Chapter 2 - Key Ideas
OK, here's the deal...
Add AT LEAST ONE comment to this post about the KEY IDEAS you found in Chapter 2 of "Visual Design for the Modern Web."
The earlier, the easier it will be to find unique ideas... No Repeats!
posted by Dr. John @ 12:02 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
The second chapter mentions that the “most important stakeholder of all” is people who might potentially visit your site, which is why identifying who those people might be is the most important. Which is why, I imagine, the chapter outlines a whopping 10 characteristics one should analyze when creating a website. The characteristic that stuck out to me was the idea of competing sites. In a class setting such as this, I imagine it would not be as important as other characteristics, as I assume that many people will end up doing student portfolio sites. But for companies like big chain restaurants or design firms, what your website looks like will set you apart greatly from the competition that is selling the same sort of product or service.
The thing I find most interesting is how specific you have to be when identifying your target audience. It's more than just saying, "We want people who want to buy what we are selling." It takes detailed research of the 10 characteristics that Heather mentioned. It would be interesting to see some "behind the scenes" research that successful websites have done to appeal to their audience.
As I was reading this I kept thinking, "What as Ball State thinking?" Since I use the BSU website every day I kept comparing what I was reading about how the site should be user friendly and how it should be easer to get to pages with a well defined, user-friendly BUI. When it's easier to use the Google bar to find what I'm looking for then to scroll through a page of links... I think BSU could read this book and get a thing or two out of it.
When creating a website, it is most likely the goal of the designer to make something that will keep the viewer engaged and bring them back to their website many times. The section named "Creating a Sticky Website" has many helpful ideas to achieve this goal. Here are several ideas that I thought would be wise to consider when designing our own sites: Don't explicitly welcome visitors to the site. If someone is going to your website, they most likely know where they are at, a welcome is just wasted space. Update content regularly, and make it known when the next update is. Also, archive the old content as new content becomes availiable. And a personal pet peeve, never use a visitor counter. They're annoying, and nobody really cares.
I found the section "Labeling" very useful. The book points out that most labels on websites are quite ambiguous. It is important to make the content clear when labeling. Labeling includes page titles, headers, and keywords for searching. This allows for easier navigation and also will bring the audience back if they can find what they need quickly. Labeling is not something I generally think about, but after reading the section good points were brought to my attention.
When creating content for a site you want to use a writing style or "voice" that remains consistent throughout the whole site. The book uses the comparison of formal, academic writing being used on a Disney site. It wouldn’t fit the target audience and leave them disinterested. This concept is used in many types of websites, seen here as we use common chat in this blog or on sites like facebook or myspace.
A useful tip I read about in the book was about naming files. It said that it is important to name a file based on function rather than appearance or location because you may change its appearance or location later on.
One of the side boxes within the chapter peeked my interest. "Vigorous writing" is a small quote about unnecessary items in your webpage. A paragraph or page shouldn't be filled with many needless items, these uncalled for things/words/graphics can only help to create a poor webpage. On that same token, editing our what is necessary compared to what is not can sometimes be a tough task, but one must really dig deep and factor what is truly important to the content and what just filler.
Making sure that you keep your organizations goal in mind at all times is essential. For my tcom 444 class we just had an assignment of going to a company's website and writing about how their website portrayed the company and if it successfully portrayed what our image of the company is. I think that is something important. Not only do you have to keep in mind what the purpose of the website is and its functions, wheter it is for sales or just purely informational, but you must also make sure that it is designed appropriately to portray the correct image for your company.
One item in the reading which really stuck out to me was; to make sure that the content is designed to fit the needs of the viewer. This could involve a number of different techniques, but in the end the viewer should be able to look at the final design and understand its' purpose.
One part of this chapter that stuck out to me was the section on the ten characteristics of finding your target audience, in particular the part on Location of Access. It talks about how sounds on your website might be acceptable from a home computer but if your at work then you might become irritated when your computer starts blaring noise, because others might percieve this as your goofing off. This is one thing that has bothered me in the past because I have dealt with the same thing in previous jobs and at school. I think its an important aspect to look at if you are creating a website for a company somebody else, and if you have music or noise playing it might be distracting.
One section that jumped off of the page at me was the section about Identifying target audience goals. Identifying the target audience is always the first step. However, if you don't plan for the goals of your target audience, your website is destined to fail. I actually have had experience with this aspect. I have been to several websites with a goal in mind and the website has in no way accommodated me to accomplish them. One of my biggest pet peeves and an example of this is how difficult it is to find store operating hours or directions to local business sites.
While I was waiting for something to jump off the page at me like it has for everyone else, a comment made last week about how the age of a website's creator can usually be determined by how much crap is all over the screen kept popping up in the back of my head. The chapter as a whole is just a very interesting concept, in that a clean, well-made site will attract a different audience than something loaded with glitter gifs. Minimalism doesn't always mean a site is good, because like kujo said: Ball State's website looks pretty on the surface, but is kind of shoddy when it comes down to its user-friendliness.
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A section I found interesting was the part on organizing files and directories on the server. It would not be a good idea to cram three web pages worth of data and images into one folder because it will become nearly unmanageable. It is good to have a structure of folders so you will know where pictures are, where data is, etc. Its good to be organized when making a web page.
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