When designing a website a designer needs to decide what is more important to the success of the website; extravagant design or usability.
An extravagant design can be appealing and bring a “wow” factor, but might be difficult to navigate.
A usable design can be an incentive for the user to explore the website in more depth which could result in better sales, but might also be considered boring.
Just like there are many studies on how people shop there are companies that study how people surf the web. Etre.com shows an interesting video on how this happens. http://www.etre.com/usability/eyetracking/showme/
Designing a usable website means designing a site that is:
Easy to navigate and read
Makes the user think he/she is in control
Has certain “key” anchor points
Easily accessible
It is important that the user can get from point A to point B without too much thinking. As such the following should be avoided.
Hidden links
Un-organized content
Complicated instructions
Sign-up restrictions
Greg Edwards has a blog called eyetools http://blog.eyetools.com/ in which he states that small decreases in viewing can cause significant drops in click rates ( the amount of clicks a link gets compared to being viewed) which can result in a significant drop in sales. It is important to get the viewer to the right place fast.
One thing many designers might not think about is color blindness. About 1 in 20 people are color blind and a website that uses colors that are hard to see can be a very frustrating experience. Here is a tool that can be used to show how an image might look like to someone who is color blind http://www.etre.com/tools/colourblindsimulator/
A checklist might help with creating a usable site for your client. I found one on the web, http://www.usereffect.com/topic/25-point-website-usability-checklist it is divided into 4 sections addressing;
Accessibility
Identity
Navigation
Content
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Blog Topic #4 customize this
Blogger.com enables a user to customize their blog to fit with their personal website. There are different options available. The simplest is to sign into your blog and click on the link "customize" at the top right of the preview of your blog.
Once you get to the "layout page" you have the option to change your page elements, fonts and colors, html or choose a new template.
Most of the changes you can make are based on the template, like changing the fonts, colors and page elements.
If you are interested in changing the total look of your page and have a good knowlege of html you can change your page more extensively by editing the html of the page, be careful if you do, there are elements in the html that are crucial to the page working correctly.
If you have a template you made yourself you can upload it to your blog.
The fonts and colors tab is fairly straight forward, however I have tried changing the colors and found it not as user friendly as I thought it should be.
I have used the layout page to upload a banner with some artwork that I had previously done.
Also added a couple of gadgets. Gadgets are extra's that you can add to your blog, some are pre-formatted, like the "box" for followers and the search box feature. others give you the ability to put code snippets onto your blog for the purpose of adding third party functionality.
You could for example add html code to create a link on your blog, or you could use the "link list" gadget.
There are options to add photo's, videos or slideshows to the side navigation of you blog.
In essence the gadgets make it simple to add fun things to your blog even if you have little knowlege of coding.
Once you get to the "layout page" you have the option to change your page elements, fonts and colors, html or choose a new template.
Most of the changes you can make are based on the template, like changing the fonts, colors and page elements.
If you are interested in changing the total look of your page and have a good knowlege of html you can change your page more extensively by editing the html of the page, be careful if you do, there are elements in the html that are crucial to the page working correctly.
If you have a template you made yourself you can upload it to your blog.
The fonts and colors tab is fairly straight forward, however I have tried changing the colors and found it not as user friendly as I thought it should be.
I have used the layout page to upload a banner with some artwork that I had previously done.
Also added a couple of gadgets. Gadgets are extra's that you can add to your blog, some are pre-formatted, like the "box" for followers and the search box feature. others give you the ability to put code snippets onto your blog for the purpose of adding third party functionality.
You could for example add html code to create a link on your blog, or you could use the "link list" gadget.
There are options to add photo's, videos or slideshows to the side navigation of you blog.
In essence the gadgets make it simple to add fun things to your blog even if you have little knowlege of coding.
Blog topic #7
What is Net Neutrality, who benefits and who doesn’t?...you decide
For the amount of people that use the internet today, most people have no idea what Net Neutrality means.
The internet first came into our homes via existing telephone lines that were owned by companies like Pac Bell and AT&T. Cable companies soon joined the internet rush and started delivering the internet to our homes via television cables.
Today we can receive our internet via phone wires, cable, satellite or mobile devices using a single copper wire (telephone line), multiple copper wires (cable) or fiber optics (a technology that delivers information by sending light through optical fibers).
The different technologies used to deliver internet services have an impact on how fast data is transferred to and from our computers. Most of us remember the days that it took forever to download a page from the internet because we had a “dial-up” connection. The optimal delivery method is fiber optics.
The measurement of high standards in internet technology is how fast we can download/upload to and from the internet. According to the (OECD), Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development, the United States has dropped in rank to the 19th place in internet technology and is rapidly dropping lower.
Speed and content contribute to our internet experience and as such the quality of those are important to both the consumer and owner of the information.
So how is it that we dropped from 1st place in internet technology to the 19th place?
In the early 2000’s the United States wanted to build a fiber optic network to enable high speed internet for millions of internet users. The question was: who was going to pay for this? The telecom companies offered to pay up if they could receive special tax breaks and would be allowed to charge internet users more for its basic services.
