Lesson: Articles on Visual Design - 2 views
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Instead, it enhances it by engaging users and helping to build trust and interest in the brand.
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Pam Buysman on 05 Mar 16I think the key word is enhances. Content has to be most important and the layout and design of the website has to be secondary. It's important to make sure that the website itself doesn't overpower or overwhelm the message.
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You should direct the user’s eyes through a sequence of steps. For example, you might want your user to go from logo/brand to a primary positioning statement, next to a punchy image (to give the site personality), then to the main body text, with navigation and a sidebar taking a secondary position in the sequence.
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One of my worst habits is making low-contrast text. It looks good but doesn't read so well, unfortunately. Still, I seem to do it with every Web site design I've ever made, tsk tsk tsk.
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There are many things to consider about readability. The thing that stands out for me is that very frequently, simple is better. Fonts might look attractive, but often it is best to stick with tried and true fonts and also tried and true colors. Obviously, if the reader is unable to read your site, they won't see what you want them to.
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When a user comes to your site what are they actually trying to do? List out the different types of tasks people might do on a site, how they will achieve them, and how easy you want to make it for them.
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Keeping your design consistent is about being professional. Inconsistencies in a design are like spelling mistakes in an essay. They just lower the perception of quality. Whatever your design looks like, keeping it consistent will always bring it up a notch. Even if it's a bad design, at least make it a consistent, bad design.
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Hierarchy does not only come from size. Amazon makes the ‘Add to cart’ button more prominent by using color
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In other words, the bigger an object and the closer it is to us, the easier it is to use it.
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The best images follow the rule of thirds: an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.
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I don't know much about photography, but I have heard about the rule of thirds. Again, something I didn't really think this when I considered adding photos to a web site or to a Soft Chalk page. Not all photos automatically ascribe to the rule of thirds, so it might be helpful to know a little bit about photo editing as well. Just one more thing to consider!
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Notice how you could see the dog without focusing on each black spot that the dog consists of?
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Content is more important than the design which supports it.
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Users are rarely on a site to enjoy the design; furthermore, in most cases they are looking for the information despite the design.
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according to Weinberg’s law, a developer is unsuited to test his or her code
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A successful visual design does not take away from the content on the page or function
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Texture refers to how a surface feels or is perceived to feel.
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the user should be led around the screen by the designer. I call this precedence, and it's about how much visual weight different parts of your design have.
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Most users search for something interesting (or useful) and clickable; as soon as some promising candidates are found, users click. If the new page doesn’t meet users’ expectations, the Back button is clicked and the search process is continued.
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web-page should be obvious and self-explanatory.
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It's important for me to remember all of these tools...moving from a face to face environment to an online setting is vastly different, and these tools are what I as a student need, so I need to be incorporating them as well. Without a good position, color that catches my eye and various design elements I've lost interest. If I've lost interest with the lack of tools, then so will my students.
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One of the most frustrating experiences you can have on a Web site is being unable to figure out where to go or where you are
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One of the most frustrating experiences you can have on a Web site is being unable to figure out where to go or where you are
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This is so interesting and I've noticed the importance of this "white space" as I've been looking at Softchalk lessons. It also reminds me how we've learned that when designing our lessons, using shorter paragraphs (separated by white space) is better than traditional paragraphs given on a handout in a face to face classroom.
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Users don’t read, they scan.
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I know this is true of students, but as adults we are the same way! We know what we need to read well and give our full attention and then there are other things that we scan to find what we need. This is an important skill for students to learn, so having an online lesson set up well will be beneficial.
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Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification.
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This is so true as well and it's important for me to remember as I move forward with my Softchalk lesson - if they can't figure out how to move around, they will become frustrated and give up. It's not that we should not teach them to problem solve, but the training in how to move around the lesson will be important.
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White space is an important part of your layout strategy.
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the first thing you see is the logo
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Buttons to travel around a site should be easy to find - towards the top of the page and easy to identify. They should look like navigation buttons and be well described. The text of a button should be pretty clear as to where it's taking you.
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Buttons or menus across the top of a webpage are very helpful when it comes to navigating a website. One issue I've had is that sometimes my buttons make sense to me, but to the new visitor the language I use to explain where it is taking the visitor doesn't make sense. Take for example, on our website we have something called "Instructor Center". This is the place our instructors who teach PD for us go to get information. To me this makes complete sense. That being said, I know that we consistently get questions about where to find instructor information. The label, "instructor center" doesn't resonate with the visitor. I have seen websites where there is a brief description appears on the screen when you roll over the button, but before you click. I'm not sure if these things help or if they add clutter.
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Occam’s Razor states that the simplest solution is usually best.
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The higher is the cognitive load and the less intuitive is the navigation, the more willing are users to leave the web-site and search for alternatives.
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This makes me think of what I call the "learning curve". If the learning curve is to long, people just move on to find something different that doesn't have this learning curve. Take for example graphic design tools. Over the years, I've downloaded gimp and seashore, but for some reason I've never quite gotten the hang of them. Instead I use a web-based tool called pixlr. It is easy and I've met with some success. That being said, would Gimp or Seashore provide me with more options and features, probably, but the learning curve is steeper so I've chosen to use pixlr. When I think of learners, I wonder how we can scaffold things so that the learning curve isn't so steep.
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Unity has to do with all elements on a page visually or conceptually appearing to belong together. Visual design must strike a balance between unity and variety to avoid a dull or overwhelming design.
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Line Spacing
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back and revise earlier pages to match later ones exactly
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rank elements on your website based on your business objective
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the more choice you give people, the easier it is to choose nothing.
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a maximum of 18 words or 50-80 characters per line of text.
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Dominance focuses on having one element as the focal point and others being subordinate. This is often done through scaling and contrasting based on size, color, position, shape, etc.
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I have a background in graphic design, and have taken many design courses. It always amazes me how the terms in the elements and principles of design change, depending on who is discussing them. This is the first I've heard of "dominance", as I learned this as "emphasis". Regardless, the elements and principles of design are critically important to all educators, because embedded in the Iowa Core ELA standards is the concept of visually literacy skills. I do include parts learning about the elements and principles of design in several of the online courses I teach.
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Typography
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"Typography" -https://diigo.com/08f26r I'm curious about different typography. I was always told to use very readable font and avoid anything fancy.
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People won’t use your web site if they can’t find their way around it.
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White space is good.
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reduce the cognitive load
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golden ratio looks like
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Enough white space makes a website look ‘clean’. While clean design is crucial to communicating a clear message, it doesn’t just mean less content. Clean design means a design that makes the best use of the space it is in. To make a clean design, you have to know how to communicate clearly by using white space wisely.
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Enough white space makes a website look ‘clean’. While clean design is crucial to communicating a clear message, it doesn’t just mean less content. Clean design means a design that makes the best use of the space it is in. To make a clean design, you have to know how to communicate clearly by using white space wisely.