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Barbara Day

How to Turn Your Summer Reading List into Book Spine Poetry > Virtual Learning Connecti... - 0 views

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    I think we should try this when we straighten up our classroom library. Then we can use the iPads to take pictures of them.
Andrea Compton

ollie_4: Building a Better Mousetrap - 1 views

    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      I understand why teachers want to allow students freedom to be creative in the process of completing a product that demonstrates learning, but the fact is that without the criteria for completion and mastery (two rubric dimensions) students won't know what exactly it is they are supposed to demonstrate to prove learning. Additionally, most students don't know where to go with a new product to demonstrate learning and to be creative with it. If they had that kind of mastery of a product/learning then they wouldn't have to be taught it in the first place. Rubrics or some identification of critical elements that demonstrate that learning has happened on the standards necessary is vital. 
    • Mary Overholtzer
       
      Your comment about students not knowing where to go with a new product is huge. I have found that "regurgitation" of others notes/lectures/explanations/ideas seem to come through for many students. That creative component is difficult
  • rubrics their institution developed can be used to reliably
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      That's the key; creating valid and reliable rubrics that truly assess what needs to be assessed.
  • ...71 more annotations...
  • well-designed rubrics help instructors in all disciplines meaningfully assess the outcomes of the more complicated assignments that are the basis of the problem-solving, inquiry-based, student-centered pedagogy
  • “Meaningfully” here means both consistently and accurately
    • Mary Trent
       
      This is the key! Sometimes feels like an unsolvable puzzle!
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      Very true. I am guilty of not always being consistent from student to student. Rubrics help, but also for me to complete the grading of an assignment in one sitting :)
    • Mary Overholtzer
       
      As an educator, I have the tendency to place in my rubric.....teacher impression in comparison to the peer group. Yes, that is one area students do not like because the view it as "opinion". This is usually from my A students who want the path of least resistance.
    • Pam Rust
       
      I love rubrics because it not only helps me be consistent but it makes very clear my expectation on an assignment/project. If they ask a question I can often say, "refer to your rubric".
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      "...consistently and accurately" this is vital!
  • “latticing,” or “scaffolding”—if they are shared with students prior to the completion of any given assignment.
  • rubrics can help the student with self-assessment;
  • the habits of mind practiced in the act of self-assessment.
  • “Perhaps the greatest potential value of classroom assessment is realized when we open the assessment process up and welcome students into that process as full partners”
  • two basic elements to a scoring rubric
  • the vital “traits,” key qualities, or “dimensions,” to be rated
    • anonymous
       
      Naturally, the traits have to reflect the assignment.
    • anonymous
       
      i agree or the assignments wouldn't match up!
  • “rating scale.
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      I agree that this is powerful. But unfortunately, having the students build the rubric and then complete the product of the rubric becomes very time consuming. It is important to pick and choose when instruction will be furthered by the students' participation in the creation of the rubric and when it is not feasible because of the time commitment and loss of time that would need to be committed to another set of learning goals.
    • Jason Martin-Hiner
       
      I would agree with this. I think it also makes a difference if the purpose of the rubric is for final grading or scaffolding. Students may not have a good feel for the different levels when first tackling a topic/project.
  • withholding assessment tools (whether they are rubrics or more nebulous modes of evaluation) from students is not only unfair and makes self-assessment more difficult
    • Andrea Compton
       
      It is so unfair to students not to give them a rubric for assessment purposes. Without a rubric they are left in the dark to guess what the teachers wants, what the teacher expects, what emphasis the teacher is placing on various parts of the assignment, etc. Rubrics make assessment transparent rather than secretive!
  • best of both worlds here, by designing a rubric on a PC that allows for the easy insertion of assignment specific traits.
    • anonymous
       
      Design multiple templates and then copy/paste as needed.
    • Holly Palmersheim
       
      Is this a skill most teachers possess? It boggles my mind and intimidates me just reading about it.
    • Andrea Compton
       