In 2006 the telecom companies had not lived up to their promises and fell far behind the rest of the modern world in upgrading the United States’ internet technology. The 125 billion dollars in tax breaks and 128% increase in profits had not produced any kind of acceleration in internet technology.
The handful of telecom companies who own the internet pipelines and therefore control of the flow of information are now complaining that the internet is getting too congested and that there is a need for a separate faster information pipeline that could be used by preferred companies that would pay an extra fee for its usage.
When the internet only used telephone wires for the transmission of information the common carrier rules of the telephone companies applied. This, by default made sure that there was no discrimination or preferential treatment given to any content that was being transmitted over the web. In essence Net Neutrality was a built-in feature of the internet.
However, now that there are different methods of transmission, the telecom companies feel that they might make use of the loophole that has developed as a result of new technologies for the transmission of data to which the common carrier rules do not apply. This puts Net Neutrality on the chopping block.
Last year I tried to browse to one of my favorite websites and received the “unable to display webpage” screen. I later found out that my ISP (sprint) was involved in a lawsuit with the ISP of my favorite website. Sprint had disabled all websites that were hosted by this other ISP. (For 4 days I was unable to bring up the website
Even though these companies own the lines of communication, they should not be allowed to tamper with the information that is being sent or received. And no matter how big or small the sender or receiver of such information is, the telecom companies must remain impartial to the parties that use the internet structure. Net Neutrality must be maintained as part of the basic structure of the internet.
Users of the internet should be wary of the telecom companies’ request to charge higher fees for higher speeds.
Large companies, who are able to foot the extra charge, already have expensive websites and notoriety would thrive under these conditions. They could potentially dictate the majority of the content on the internet only because users would prefer to download from a faster website than from a slower one, not to mention a user might be totally blocked from any website deemed “controversial” by the ISP.
Telecom companies would be able to pick and choose which websites internet consumers would be able to access by giving their partners preferential treatment. Since most of the telecom companies own large media companies, consumers could end up only seeing the un-educational, sensationalized and propagandist material available on T.V., while content rich, educational, relevant and diverse materials and opinions would be suppressed.
The telecom companies contend that Net Neutrality stands in the way of upgrading our internet structure and keeping up with internet technology because nobody will pay for the upgrades, even though they have received a tremendous amount of tax breaks and an increase in revenue from internet consumers.
It would be a sad day in internet history if Net Equality is not guaranteed. Freedom of information and the ability to be heard equally is the foundational premise of the internet and should not be messed with.
Resources:
www.savetheinternet.com
www.niemanwatchdog.org
www.teletruth.com
www.newnetworks.com/
www.opposingviews.com
www.youtube.com Part one and two from PBS NOW
www.handsoff.org/blog/
For the amount of people that use the internet today, most people have no idea what Net Neutrality means.
The internet first came into our homes via existing telephone lines that were owned by companies like Pac Bell and AT&T. Cable companies soon joined the internet rush and started delivering the internet to our homes via television cables.
Today we can receive our internet via phone wires, cable, satellite or mobile devices using a single copper wire (telephone line), multiple copper wires (cable) or fiber optics (a technology that delivers information by sending light through optical fibers).
The different technologies used to deliver internet services have an impact on how fast data is transferred to and from our computers. Most of us remember the days that it took forever to download a page from the internet because we had a “dial-up” connection. The optimal delivery method is fiber optics.
The measurement of high standards in internet technology is how fast we can download/upload to and from the internet. According to the (OECD), Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development, the United States has dropped in rank to the 19th place in internet technology and is rapidly dropping lower.
Speed and content contribute to our internet experience and as such the quality of those are important to both the consumer and owner of the information.
So how is it that we dropped from 1st place in internet technology to the 19th place?
In the early 2000’s the United States wanted to build a fiber optic network to enable high speed internet for millions of internet users. The question was: who was going to pay for this? The telecom companies offered to pay up if they could receive special tax breaks and would be allowed to charge internet users more for its basic services.
In 2006 the telecom companies had not lived up to their promises and fell far behind the rest of the modern world in upgrading the United States’ internet technology. The 125 billion dollars in tax breaks and 128% increase in profits had not produced any kind of acceleration in internet technology.
The handful of telecom companies who own the internet pipelines and therefore control of the flow of information are now complaining that the internet is getting too congested and that there is a need for a separate faster information pipeline that could be used by preferred companies that would pay an extra fee for its usage.
When the internet only used telephone wires for the transmission of information the common carrier rules of the telephone companies applied. This, by default made sure that there was no discrimination or preferential treatment given to any content that was being transmitted over the web. In essence Net Neutrality was a built-in feature of the internet.
However, now that there are different methods of transmission, the telecom companies feel that they might make use of the loophole that has developed as a result of new technologies for the transmission of data to which the common carrier rules do not apply. This puts Net Neutrality on the chopping block.
Last year I tried to browse to one of my favorite websites and received the “unable to display webpage” screen. I later found out that my ISP (sprint) was involved in a lawsuit with the ISP of my favorite website. Sprint had disabled all websites that were hosted by this other ISP. (For 4 days I was unable to bring up the website
Even though these companies own the lines of communication, they should not be allowed to tamper with the information that is being sent or received. And no matter how big or small the sender or receiver of such information is, the telecom companies must remain impartial to the parties that use the internet structure. Net Neutrality must be maintained as part of the basic structure of the internet.
