Transcript Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Multimedia
Page Design
Organizing Content on a Page
The visual layout of each menu is
the product of multimedia page
design:
 Video
 Graphics
 Text
 Animation
 Audio
…all come together to add to the
richness of the multimedia
experience.
Gutenberg Diagram
Illustrates the general
pattern the eyes follow
as they scan visual
information within a
page.
F-Layout
The F-layout is one of the most
common page layouts on the
Web.
•The reader’s gaze is directed
though the page in a pattern that
resembles the letter F.
•The Library of Congress
homepage pictured here features
the classic F-layout design.
Z-Layout
• The Z-layout is a variation of the Gutenberg Diagram.
• The Smithsonian homepage pictured here guides the user’s eyes
through the page along a Z-shaped path.
Visual Hierarchy
Page Header (Masthead)
Heading 1
Image
Heading 2
Image
Heading 3
Without Visual Hierarchy
With Visual Hierarcy
Visual hierarchy
refers to the
perceived
ordering of
content within a
page by the
reader.
Headings
HTML includes
six levels of
headings with
default sizes
that get
progressively
smaller from
first to last.
Headings establish visual hierarchy
Headings are often
custom designed
as a part of the
overall theme of a
page layout.
Golden Ratio
Golden Ratio is a
mathematical
construct that has
been widely used for
determining the
proportions of a visual
space.
The spiral form of a
nautilus shell closely
conforms to Phi, the
golden number.
Where to Start?
For a designer, the first step is to subdivide the vast unitary
space of a blank page into smaller editable regions that can
be individually arranged and populated with content.
The Grid System
Design of a new
web page often
begins with simple
sketches like this
one showing how
the screen space
will be broken apart
into various content
regions.
Uniform Subspaces
Grid paper can be used to
break up the design space
into uniform subspaces.
Typographic Grid
• Columns
• Rows
• Margins
• Modules
• Spatial Zones
Common Grid Structures
By varying the grid
structure, a design
space can be
subdivided in an infinite
number of ways.
• Single-column
• Two-column
• Three-column
• Modular
Newspaper Layout
Observe how headings
and a modular grid
work together to break
up the presentation
of visual information
in this mockup of a
traditional newspaper
layout.
Inline vs. Floating
• An inline photograph (left) pushes the text downward, resulting in an
undesirable page layout with too much white space.
• A more pleasing visual layout (right) is achieved when the photograph is
“floated,” forcing the text to wrap around it on the opposite side.
Tables
A simple table with two columns and three rows.
Tables
Tables
CSS Box Model
CSS Box Model was created to give web designers greater
control over the presentation of visual elements in a page.
Page Templates
A web page template
included with Adobe
Fireworks CS5.
Page Templates
The template (below) is transformed
by replacing the placeholder
contents (images and text) with
original assets designed for the
project.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a
popular blogging tool
and web-based
content management
system (CMS). Users
can choose a page
layout design from
over 150 templates in
the themes library.