      I would hope teachers have these skills - if not, they need to develop the skills in order to provide the best assessment procedures possible. There are many available resources - books, classes, etc. - for learning these skills.
  • “Standards, Feedback, and Diversified Assessment: Addressing Equity Issues at the Classroom Level,” reports that extensive use of rubrics can help minimize students’ educational disparities and bring fairness into assessment on numerous levels: “In short, explicit performance criteria, along with supporting models of work, make it possible for students to use the attributes of exemplary work to monitor their own performance.”
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      Yes!
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      Exactly! Get students vested in the assessment.
  • A rubric that tells students, as a typical example, that they will get an A for writing a 1000 word essay that “cites x number of sources and supports its thesis with at least three arguments” will lead students to perceive writing as a kind of “paint-by-number” endeavor (Mathews).
  • longer scales make it harder to get agreement among scorers
  • extremely short scales make it difficult to identify small differences between students.
    • anonymous
       
      Seems to be an argument for something that is 'just right'. I think that would be better for the students also, as they can see what they need to do and not get confused
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      However, that is a poorly written rubric. And perhaps a poorly written rubric with criteria that a student can follow is better than no guidance or standard at all?
  • some rubrics are dumb.’”
    • Andrea Compton
       
      I agree completely! I love the example quoted below - this was one bright and creative student! Some rubrics are dumb, and this is why it is so extremely difficult to develop a "one size fits all" rubric! This is also why I feel teachers should be developing their own rubrics based on the needs and requirements of their subject area and class.
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      Absolutely. "Some rubrics ARE dumb."
  • Analytical or holistic
  • It’s the design
  • A holistic rubric is more efficient and the best choice when criteria overlap and cannot be adequately separated
  • mistake the design of specific rubrics with the concept of rubrics in general.
  • analytical rubric, however, will yield more detailed information about student performance and, therefore, will provide the student with more specific feedback.
  • document, “Best Practices in Student Outcomes Assessment.”
  • If you visit the web page I cut and pasted this from, you will find that each item is hyperlinked to a full explanation of the step.
    • Jason Martin-Hiner
       
      FYI - This seems to be a dead link.
  • “general” or “specific.”
  • “analytic” or “holistic.”
  • weight dimensions
  • Steps in developing a scoring rubric
  • With your colleagues
  • Clearly defining the purpose of assessment and what you want to assess is the first step in developing a quality rubric
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      The collaboration among colleagues to create a rubric can not only create a much more reliable and valid rubric, but can also lead to professional growth (through the discussion) and improved instruction because of the collaboration and growth.
    • Mary Overholtzer
       
      I agree that this collaboration is well suited for bringing reliable and valid data. With the new "collaboration" mandate where we have over 30 hours to collaborate, documenting on Diggio can enhance the situation for true collaboration... :)
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      Mary, that's so true. Diigo and other sharing forums like it will be incredibly helpful as we move to the new collaboration requirements. This is especially true when 30 hours of face-to-face time (depending on how it will ultimately be defined and delineated) might be impossible to find.
  • second step is deciding who your audience is going to be.
  • decide whether you need a rubric
  • purpose of assessment is.
  • a meta-rubric to assess our rubric
    • Mary Overholtzer
       
      Never heard of this til now.
  • . Chicago Public Schools web-site
  • Barbara Moskal, in her article “Scoring Rubrics: What, When, and How?” insists that rubrics should be non-judgmental: “Each score category should be defined using description of the work rather than judgments about the work.
    • anonymous
       
      I think this is important. It will take some careful consideration to phrase statements in a way that is descriptive of the expectation without judging it.
    • Andrea Compton
       
      I agree completely. When a student uses a rubric as a guide to how their work will be assessed it is not possible for them to define our meaning of the word "good" which is why that would not be a reasonable expectation on a rubric.
  • advocates of rubrics at all educational levels have argued that rubrics provide students with clear and specific qualities to strive for in those assignments that “are open-ended, aligned more closely to real-life learning situations and the nature of learning” (Skillings and Ferrell) and mitagate both teacher bias and the perception of teacher bias (Mathews).
    • anonymous
       
      As mentioned earlier, having access to the rubric prior to instruction, and using it to self-evaluate provides the student with more guidance as they do their work.
    • Pam Rust
       
      I think they make grading look more objective then subjective and that should help with students thinking teachers grade them lower than their peers simply because "they don't like me".
    • Mike Todd
       
