are required to create interesting global
web-site designs. What? subject: Web site design on the Internet Focus: Web site
design in the future. Objectives: To identify web-site designs that work, and to
identify the reasons to why they work. Why? With the increasing number of
web-sites that are coming online daily, in order for them to work, they are more
dependent on good design for attracting readership than print is. How? By
examination of the most frequently visited web-sites, and although a historical
approach with reference to print in design. Section Two Design is the Answer
What? Web sites need to be far better designed than anything in the print
medium, due to the very interdisciplinary nature of the web-site. Why? Because a
magazine with even minimum design gets its information across to the reader. You
buy it because you care about the issues in its headlines, if you want more you
jump inside, ‘print’ by its nature is a tactile phenonenom; touch, smell and
accessibility, and it is for that reason it will never die. But web-sites are
purely visual and aural, one screen at a time. Encouraging the viewer to go
beyond the first layer, even learn where to go for what is required is a common
problem for designers. It is their job to bring the viewer inside through the
"Dance of the seven veils",and once inside, guide them, not to confuse
or frustrate them. How? Web-sites that work are sites that do what you want it
to do. They do not insult your intelligence, but neither do they obfuscate. They
must indicate the wealth of material lying beneath the first page, but also
offer you options and alternate means of approach. The answer may lie in better
selling of the ‘land’ – in urban planning, to use a metaphor. The
solutions to timeless internet problems – navigation, access to information
– will be provided by design. Good design means; pertinent information,
content, good ‘surfing’, exploring, and gathering. The designer is the
Web’s real pathfinder. How does the designer achieve this goal? By drawing up
an agenda for good web design. Section 3 and 4 Where does good web design come
from? I believe that the principles print informed quality print design for
hundreds of years and that these principles are equally valid online. TEN RULES
OF DESIGN FOR THE WEB 1. Put content on every page. Design should not be
decoration. It must convey information. Or entertainment. Content should come to
the surface on every single level. Avoid useless and confusing icons, e.g. a
navigation bar that has a ? for help. Make sure the content is easy to read
quickly. Break the text into smaller segments. On the web people are in a hurry.
They want the information they are looking for quickly, like a dictionary,
that’s still what the web is really about. 2. The first colour is white 3. The
second colour is black 4. The third colour is red. This is a basic rule that has
been around for 500 years. In Print white is the absence of all colours. White
makes the best background. Black holds the highest contrast to white; therefore
it is the first choice for text. And red draws the viewer in, and defines the
image. 5. Never letterspace l o w e r c a s e When this is done the natural
rhythm of the letters, so carefully designed by font designer, is ruined. In
design if you look at what you do today, it should look like what you want to do
tomorrow. 6. Never set a lot of text IN ALL CAPS Fonts were not intended to be
all set in caps. They were intended to be upper and lowercase and to have serifs
and descenders and ascenders so that they are easier to read. 7. A cover should
be a poster A single image of a human being will sell more magazines than
multiple images or all type. Avoid the pitfalls of ‘fads’. Design loses its
power when it falls prey to what is popular now. 8. Use only one or two
typefaces There are thousands of fonts on offer, this does not mean it is clever
if the designer can use as many as possible at once, good design is pulled
together by one or two fonts. The best combination is one light and one bold.
(This seems to work with colours too). 9. Make everything as BIG as possible
Type looks good in big point sizes, a bad picture always looks better bigger.
10. Get lumpy ! The trouble with most web design is that it holds no great
surprise. 95% of web pages have beautiful graphic homepages, followed by legions
of pages that look like newsletters with stamps stapled to them. Vary the
content from page to page; don’t keep to the format of picture-and-story. NINE
RULES OF WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN DESIGNING WEB PAGES. 1. Don’t confuse the viewer.
Keep the site consistently designed. For different pages and sections the
navigation tools and graphics need to look the same throughout. Make sure the
viewer knows they are on the same site when surfing your web pages. 2. Be
organised with navigation. Make sure your buttons and navigational directions
are simple and clear. Be consistent in these from page to page. 3. Don’t make
oversize pages. Research shows that 50% of all computers used for the internet
use 13" monitors, designers often use 17" – 21" monitors,
‘size matters", keep to 480x640 pixels. 4. Don’t design pages that
require scrolling. This makes it painful and impossible to read in a hurry.
Browsers will never scroll, they are more likely to press a button and keep
going. Shorter pages break up content to bite size pieces this is more appealing
to the viewer. 5. Don’t use big, slow graphics. No one wants to wait a minute
for art or seven minutes for a video; the only acceptable delay when it comes to
the web is no delay. 6. Go monochromatic. Monochromatic pages frankly look
better and run faster. Web clutter is typified by free wheeling use of colour.
Use one or two colours, not all of them. 7. Don’t overdo text. Web browsers
skim and surf, if you don’t give them something quickly they absorb nothing.
8. Don’t use tiny type. It is very hard to read small type on a computer, make
everything bigger than you would print. If you want to get noticed on the web
make it easy and clear to read. 9. Don’t navigate by type. Navigate by image,
it’s less confusing and never dull. Section 5. Conclusions What was the
question? What defines a well-designed web-site? The "wow" factor –
this is not cool buttons or fonts, or graphics, or audio or video, but clear,
easy to read information in bite size chunks, good content, and easy to follow
consist navigation. ent How do we plan a web-site that work’s? Step 1. Client
requirements and Goals The Brief Strategic planning, and engineering. Step 2.
Response and Refinement Trial Pages Design, Content, and marketing. Step 3.
Approval The Prototype Final design testing and coding Step 4. Launch The Launch
Style book, training, and quality tests. What’s it all about? Content; The
internet means nothing without good stories, personalities and good direction.