So, here we are. The first post for the class. This week’s reading were the first two chapters and the blog chapter of Creating Websites: The Missing Manual and the preface for The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. A few sites were also given for us to review.
I found both Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual and The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, at the very least, what I’ve read so far, to be excellent texts with regards to their purpose due to how easy they are to understand. The books are not bogged down by technical terms, nor are the texts dry and boring to read. The chapters of Creating Websites for this week was also a good review of the basic HTML skills and on Blogger that I haven’t dusted off and used in a while.
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design site follows its parent book in simplicity and ease of use. It was most helpful as a short summary and introduction to the text. The choice of colors also makes for not only a pretty and simple website, it also serves as an excellent highlight to the principles the book discusses. It is also very user-friendly, since it is easy to navigate and offers the option of turning off the “funnery.”
The website for the Missing Manual was also a helpful supplement, though I found the layout to be less user friendly, due to the fact that the list of chapter links are long and cannot be collapsed. The length gives the site a more disorganized feeling. Not that it isn’t user-friendly, just that compared to the Principles site it is less so.
Despite freeware having more appeal to my inner miser and the programs seem to be easy to understand from what I’ve read, I will use Adobe Dreamweaver for this class, though should Dreamweaver arrive late I will use KompoZer and GIMP. I’m also Also, is the NVU page supposed to be like that?
The 2Advanced Studio site was impressive. The menu design was consistent as the user moves from page to page, and the menu titles were easy to understand. The fact that they were drop down also helps. There was also a good use of color to match and contrast with the different wallpapers of each page. The only problem is thee drop down menus sometimes tend to slightly obscure the main viewing area, but it’s not too much of a problem.
I’ve previously visited the Web Pages That Suck site for a previous class. It was very, very helpful in what NOT to do when making a website. I recall one site that managed to violate every principle of usability and design. The Smashing Magazine and FWA sites are also helpful for the opposite reasons, though I find that the Smashing Magazine site could stand to be more compact, since you have to scroll down for more content. It’s more work for the user’s visual processing. The FWA site makes for a simpler and easier to understand site, since everything is compact and more information can be given by moving the cursor over an image or a menu. I do criticize the use of light grey for some of the menu text. It may not be visible to all users in comparison to a darker color.
I’ve decided, obviously, to use the USF blog for this assignment. I’ve already used Blogger and ZohoWriter (eventually settling on Blogger) previously, and I do think they were quite user-friendly. This time, however, I wanted to try out a different blog this time.