      I would like to see more resources that specifically show more designs that are for open-ended writing prompts and projects - this kind of student work is often expected to have different elements depending on the project, writing these rubrics is tricky!
    • Jason Martin-Hiner
       
      If the rubric is to be used by multiple teachers/scorers, reliability can be further increased by having "exemplars" of work at various levels and having some combined scoring practice to "calibrate" the scoring...similar to our group task for this week. We use this for scoring the ICAM tests.
  • static elements encouraging students to simply make sure their essays have those features
    • Jason Martin-Hiner
       
      I think there is still a place for a few of these in a rubric - they identify key pieces that are expected in a final project. Unless you're going to have students continually revise until they are at the top level in every category, this kind of thing may be needed from time to time.
    • anonymous
       
      I agree with you that this kind of thing may be needed from time to time to show the students that the essays need to have those features in the paper.
    • Andrea Compton
       
      I agree also, but those are only a small part of a good rubric and shouldn't be the emphasis of the expectation.
  • if you feel that one dimension is more important than another.
    • Jason Martin-Hiner
       
      I always used this to emphasize the main point of the project, but still give some weight to other important pieces, such as organization and mechanics.
    • Brooke Maine
       
      Me also, it seems unbalanced to give the same weight to the non-essential but still important parts of an assignment, rather than weighting the most importart parts higher.
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      I have done weighting before as well. I wonder if this causes some students to play the "points game." If they do the main element really well, can they still get the grade they want and not do the other elements. But I guess the good point would be that they got the main element.
  • Look at some actual examples of student work to see if you have omitted any important dimensions.
    • Mary Trent
       
      I think this is a really good idea. Many times we think our rubric is what we are looking for, but many times we might have missed a key point.
    • Brooke Maine
       
      I find that a lot in my teaching- I will develop a rubric for a specific assignment and then make modifications the next year, if I find something wasn't quite right after I used it to actually grade assignments.
    • Mary Overholtzer
       
      Like both of you, should it be white and black....or lots of gray?
    • Andrea Compton
       
      This is why making a template and being able to make modifications - add and subtract - each year or throughout the year makes things so much easier.
  • educators in all disciplines to assess outcomes in learning situations that require critical thinking and are multidimensional
    • Brooke Maine
       
      I like this quote that explains in very simple terms what rubrics can be used for. It specifies the use of rubrics so educators understand their purpose, to be used for assignments that "require critical thinking and are multidimensional" so educators don't overuse them for the wrong assignments.
  • “on what students have actually learned rather than what they have been taught,”
    • Brooke Maine
       
      I like this quote- it reminds me of another quote that says "If the students didn't learn, did the teacher really teach?" Good food for thought...
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      What a concept! Love to read that this at a post-secondary institution.
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      This is indicative of the changing paradigm from teaching and instruction to focus on learning, and I think that is the correct point of view for teachers/educators to take. I remember when I started teaching 25 years ago and was aghast at the teachers who were still devoted to the Bell Curve. The paradigm then, teach so that only the very top students can understand what you are instructing on, trick the students as much as you can, and, of course, don't worry about the ones who don't get it. We've "come a long way, baby."
  • the rubrics their institution developed can be used to reliably score the performance-based and problem-solving assignments that now form a significant part of the undergraduate engineering curriculum at the University of California at Berkley.
    • Holly Palmersheim
       
      I find this encouraging that rubrics and standards based assessment is being done at a college level.
  • When instructors plan on grading student thinking and not just student knowledge, they should articulate the vital features that they are looking for and make these features known to the student.
    • Holly Palmersheim
       
      I believe this is where it is important to have models of different levels of student work with explanations why the work is at that level.
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      I agree with your comment about having different levels of student work to use as models. Have you tried providing the examples of different levels and letting the students use the rubric to determine which example fits which level? I have tried it a couple of times and it is a big eye opener for students. I need to make a point of doing it more often.
  • they should articulate the vital features that they are looking for and make these features known to the student.
    • Brooke Maine
       
