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Exploring Web Design. Chapter 1. Objectives. Develop a new perspective of the WWW Learn what makes a website good or bad Discover how to apply objective rules to subjective matters Begin to deconstruct the elements of a web page. Perspective. WWW is full of poorly designed webs
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Exploring Web Design Chapter 1
Objectives • Develop a new perspective of the WWW • Learn what makes a website good or bad • Discover how to apply objective rules to subjective matters • Begin to deconstruct the elements of a web page
Perspective WWW is full of poorly designed webs Our pages can be well designed
Critiquing Websites (1) • You are a web user • Watch for other people’s mistakes • Pay attention to what you like/dislike
Critiquing Websites (2) • Questions to ask: • Do I like the way this site looks? • Can I tell what the site is about? • Does the design seem appropriate to what the site is about? • Can I find what I’m looking for easily?
Critiquing Websites (3) • Don’t limit yourself to websites. Look at the layout and design of: • Newspapers • Magazines • Textbooks
What is your message? • The WWW is a communication tool • Ask: • What message are you sending? • Will they understand the message? • How am I expressing the message?
About Colors When viewing or creating websites ask: • How do the colors make me feel? • Can I read the text? • Are the colors loud or dull? (eye candy vs. bland corporate) • Do the colors look good together?
Your Opinion You may have an opinion about a website. That’s great, but try to substantiate your likes/dislikes objectively using your training. Be specific!
Web Color Limitations • 3 colors: Red, Green & Blue (RGB) • These three colors, in various combinations, are capable of creating millions of colors. • 216 colors in common between Windows and Macs • No longer an issue
Raster Images (1) • JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG • Also called bitmapped images • Composed of pixels • Windows displays 96 dpi pixel resolution • Do NOT scale well
Vector Images (1) • WMF, EWMF, SWF, PDF • Composed of dots and vectors • They scale well (enlarge) • Have independent resolution
Common Web File Formats • JPEG • GIF • PNG • SWF • PDF
JPEG • Joint Picture Experts Group • Lossy • Highly compressed • No transparency channel • 16.7 million colors • Used for photos and gradients
GIF • Graphics Interchange Format • Lossless • Highly compressed • Have a transparency channel • 2 to 256 colors • Can cause banding in flesh tones/gradients • Used for logos and images with few colors
PNG • Portable Network Graphics • Lossless • Highly compressed • Tranparency channel • Create raster and vector images • Still not used as widely and JPEG/GIF
Animation • JPEG’s do not animate • GIF and PNG may be animated • Animation increases file size • Take longer to load • Use ONLY where appropriate to grab attention