Websites that explore visual designs - Research Paper Example

Running head: ANALYSING WEBSITES Analysing Websites that Explore Visual Designs (Affiliation) Analysing Quality Websites that Explore Visual Designs Almost everyone has access or has the need to surf the Internet for various purposes whether for academics, work or purely for relaxation. It is indeed a challenge to the designers of websites on how they can keep the interest of the users, or how to make the Internet surfers addicted to the site. In this study, we will analyse six quality websites that deals with visual designs of web pages. Michael Bernard's (2003) Criteria for Optimal Web Design (Designing for Usability), noticeably, does not contain any unnecessary hyperlinks that could distract the surfer; Bernard knows exactly who his users are. Being an information website, whose users are most likely students of Computer-related courses or anyone interested in web design, Bernard's text is comprehensible and focused on enhancing the website's usability. Foss identifies four reasons why users get lost within the structure: disorientation, embedded digression problem, "art museum" problem, and poor structure (as cited in Bernard, 2003). Bernard, in turn, presents solutions to these difficulties. To avoid confusion, Bernard suggests organising the site according to thetypical users' mental model of how a site should be organised; submenu titles are also helpful. Since arrangement of links can affect search time, Bernard further recommends link presentation according to category. Bernard adheres to the result of his research. I, personally, find Bernard's webpage easy to use. The navigation cues are visible at the top and the bottom of the page; the title of the next or previous page is also shown when the cursor touches the navigation cues. Access to this site is unbelievably speedy, as well. Just as I clicked on the Enter key the webpage immediately appeared. Rick Oppedisano's (2002) Common Principles: A Usable Interface Design Primer upholds the general principle of usability which is often called "transparent interface" that maximises user task completion and minimises interfering factors. Rieman, Franzke, and Redmiles (as cited in Oppedisano, 2002) discover that "when users perform a transaction or action, their cognition is often split between learning and operating the system or user interface (UI)"; hence, UI has to be well-designed to enable the user to focus more on gaining knowledge than troubling himself into finding out the operating system of the website. For this reason, Oppedisano presents "guidelines for minimising user cognitive processing and maximising interface efficiency." The basic rule for Oppedisano is having a consistent style in layout, font, and other elements. Indeed, as a user the very first thing I notice in a website is its style sheet. Fancy colors, font, and images are good to see but noticeably the fancier it gets the slower the browser becomes. However, Oppedisano's webpage has been created in the simplest form. What is good about Oppedisano's study is ensuring that users are given full concern especially when clicking on a transaction that might have a negative consequence. An ample warning should be in place. However, compared to Oppedisano, User Experience Design Director Mike Padilla (2006) tackles UI design in a more comprehensive manner. The key word in his article about taking the good with the bad UI design is compromise; that is, compromise between the downside and the benefit of certain design decisions. With the use of a table, Padilla has clearly presented the "costs and benefits of design decisions." As in writing an essay, knowing the target audience is a must as it plays a vital role in determining the appropriate writing style; as in designing websites, being able to know the site's target users will also enable the designer to plan and execute a more beneficial design. As Padilla points out, critiques can also find some flaws on a good UI design. What is a high-quality design to a user may appear cluttered; this depends on the age group or profession of an Internet surfer. Padilla strongly opined that to be able to "effectively evaluate the cost and benefit of each design decision that affects the UI, the designer need "to have an insight across many fields, from cognitive psychology to human factors to graphic design." James Saw (2000) discusses the importance of Gestalt theory in design because it "is involved with visual perception and the psychology of art." Artists and designers, whether fashion or web designers, adhere to this principle. Saw presents five gestalt concepts: closure, continuance, similarity, proximity, and alignment. But the most important point that he presented is to maintain a "balance between unity and variety." Saw states too much unity can be boring and redundant while too much variety can cause total disorder in concept. However, gestalt concept merely focuses on the visual presentation, and not the technical aspect that is equally important in designing web page. Nevertheless, the webpage on 2D Design Notes that tackles gestalt has in itself showed a balanced design. The web page has visible navigational cues at the top and the bottom of the page; the page title is stylish yet readable; it also has one thumbnail. The web page utilised very minimal image hence the speed in browsing the site is not affected. Saw further notes if the designer or the artist fully understands the gestalt concepts well, it can help the designer "control unity and variety." WebQuest (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html) is considered as one of the best designed educational websites. Educators from different parts of the globe visit this site to gain knowledge on new techniques in teaching. In fact, its visitor counter reflects that the website has already catered to more than 8.4million users since the year 1998. Despite its colorful home page, navigating to WebQuest is easy with unremarkable speed. It also has a good style; the fonts and words used are comprehensible to everyone even if the user is not a member of the academe. Each page of WebQuest has a different layout. The "overview" is not similar to the "portal" or the page that shows the available training materials. Is it done so the users will not get bored It could be. What is good in it is that every page has a navigational cue back to the homepage. It is a helpful tool because not every user enters directly into the website's homepage. However, it has been noted that the page on "Training Materials" does not have WebQuest's identity; it does not bear a page title. New users may not be able to recognise the website they are browsing especially if they will start navigating to other links. A page title reminds the user of the website that he is currently browsing. On the other hand, the website CoolHomePages.Com (CHP) encourages its users to practice their eyes in critiquing web designs. Most of the web designs submitted for evaluation in this site is created by novice designers seeking the approval of more experienced colleagues. This, as the users themselves critique the designs since there is no better way to learn than see or hear the real examples. The designs are grouped into categories like sports, typography, usability, or futuristic. Topics clustered in a category are easily seen and very user-friendly than arranging the links alphabetically. CHP also features the top websites of the week. It has been noted that most of the good websites have exciting designs in the homepage. But as the user clicks on the link to its contents, the succeeding pages are done with simple and clean designs. However, the web design varies from each other, depending on the kind of services or products that the website will cater. For example, the "new Volkswagen Eos has a rich flash based site as cool as the car itself." Apart from the six websites mentioned above, there are still a lot of other websites where lectures on successfully designing a website or webpage. However, knowledge can be acquired easily when the principles imparted through websites is coupled with actual lectures in the classroom. Reference Bernard, M. (2003). Criteria for Optimal Web Design (designing for usability). Optimal Web Design. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from Oppedisano, R. (2002). Common principles: A usable interface design primer. UPA. Retrieved April 14, 2007, from Padilla, M. (2006). User Interface Design - Taking the Good with the Bad. Digital Web Magazine. Retrieved April 14, 2007, from < http://www.digital-web.com/articles/user_interface_design_taking_the_good_with_the_bad/> Saw, J. (2000). Gestalt. 2D Design Notes. Retrieved April 14, 2007, from Read More