      This sentence is interesting because I have never heard that you shouldn't share rubrics with students- I have always thought students need to have the rubric as they work on the assignment, so it seems obvious that we should make those features known to the student.
    • Pam Rust
       
      Items in a rubric shouldn't be a secret. I go over the rubric with my students so they understand what I want. That way I get what I want!
  • both assess and encourage student learning
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      This is a great reminder that rubrics aren't just used to assess student work, but also to encourage student learning. Often times, I think, rubrics are viewed as a way of assigning a student a grade. When in fact, they should be encouraging students to do well.
    • Lorilee Hamel
       
      Well said.
  • the criteria must be made clear to them and the jargon used must not only be understandable to the student but also be linked specifically to classroom instruction
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      Student friendly language and needs to match what is being done in the classroom. Rubrics become impossible when students don't understand what is being measured or what is expected.
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      Makes self-assessment more difficult as well as creates students that are unsure of the expectations, and inevitably the question, "Is this good enough?".
  • prescriptive rather than descriptive
  • Pilot test your rubric or checklist on actual samples of student work
    • Jodi Leimkuehler
       
      A step I have never done before. My pilot test was always with the first group of students I was using the rubric with. They were my guinea pigs. Keeping samples of student work to pilot test a new rubric on is a great idea.
  • red, “
    • Mary Overholtzer
       
      Red in poetry means love....or murder, blood, death or despair. I know colleagues who "love" rubrics and I know colleagues who struggle to build a rubric that truly shows high expectations for students who "beat the system" by following the rubric, but not truly having the "spark" to the overall outcome.
  • “The instructor’s comments on papers and tests are done after rather than before the writing, so they cannot serve as guidelines, compromising the value of writing comments at all.”
    • Pam Rust
       
      Conveying expectations before starting an assignment helps the student focus as they are completing the assignment. Comments at the end of a paper are useless unless students are allowed to fix their paper after reading the comments. Not sure if the students learn much if they don't get feedback along the way so the final product can be a quality product.
  • When students are full partners in the assessment process, as Mary Jo Skillings and Robin Ferrel illustrate in their study on student-generated rubrics, they tend to “think more deeply about their learning.”
    • Mike Todd
       
      I would really love to do this, but I think this is much easier in a face-to-face class.  I have ideas about how to do this online using Google Docs, similar to how we are doing it now in class.  Anyone have any thoughts about how to do this?
  • Moreover, some teachers have noticed how students who were good writers become wooden when writing under the influence of a rubric.
    • anonymous
       
      Often time kids what to do what they can to get the "A" grade instead of writing with their own style.  We must be careful how we differentiate writing to ensure that kids still write their way.
  • Both types of rubrics benefit the teacher and the student in varying degrees:
    • anonymous
       
      If we can have rubrics that give students enough creativity but following basic forms of writing, we would have the best of both worlds. 
  • , it maintains the traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows
  • When instructors do not explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for while grading, they reduce learning to a hit or miss endeavor, where “assessment remains an isolated […] activity and the success of the learner is mostly incidental”
  • Rubrics can be designed to measure either product or process or both; and, they can be designed with dimensions describing the different levels of that “deep learning” so valued in WAC programs.
  • college faculty need a shared vocabulary and a basic understanding of how rubrics operate.
  • it maintains the traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows
  • mostly
  • 1withholding
  • 1some rubrics
  • you should consider your purpose and audience.
Evan Abbey

Lesson: Articles on Visual Design - 4 views

  • Depending on how a texture is applied, it may be used strategically to attract or deter attention.
    • rmfredrickson
       
      I never thought about "texture" online; what would be an example of a repeated element? A simple picture, or maybe a repeated diagram?
    • darinjohnson
       
      Texture is an interesting element that I generally disregard. However, I remember a literature professor open poetry discussions with questions about texture and taste. He would use such responses to get to the tone of the work. What taste/texture/tone does this course have?
    • Linda Hoobin
       
      Texture...not something I ever pay attention to or maybe even knew about.
  • Spacing makes things clearer.
    • rmfredrickson
       
      I have found this to be true since starting this class; less is more; and the idea of also adding an element of some kind to every page makes a lot of sense to me too. I think about this now as I create ANY kind of presentation page.
    • denise carlson
       
