Agenda
- Quiz (6:15 – 6:45)
- Project presentations (Draw lots? Alpha? Volunteer? – give feedback to peers)
- Wrap up lecture/discussion
- Projects due Friday – one document!
Notes: common issues with wireframes
- No Welcome message, headline, text or page title (in the code) please!
- Sign in / account
There are two states: not signed in, where the options should be sign in or register, and signed in, where those options change to MyAccount
- Banner blindness!
- Chicos (anti-banner blindness, yes or no? – also, check out the rotator!)
- Eye-tracker > ignoring Virgin Ad
- Washington Post (anti-banner blindness)
- “Selective Attention“
- 60% can’t remember the last display ad that they “saw”
Banner blindness has been documented for two decades. Click image to read article.
- Logos at upper left – why?
- Search – not needed or useful unless you have LOTS of content
- Tag cloud – not useful until you have lots of content in a blog
- Most sites have a footer (many of you don’t have a footer indicated in your wireframes)
- Remember visual hierarchy : what is the most important thing on the page and have you directed our eye there? When everything is about the same size …
- Rotator or carousel: think about your aspect ratio – and if you use one of these tools, it should be the most dominant element above the fold, Don’t fight it with lots of small images/stories
- Rule of thirds! Usually avoid dividing page 50-50
- Blogs (i.e., blog posts) have their own design conventions (which we haven’t covered)
- Infrastructure navigation implies a link to a new page or, in a one page design, a jump Down The Page, like these Bootstrap sites
Discussion
- Mobile / wearable
- Legal issues – RIAA (copyright) to NSA (privacy)
- Metrics – demo CrazyEgg and Google Analytics
- Design for ambiguity – the principal difference between web design and print design
More design resources
- 10 illustrations on Search Engine valuation of links – Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz
- Design to solve a problem, not to use a technique
- Navigation, Taxonomy and Deep Information Infrastructure
- Top 10 mistakes in web design, Jakob Nielsen
- Understanding the rule of thirds in web design
- Unwelcome Web Welcomes
- Visual guide to keyword targeting and on-page optimization – Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz
- World’s worst website ever!
Remember – you have my email and phone number and Twitter handle. Stay in touch! I’m happy to provide feedback on designs as you move forward through the PS class, where you’ll continue working on your wireframes.
Web Design & Production Foundations 