Principles of Web Design

Here are the principles of web design based on these three articles:

1. http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/
2. http://www.sitepoint.com/article/principles-beautiful-web-design
3. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-
   principles-of-effective-web-design/
4. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/09/27/
   10-usability-nightmares-you-should-be-aware-of/

The general principles of design apply:

1 Balance

• Symmetrical
• Asymmetrical

2 Rhythm & Repetition

• Regular
• Flowing
• Progressive

3 Proportion

4 Dominance

• Dominant
• Sub-dominant
• Sub-ordinate

5 Unity

• Closure
• Continuance
• Similarity, Proximity and Alignment

Related Concepts:

• Contrast or Opposition
• Positive and Negative Space
• Rule of Thirds
• Visual Center
• Color and Typography

The basic rules of usability and common sense:

• a clear, self-explanatory navigation,
• precise text-presentation,
• search functionality and
• visible and thought-out site structure.

Principles Of Effective Web Design:
1. Don’t make users think
2. Don’t squander users’ patience
3. Manage to focus users’ attention
4. Strive for feature exposure
5. Make use of effective writing
6. Strive for simplicity
7. Don’t be afraid of the white space
8. Communicate effectively with a “visible language”
9. Conventions are our friends
10. Test early, test often

WebPage Anatomy:

1. Containing Block (1)
2. Logo (2)
3. Navigation (Small green boxes)
4. Content (4)
5. Footer(5)
6. Whitespace (6)
7. Grid Theory
8. Rule of Thirds
9. Column Navigation (Left (3), Right, or Three Column)

Fresh Trends:

• Expansive footer navigation
  
  
• Three-Columns with content first
  
  
• Resizing: Fixed width VS. liquid width
  
  
• Variable Fixed width layout
  
  
• Screen Resolution

Things to Avoid!

• Hidden log-in link.
• Pop-ups for content presentation.
• Dragging instead of vertical navigation.
• Invisible links.Visual noise.
• Dead end.
• Content blocks layering upon each other.
• Dynamic navigation.
• Drop-Down Menus.
• Blinking images.
• Don't use pop-ups.
• Don't change users window size.
• Don’t use too small font sizes.
• Don’t have unclear link text.
• Don’t have dead links.
• Have at most one animation per page.
• Make it easy to contact you.
• Links should open in the same window.

Internship Cont.

So it's my third week at flip I really really like the people here but everyone's so busy with all their deadlines that they barely have time for me.
But they're really really really nice and very helpful when i ask them questions.
So... i've been going around asking random people if they've needed any help no matter how small (as long as bringing coffee wasnt involved)

- I've ended up editing this website's design on photoshop
- Doing QA (Quality Assurance) for this other website which was in Arabic so i had a great advantage helping them out there.
-I've done lots of screen shots and picture searching for them too lol which ,apparently, was a great help.

So yea, im still currently working on my own personal project in which i have to design my own site.


- It starts with a brief and creating my logo( upper right)

- Then the site map

- Then WIREFRAMES -the basic layout of the pages -Which as you all now know i hate. to do that I've been having to use this program called omnigraffle pro (which is good because now i at least have basic knowledge of it)

- After that - the fun part - the design =D

Yaaaay

The cycle goes like this :

Initiate
Research
Design
Build
Deploy
Issues
Evolve

Basically. A website doesnt just stop at making it "live" (putting it out on the internet) you still have to fix the bugs and keep maintaining it.

Wireframes

I Hate them

They are the most annoying thing i've ever had to do

and redo

and redo

and redo

and redo

and redo

....

A week's Internship @ Flip

Hiyaz,

Well i've done a week's worth of internship @ FlipMedia.
I've been given my own laptop to work own, An Email Address and A fingerprint to enter the workplace =P
Slowly but surely i'm learning more about website development and design.
I've learnt alot of new terminology like wireframes (basically the website layout)
And im trying to teach myself how to use Omni graffle Pro (as i was only given a tiny crash course on it)
To tell you the truth i was hoping to do alot more alot faster.
But anyways the people are nice and the workplace is as well.
Currently, i've been given a "project" in which i have to make my own website portfolio
So ive done a brief, a sitemap , and now im working on the wireframes.
I wish i had had to chance to have taken an advanced course in this stuff though!

Anyways, i am enjoying myself. 5 weeks left including this one.
I really really really wanna be able to learn news things. Fast. AND be given the chance to be helpful and productive. well i was able to once.

Yalla we'll see what happens!

More later =)

A "fake" website

The otherday i was ckecing my Facebook account and found that i had three similar messages in my inbox that went something like this:

hey pplz...A web site that is willing to pay 50$ for just registering, and also 1$ for each person you invite and join....its really amazing :D.... please register before 31/3 by clicking the following linkwww.diabian1.dubaimlm.complz ppl do it for me ill appreciate it a lot..LOVE U ALL....its only gna take 2 mnts..n we both profit from it..when u register i get 50$ n u do too..THX...

http://www.facebook.com/share_redirect.php?h=c6db31eb7239e64798603f6a3e3dac50&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diabian1.dubaimlm.com&sid=10913122962
http://www.diabian1.dubaimlm.com/

Of course it seemed too good to be true, HONESTLY... DUBAI? giving away money?! No way!

So i went to check out this website here's what it looked like:

A few things to note:

Poor design, ugly banner ads, bad layout.... among others.

I would rather be caught dead than send an email begging people to log on to this website so that i can make money.

But let me tell you one thing, im sure they ended up with a huge traffic count! Dubai has bad traffic even online =P

Well anyways, you can check it out for yourselves if you have nothing else better to do.