1. PBA Front-End Programming Web Design Elements

2. Web design elements For now, we will primarily focus on web design as such Given the – Purpose – Target Audience – Information Architecture – … … create ”good” web page designs

3. Web design elements Overall principle: Simplicity – KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) – Don’t make me think… – Minimal surprise – The user doesn’t want to spend time on our website (usually)

4. Web design elements

5. Design elements to consider – Colors, and other visual elements – Fonts/typefaces – Choice of proper text – Website structure and navigation – Page composition (Gestalt laws) – Using contrast Overview now, details later

6. Web design elements Why are colors important…?

7. Web design elements Vision is (usually) the ”strongest” human sense – primary source of information Humans are good at spotting differences in colors (~10 million hues) Colors and feelings are closely related On a website, colors is the first thing we notice – first impression is important!

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9. Fonts/typefaces – the visual form of text Why is it important…? Practical – must be easy to read textual content on the website Emotional – we also associate certain typefaces with certain feeling, etc..

10. Web design elements The Cocoa Libre Club Ye Olde Pirates Inn

11. Web design elements The Cocoa Libre Club Ye Olde Pirates Inn

12. Web design elements The Cocoa Libre Club Ye Olde Pirates Inn

13. Web design elements Death and Honor

14. Web design elements Different target audiences require different textual formulations and complexties Kids hate long words! Is your site supposed to be – Explicit (Introductory/casual) – Implicit (knowledgable/experienced) – Focused (kids/elderly/ethnic/subculture/…)

15. Web design elements Uhhh, what…?

16. Web design elements How do we divide content into multiple pages? Depends on purpose! Two main structures – Linear – Hierachical Search!

17. Web design elements How do we navigate from one page to another…? …through links! Manifestations of links – Explicit link (www.cnn.com)www.cnn.com – Text link (click here for info)click here for info – Metaphor (picture, icon, symbol,…)

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20. How do we ”put it all together” – how do we compose a good web page? Again, main driver is – KISS – Minimal surprise – Get the users job done

21. Web design elements Gestalt psychology deals with how humans make sense of visual input Gestalt laws: laws (empirical) about how humans assign meaning to collections of visual elements A sort of ”visual grammar”

22. Web design elements Example: Law of Proximity

23. Web design elements Example: Law of Similarity

24. Web design elements Example: Law of Isomorphism

25. Web design elements List of Gestalt Laws – Law of Proximity – Law of Symmetry – Law of Similarity – Law of Common Fate – Law of Continuation – Law of Isomorphism – Law of Closure – Law of Figure-Ground – Law of Focal Point – Law of Simplicity – Law of Prägnanz – Law of Unity

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27. Gestalt laws deal primarily with perception of similar elements Elements are only similar if they are different from something else Making elements that are different or in contrast to other elements is a powerful effect

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29. Types of contrast – Color (several variants) – Size – Shape – Position – Formulation

30. Web design elements