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Craig Harmon - Designer Manifesto
During the construction process of this web site, I encountered a lot of different obstacles. Most specifically, because I am in the process of constructing a web site for my business that will be seen by many different people, a lot is at stake. Every single decision I made was scrutinized and mulled over to the extreme because of the seriousness of the result.
When I began, the first real issue that I wanted to tackle was the visual theme or design of the web site. And the challenging part was not so much how I could create a design that would make the web site visually appealing, but the business appealing as well; after all, the web site is a directly representative medium for the business.
The first set of decisions I made was which background images to use. I knew that I wanted to use only images that I personally took, so I went through my photo library and scanned through about 100 pictures before I settled on a picture of the open road (taken in upstate New York). I wanted to direct the visitor’s vision forward, as the road travels forward straight to the content of the site.
I already knew, for the most part, how I wanted to design the structure of the web site. I love iFrames, because they offer so much flexibility and help with the structural integrity of the site. This is all that I had planned though; I knew that I wanted a sort of “boxy design” with a border, a header, nav bar, and iframe. I chose the layout also because I did not want the web site to require a large amount of screen real estate, as well as no scroll bars (on the right side of the browser window). After I finished perfecting the layout of the web site, I focused heavily on the look of the images within the box; this presented a large amount of design challenges.
I chose the sky image because I thought it meshed very well with the background image of the road; we have the road and the sky -- day and night. Even though the colors sort of “clash,” I felt they clashed in a good way and provided a good contrast and symbolism to the business: Craig Harmon Multimedia -- versatile design no matter what the project (night or day).
The final decision that I made was the format and color of my text; I wanted to push the envelope a little more and put some space in between the characters because I felt that enhanced readability and added an interesting look to the text. I went with white for the primary text because I felt that it would make the important information stand out a bit more; it was difficult because the sky background is so variable in color; sometimes it goes light, sometimes dark. And I chose black text for the “headers” -- which later proved to be ineffective (in the usability test) because of readibility issues.
The ultimate question is: “what has writing for the web taught me about how to communicate on the web?” I think writing for the web has absolutely helped me to analyze the decisions I make a lot more; and I am extremely happy about that. In the past, I think I just made design decisions on a dime because I thought they looked good and then I simply stopped thinking about it. But this class has taught me a tremendous amount about the amount of thought that a web site requires during the design process to be effective. The usability test assignment was unbelievably useful; this is something that I will do in the professional world as well. Even this assignment is requiring me to write about design decisions I’ve made and truly dissect my thinking process which will result in a better web site in the end. I am very happy that I’ve taken such a useful course.
When I began, the first real issue that I wanted to tackle was the visual theme or design of the web site. And the challenging part was not so much how I could create a design that would make the web site visually appealing, but the business appealing as well; after all, the web site is a directly representative medium for the business.
The first set of decisions I made was which background images to use. I knew that I wanted to use only images that I personally took, so I went through my photo library and scanned through about 100 pictures before I settled on a picture of the open road (taken in upstate New York). I wanted to direct the visitor’s vision forward, as the road travels forward straight to the content of the site.
I already knew, for the most part, how I wanted to design the structure of the web site. I love iFrames, because they offer so much flexibility and help with the structural integrity of the site. This is all that I had planned though; I knew that I wanted a sort of “boxy design” with a border, a header, nav bar, and iframe. I chose the layout also because I did not want the web site to require a large amount of screen real estate, as well as no scroll bars (on the right side of the browser window). After I finished perfecting the layout of the web site, I focused heavily on the look of the images within the box; this presented a large amount of design challenges.
I chose the sky image because I thought it meshed very well with the background image of the road; we have the road and the sky -- day and night. Even though the colors sort of “clash,” I felt they clashed in a good way and provided a good contrast and symbolism to the business: Craig Harmon Multimedia -- versatile design no matter what the project (night or day).
The final decision that I made was the format and color of my text; I wanted to push the envelope a little more and put some space in between the characters because I felt that enhanced readability and added an interesting look to the text. I went with white for the primary text because I felt that it would make the important information stand out a bit more; it was difficult because the sky background is so variable in color; sometimes it goes light, sometimes dark. And I chose black text for the “headers” -- which later proved to be ineffective (in the usability test) because of readibility issues.
The ultimate question is: “what has writing for the web taught me about how to communicate on the web?” I think writing for the web has absolutely helped me to analyze the decisions I make a lot more; and I am extremely happy about that. In the past, I think I just made design decisions on a dime because I thought they looked good and then I simply stopped thinking about it. But this class has taught me a tremendous amount about the amount of thought that a web site requires during the design process to be effective. The usability test assignment was unbelievably useful; this is something that I will do in the professional world as well. Even this assignment is requiring me to write about design decisions I’ve made and truly dissect my thinking process which will result in a better web site in the end. I am very happy that I’ve taken such a useful course.
jhcollier3 |
Latest page update: made by jhcollier3
, Jul 6 2009, 10:36 AM EDT
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