Introduction
Good Web design is a matter of opinion, but there are principles that many web designers agree about. In this assignment, you will spend a few hours considering different perspectives (including your own). You will pick, research, and answer a question and then discuss it on Blackboard. By the time you finish, you should have a better idea of what factors make a web site attractive and easy to use.
What to Do
WARM UP. Consider a day when you used the Web a lot.
- What kinds of things did you do?
- What makes a web site attractive? How important is this to you?
- What makes a web site easy to use?
- What is most likely to make you click away from a web site?
- What makes you bookmark and return to a web site?
GROUP DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENT. Note that for this discussion assignment, you have been placed in a Blackboard discussion group.
PICK one of the following questions to answer and research using Google (or other search engine) or one of sites listed in the design
section of my Web Developer Links page.
- CHUNKING. What is chunking and how does it help users?
- TYPOGRAPHY. How are typography rules for the Web different than those for print? What are some good font choices for web pages?
- CARP. What is meant by CARP when discussing screen design? You could focus on one of the design principles and describe it in detail or provide some examples.
- BACKGROUNDS. What are some considerations for background colors/images?
- PAGE DIMENSIONS. What dimensions (length and width) should a page be? Why?
- VISUAL HIERARCHY. What is meant by visual hierarchy with regard to page design?
- DESIGNER DECISIONS. Look at a page you like and make a list of everything you think the web designer needed to decide when developing the page.
- PAGE HEADERS. What kinds of information should go at the top of a page and why?
- CONTENT. What's most important when creating content for a site?
- CONSISTENCY. What are some areas that need consistency in a site and why?
- NAVIGATION. What's most important when designing navigation?
- CREDIBILITY. What kinds of things help establish credibility and trust?
After checking the Blackboard discussion to read what other students learned (if there are any posts), launch a word processor or text editor and write an ORIGINAL paragraph to answer the question. You may focus in on one component of the topic. Cite your sources. You will post your answer to the Blackboard GROUP Discussion and respond to at least one other student. SAVE your paragraph(s) as a text or Word document (later in the semester you will link to it from your homework page), but copy and paste your response into Blackboard.
The first THREE posters in any group will get extra points. All participants in the group with the highest percentage of participants at the due date will also get extra points.
Submitting work
- Post your response to #2 on the Blackboard GROUP Discussion. If there is already a thread posted on your topic, read the messages in that thread and respond within in it with your own paragraph. If there is no thread for your topic, click "new thread" to create one. Include the CAPS PART of the question you picked in the thread name.
- REPLY to at least one other student's posting with a comment or question.
Grading - 20 points
| Points | Requirements |
|---|---|
| 10 | Question and answer - posted in the Blackboard discussion. I'm looking for at least one ORIGINAL paragraph that demonstrates some effort, quality, and/or depth of thought. ZERO POINTS if you copy and paste from a web site. |
| 2 | Subject heading - starts with the CAPS part of the question |
| 3 | CITE resources (just include the URLs) |
| 5 | THOUGHTFUL RESPONSE to another student's Blackboard Discussion posting. (something more than "Wow, that's great!" or "I agree.") |