Web Design

One of the more interesting trends in this election is the use of the Web to communicate, discuss and debate, raise funds, what have you. Browse the Web for political sites -- the formal ones of the Democratic and Republican Parties and main candidates (look for Ralph Nader too), and then go off to the ones created by individuals or groups. Check out some of the online magazines and zines. Share with us the most interesting two sites that you find. (Required)

Lois

There is much that you can learn from each other. What do you like about your classmates pages? What suggestions would you make? Giving and receiving helpful criticism is all part of the design process.

Hi,

Read the Blog at Asterisk. You can react here.....

Lois

J.J. Garrett talks about the different levels of design. The first two we've read about are strategy and scope. Pick two Web sites from last week -- one you liked and one you were baffled by -- and reassess them by Garrett's discussion. Remember that these two are not necessarily visible, but underlie the whole operation. What can you infer about strategy and scope from visiting the sites. Think about what the designer is trying to do, and then whether they accomplished it.

What did you learn from exploring the Web sites this week? Share one idea that you saw that you'd like to try. (Be sure to tell us what site you saw it at.)

This week's readings include a basic design essay (compare it to Frey's piece), and several sites about color. If you could come up with three rules to live by in regards to color, what would they be? (Explore the sites first!)

One of the things that always concerns me is will a first time visitor know where they've landed at? These sites have lots of interesting stuff, but I've been visiting there since Wired was only a paper magazine. (Have you ever seen it?) Were you confused when you followed the link? How long did you stay confused? What did you find interesting about the site? Frustrating?

Welcome to the blog for the CWU Introduction to Online Design (Com 306). You can visit the web page for the course for more information about the actual class.

At this blog, we will be evaluating and critiquing Web design as a way of learning to do better on our own pages. Each week we'll be looking at a different segment of Web pages. Stay tuned!

Lois Breedlove
Associate Professor, Communication
breedlov@cwu.edu