A Four-Part Checklist for Creating Successful Web Designs By Matthew Stanton, Metromemetics LLC (first posted 10/12/2002; revised 09/28/2003) Designers tend to label their target audiences by each mediums’ method of delivery. Newspapers and magazines have readers, radio has listeners, television has viewers – all passive activities. The World Wide Web differs in that its audience… Read More »
By Matthew Stanton, Metromemetics (first posted 10/12/2001; revised 01/05/2002) Many “old media” professionals are having a hard time transitioning to the “new media” market. In some cases, the new media threatens the old media. Consider newspapers: Classified adverting sales have been trashed by users flocking to Monster.com for job listings and eBay.com for the universe’s… Read More »
From Interactivity By Design: Creating & Communicating with New Media by Ray Kristof and Amy Satran (1995, Adobe Press; ISBN 1568302215; Amazon | B&N.com) TEXT FEATURE PAPER WORLD SCREEN WORLD Size High-resolution commercial typesetting systems produce crisp, easy-to-read type at all sizes. Eight-point and smaller text is common, with 8,10, and 11-point the most common sizes for… Read More »
From Interactivity By Design: Creating & Communicating with New Media by Ray Kristof and Amy Satran (1995, Adobe Press; ISBN 1568302215; Amazon | B&N.com) Critical Tasks of Information Design Define goals for the product Define what the audience wants to do Decide how the product will reach its audience Choose the authoring tool Create a content inventory… Read More »
From Alison J. Head’s DesignWise: A Guide for Evaluating the Interface Design of Information Resources (1999, Information Age Books; ISBN 0-910965-31-5; Amazon | B&N.com) Individual pages of a site have a consistent and simple layout so that users with visual impairments or blind users using screen readers can more quickly navigate through a page and find the… Read More »
From Robin William’s The Non-Designer’s Design Book (1994, Peachpit Press; ISBN 1566091594;Amazon | B&N.com) Contrast The idea behind contrast is to avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If the elements (type, color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them very different. Contrast is often the most important visual… Read More »
From Alison J. Head’s DesignWise: A Guide for Evaluating the Interface Design of Information Resources (1999, Information Age Books; ISBN 0-910965-31-5; Amazon | B&N.com) To ask about the resource: What main tasks does the resource support? What level of users is the resource aimed at? Is the resource a tool for users with specific expertise (e.g. professional… Read More »
From Interactivity By Design: Creating & Communicating with New Media by Ray Kristof and Amy Satran (1995, Adobe Press; ISBN 1568302215; Amazon | B&N.com)