      "Less is more." That sums up nicely what we've been learning.  I know that I have a tendency to be too wordy and thus the page seems way too cluttered. I need to make a concerted effort to utilize the Less is More rule of thumb. 
  • In the last year or so, I've switched to using CSS to make my buttons and have never looked back. Sure, it means my buttons don't always have the flexibility I might wish for, but the savings in build time from not having to make dozens of little button images are huge.
    • rmfredrickson
       
      What does this mean? That in CSS (which I think I missed what that means...) you don't need to give a direction to click on a button to do whatever it is you are wanting it to do? Rather, it is automatically an apparent clickable button?
    • denise carlson
       
      Good question! What is CSS?  I think this is another rule of thumb we might want to add to our web-design rules: Don't assume the reader knows what the abbreviations or acronyms mean. Spell them out and define them so everyone is clear. 
  • ...49 more annotations...
  • Everything should be themed to make your design coherent between pages and on the same page.
    • darinjohnson
       
      Here's one element that we can control and that we should control; however, it is also an element that I sometimes have trouble with. Sometimes it takes me awhile to find my style.
  • Font Choices
    • darinjohnson
       
      What font should we be using? My journalism minor is quite dusty, but I was taught that body copy should be a serif typeface (e.g. Times New Roman, Georgia) and headlines should be a sans-serif typeface (e.g. Arial, Helvetica). Your choice of type might also give you a better grade: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/19604/does-size-12-times-new-roman-font-receive-better-grades-in-school S
  • Squeaky wheels get the grease and prominent visuals get the attention. 
    • darinjohnson
       
      This is a potent quotable.
  • Pantheon
    • darinjohnson
       
      This is off topic, but I can't let it go. This is an image of the Parthenon. The Pantheon is in Rome.
  • it’s a good practice to never open links in new browser windows.
    • darinjohnson
       
      I'm going to give this some thought because this suggestion is opposite of what I generally try to do. I've always thought it was better for readers to close the new linked area. 
    • denise carlson
       
      My too. I like new windows for new material. This seems contrary to my preferences. 
    • Linda Hoobin
       
      It is not the way I think either. I tend to want to separate things so I am not distracted. New windows keep me focused.
    • Evan Abbey
       
      Same here. Especially with Moodle, I try to have it open in a different window so that they don't lose the original course.
  • A typical example from usability sessions is to translate the page in Japanese (assuming your web users don’t know Japanese, e.g. with Babelfish) and provide your usability testers with a task to find something in the page of different language. If conventions are well-applied, users will be able to achieve a not-too-specific objective, even if they can’t understand a word of it.
    • darinjohnson
       
      I saw a Tweet recently suggesting to do something similar: Turn on speech to see if you can navigate on your site without vision. Is the site usable for all?
  • The basic elements that combine to create visual designs include the following:
    • denise carlson
       
      All of this is what is missing from the powerpoint I created for Mollie 3 in the week 2 lab section. 
    • Linda Hoobin
       
      This could/should be my checklist for design!
    • Evan Abbey
       
      To be clear, these elements are always present, even in their absence. That is, even when one has the ugliest colors imagineable, they still are using a color palette. If you are Picasso, you get paid a lot of money for having the absence of these basic elements.
  • and that the medium changes as frequently as the underlying technology does.
    • denise carlson
       
      Oh no, so what I'm learning now will be different in 6 months or one year. I need a suggestion of a good blog or online resource I can use to keep up-do-date with all of the online design developments.
  • To achieve precedence you have many tools at your disposal:
  • To achieve precedence you have many tools at your disposal:
    • denise carlson
       
      These make perfect sense to me. I'm thinking that if I can remember and use these 5 chunks of precedence I would be taken a giant step toward fine-tuning the online lessons I create. 
    • Evan Abbey
       
      One slight difference between the online lesson and the "webpage" this designer is talking about is that there is going to be more stuff on the webpage. An online lesson doesn't have as many elements vying for attention.
  • some pretty bad examples out there.
    • denise carlson
       