Users of the internet should be wary of the telecom companies’ request to charge higher fees for higher speeds.
Large companies, who are able to foot the extra charge, already have expensive websites and notoriety would thrive under these conditions. They could potentially dictate the majority of the content on the internet only because users would prefer to download from a faster website than from a slower one, not to mention a user might be totally blocked from any website deemed “controversial” by the ISP.
Telecom companies would be able to pick and choose which websites internet consumers would be able to access by giving their partners preferential treatment. Since most of the telecom companies own large media companies, consumers could end up only seeing the un-educational, sensationalized and propagandist material available on T.V., while content rich, educational, relevant and diverse materials and opinions would be suppressed.
The telecom companies contend that Net Neutrality stands in the way of upgrading our internet structure and keeping up with internet technology because nobody will pay for the upgrades, even though they have received a tremendous amount of tax breaks and an increase in revenue from internet consumers.
It would be a sad day in internet history if Net Equality is not guaranteed. Freedom of information and the ability to be heard equally is the foundational premise of the internet and should not be messed with.
Resources:
www.savetheinternet.com
www.niemanwatchdog.org
www.teletruth.com
www.newnetworks.com/
www.opposingviews.com
www.youtube.com Part one and two from PBS NOW
www.handsoff.org/blog/
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Topic#2 Resource websites
I started last fall taking Photoshop, Illustrator and learning basic HTML. While I was learning alot at school I still needed to do research on the internet to be able to implement certain designs I had in mind. during the course of this past year I have added multiple sites to my favorites section from website design, Adobe tutorials, to creative websites where I could post my work and recieve critiques.
ArtSig and PhotoSig are interactive websites that allow you to post works at a rate equal to giving critiques, the more critiques you write the more points you score and the more works you may post.
Free webite Templates is a great place to go if you need a quick design for a webpage. There are literally hundreds of free websites to choose from AND they do not require a link to their website.
colourlovers is a great website to find off the wall colors and patterns. Again this is an interactive website that allows users to add patterns and colors.
Free digital photographs As a student you may use the free photographs for any school project. the photos are of medium web quality and are usually a decent size. Just remember if you use the photographs for any comercial work, you will need to adhere to their terms and conditions for usage.
World Wide Web Consortium If you really want to keep up with what is going on with web and how it is changing. W3C is dedicated to working with organizations and the public to create web standards. They also have a great free tutorial section
Free Java script is abundant on the internet, this is just one of the sites that I have looked through for some extra effects.
Here is another free javascript website
ArtSig and PhotoSig are interactive websites that allow you to post works at a rate equal to giving critiques, the more critiques you write the more points you score and the more works you may post.
Free webite Templates is a great place to go if you need a quick design for a webpage. There are literally hundreds of free websites to choose from AND they do not require a link to their website.
colourlovers is a great website to find off the wall colors and patterns. Again this is an interactive website that allows users to add patterns and colors.
Free digital photographs As a student you may use the free photographs for any school project. the photos are of medium web quality and are usually a decent size. Just remember if you use the photographs for any comercial work, you will need to adhere to their terms and conditions for usage.
World Wide Web Consortium If you really want to keep up with what is going on with web and how it is changing. W3C is dedicated to working with organizations and the public to create web standards. They also have a great free tutorial section
Free Java script is abundant on the internet, this is just one of the sites that I have looked through for some extra effects.
Here is another free javascript website
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Blog Topic #1: Dude, this site is the coolest!
There is one website that boggles my mind. Many of you have probably heard about it in the news.
This interactive website integrates the real world with a virtual world, it uses real life people with real life events to create fictional living for virtual people. You might ask yourself, "why would I want to do this?", well the answer is simple, Whatever you can do, or ever have wished to do in real life you can (pretty much) accomplish in this virtual life. You can have your own business and make (real) money. Sell your artwork or photographs, design clothing and sell it to other virtual people, or give classes on a subject you are accomplished in. The website is
http://www.secondlife.com/This interactive website integrates the real world with a virtual world, it uses real life people with real life events to create fictional living for virtual people. You might ask yourself, "why would I want to do this?", well the answer is simple, Whatever you can do, or ever have wished to do in real life you can (pretty much) accomplish in this virtual life. You can have your own business and make (real) money. Sell your artwork or photographs, design clothing and sell it to other virtual people, or give classes on a subject you are accomplished in. The website is
You will have to sign up for a free account to get into the virtual world of Second Life.
This site is cutting edge as it allows users to interact with the website and other users by letting them create art, clothing, homes, businesses. It also allows the user to purchase land, buildings which they then can develop or resell.
Second Life is run by Linden lab and uses 3D technology with interactive software to run the website. They are now in the process developing open protocols so that others can run part of the grid. The Architecture Working Group was developed to gather independents to write the open protocols in a group effort.
Many big companies use Second Life to develop marketing tools and test the market, really the sky is the limit!
References:
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