Thursday, April 21, 2011

Week 2 Reading Response

Chapters 3 through 5 were very interesting because it pointed out a lot of issues that are so commonly viewed on websites. The author defines five basic rules for designing websites:

1. Create visual hierarchy
2. Take advantage of convention
3. Break up pages into sections
4. Make it obvious what is clickable
5. Minimize noise

I thought these were excellent rules to go by because it makes the website user friendly and easy to navigate. I most liked the rule about following convention because as a graphic designer who wants to stand out and feels like they need to break convention, its not always the best route. Websites are laid out the way that they are because it works. There are sections developed to be in a certain place and a certain size because it is functional and easy to understand. The last thing that you want to do is turn a customer or employer away just because you changed things so much that the navigation was frustrating. I also agree that minimizing noise and "happy talk" is necessary because no one is going to read it anyways and it allows the viewer to find exactly what they are looking for quickly.

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