      The DE website is a "pretty bad example" if you ask me. (Although there have been improvements made over time.)  There is just SO much there that is difficult for me to find what I want and need. I guess I could use that website as a non-example of effective navigation. 
    • Evan Abbey
       
      True. Of course, Heartland's old website was bad too. That is one of the occupational hazards of people like us who have our fingers in everything.
  • Adhering to Standards
    • denise carlson
       
      So what are some other things people expect? Where might we learn more about these ideas? The one example here is a good one, but now I'm curious about other expectations that I should be aware of. 
  • good set of CSS stylesheets
    • denise carlson
       
      Hmm. . . .what is a CSS style sheet?  So much unfamiliar content specific vocabulary in this article makes me wonder if I'm actually understanding what is being said. 
    • Evan Abbey
       
      A CSS style sheet is a set of rules (in the shape of a bunch of code) that govern a website. It would look like this: All headlines are in Maroon, 24 point, centered All sidebars have a box that is 100 pixels by 80 pixels. Except... in a language we can't understand.
  • Here’s what the golden ratio looks like:
    • denise carlson
       
      But, didn't we read somewhere earlier in the class to place pictures/photos on the left-hand side of  slide? Do these 2 ideas contradict each other? Someone please clarify for me. 
    • Evan Abbey
       
      Well... in our lessons, we advocated for putting them on the right side, as it helps with wrapping of text. Though putting them on the left is not a design faux pas. The "golden ratio" layout is more beneficial for designing a website, where you have grids to place content.
  • This is similar to Paradox of Choice – the more choice you give people, the easier it is to choose nothing.
    • denise carlson
       
      OK, i can see how too many choices is confusing in web design. But as an educator, I want to assure that my students have the freedom to make some choices regarding assignments and activities I ask them to complete in order to show their understanding. How will I balance these 2 ideas when creating online lessons/courses? 
    • Evan Abbey
       
      I think you already answered your question. Design is different than learning choice. It's like the new textbooks that have so much sidebar information that students aren't reading the main text. Too much design choice. In a lesson, you can present students with different learning options (enrichment, accomodated assignments, etc), but keep the webpage consistent.
  • the right is more interesting?
    • denise carlson
       
      I don't think the image on the right is more interesting? What am I missing? 
    • Evan Abbey
       
      "Interesting" is of course subjective. Typically, the rule of thirds means if you move the subject over to the 3rd-line of the picture, the picture shows more dynamics. Instead of "here's this rock formation", it's "Here's the rock formation, in its habitat, and now your eyes are moving over to this side of the photo to examine what is around it"
  • provide an email address if they were asked for it after they’d seen the feature work, so they had some idea of what they were going to get in return.
    • denise carlson
       
      I so agree. If I'm asked for email or other info to enter a site, I just close out. I want some hint of what the site has to offer me before I give them all my info.  Great tip!
    • Linda Hoobin
       
      I steer away if I am asked for identifying information before I can explore the site's information.
    • Evan Abbey
       
      I hate it too. I have an email site dedicated to these throwaway signups that I never check (unless I need to confirm an account). I grumble every time.
  • he more options a user has when using your website, the more difficult it will be to use (or won’t be used at all).
    • rmfredrickson
       
      I agree with this Paradox of Choice; a few good options is better than a lot of medicore ones.
  • The best images follow the rule of thirds: an i
    • rmfredrickson
       
      I have never given this thought before, or had any idea how layout (in thirds) affects someone's perception of a page; fascinating, yet useful!!
  • Users don’t read, they scan. Analyzing a web-page, users search for some fixed points or anchors which would guide them through the content of the page.
    • Evan Abbey
       
      I admit, I was visualizing the scene from Clockwork Orange when thinking about this activity.
  • 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.
  • White space is used around text and between sections to allow the page to breath
    • Evan Abbey
       
      I think white space is probably the most critical attribute for a teacher-designer to master. The simple adding of white space makes the whole thing breathe and makes it look a lot better.
  • Similarity refers to creating continuity throughout a design without direct duplication. Similarity is used to make pieces work together over an interface and help users learn the interface quicker.
  • 9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design
  • Good Web design, perhaps even more than other type of design, is about information.
  • Padding is the space between elements and text. The simple rule here is that you should always have space there.
  • Navigation — Where can you go?
  • Think about user tasks
  • Think about user tasks
  • At the end of the day, your Web design is a tool for people to use, and people don't like using annoying tools!
  • The simplest way to maintain consistency is to make early decisions and stick to them.
  • 8 Effective Web Design Principles You Should Know
  • Design is not just something designers do. Design is marketing. Design is your product and how it works. The more I’ve learned about design, the better results I’ve gotten.
  • So, if your layout width is 960px, divide it by 1.618 (=593px). Now you know that the content area should be 593px and sidebar 367px. If the website height is 760px tall, you can split it into 470px and 290px chunks (760/1.618=~470).
  • With effective web design, you need to make sure things that do NOT go together, are not perceived as one. Similarly, you want to group certain design elements together (navigation menu, footer etc) to communicate that they form a whole.
  • White space is all about the use of hierarchy. The hierarchy of information, be it type, colour or images.
  • Effective web design and art are not the same.
  • Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification.
  • the web-page should be obvious and self-explanatory.
  • Avoid cute or clever names, marketing-induced names, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical names.
  • The “keep it simple”-principle (KIS) should be the primary goal of site design.
  • testing one user is 100% better than testing none
  • if you want a great site, you’ve got to test.
  • Incorporating space into a design helps reduce noise, increase readability, and/or create illusion. White space is an important part of your layout strategy.
    • lwymore
       
      The use of space can be often overlooked or just not something that we always pay attention to.
    • Evan Abbey
       
      Lisa, I agree. In fact, my opinion is its the best place to start, since it is one of the easier elements to understand (not sure I can identify what "good Gestalt" is) and one of the easiest to actually do.
  • White space is used to give balance, proportion and contrast to a page.
  • White space is used to give balance, proportion and contrast to a page.
    • lwymore
       
      Using "white space" as a tool to balance, proportion and contrast on a page; also helps with readability; something to keep in mind when editing and trying to avoid text-heavy pages. Consider how can one use white space to prevent the text from looking too overwhelming.
  • You should direct the user’s eyes through a sequence
    • lwymore
       
      This is the same thing we want to do with self-paced lessons.
  • Aligning makes your design more ordered and digestible, as well as making it seem more polished.
  • Simple, minimal design does not automatically mean the design works, or is effective. But in my experience simple is always better than the opposite
    • lwymore
       
      Clean and simple design can help maintain the balance and consistency needed for effective lessons
jweinreich

9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design - Envato Tuts+ Design & Illustration Tut... - 0 views

    • jweinreich
       
      I'm reminded of that episode of the Simpsons where Homer eventually becomes this "gossip" of Springfield online. His first foray into creating a web site was to find all these weird, loud animations and throw them on a site. Then he got disappointed when no one visited the site. I'd hope I wasn't that poor of a designer, but it's so tempting to just use whatever's out there and difficult to discern what will add to the content and what will distract. (I tried to insert a link to the image, but it didn't work - just search Homer Simpson's first web page, if you're curious)
  • Position — Where something is on a page clearly influences in what order the user sees it.
    • jweinreich
       
      Wasn't there something in a lesson or another article about top left being a dominant position?
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • In fact the opposite is true.
    • jweinreich
       
      Hm. Just like poetry - the white space - the space not filled - can be just as meaningful or important as the space filled.
    • jweinreich
       
      Who the heck is David Carson? OK - I searched him and found his site, and it's really.....difficult to look at -- all tiny words and horizontal scrolling. Yuck. Not for me.
  • page and easy to identify. They
    • jweinreich
       
      And not open another page...and another page....and another page. I've been through more than a few LMS's that do this.
  • CSS layouts
    • jweinreich
       
      ?
    • jweinreich
       
      There's a new font designed to be good for those with dyslexia. Is this commonly available? Easy to use? Would it fit the bill for typography rules?
  • (think about how a newspaper lays out text).
    • jweinreich
       
      I've always wondered why that was...
    • jweinreich
       
      I skimmed this article - I'm still not sure where the author is going with this, but I'm also thinking it probably won't matter in SoftChalk.
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