Transcript New Media Design Vocabulary

How to Recognize Good and Bad Design
In her excerpt, Robin Williams
writes about how to recognize
(and avoid) bad web design.
In her excerpt, Robin Williams
writes about how to recognize
(and avoid) bad web design.
She identifies four principles:
Contrast, Repetition,
Alignment, and Proximity.
As a memory aid, a better way
to remember these four
principles, might be:
As a memory aid, a better way
to remember these four
principles, might be:
CRAP.
Contrast is, of course,
“contrasting elements” that
are designed to help “guide
your eyes around the page,
create a hierarchy of
information, and enable you to
skim through the vast array of
information and pick out what
you need.”
Repetition aims to “repeat
certain elements that tie all
the disparate parts together.”
Each page in a web site should
look like it belongs to the
same website, company,
concept.
Alignment, simply enough,
means that “items on the page
are lined up with each other.”
Proximity refers to “the
relationships that items
develop when they are close
together, in close proximity.”
Williams uses lots of examples
to demonstrate when these
principles are working well
and are working not so well.
Williams uses lots of examples
to demonstrate when these
principles are working well
and are working not so well.
It’s always a good place to
start by observing when things
go horribly, horribly wrong.
Let’s start off with this
outrageous example.
Check this out.
In terms of the four principles,
what isn’t working here?
Unfortunately (or fortunately)
often web design issues are a
bit more subtle.
Let’s look at the Twitter home
page today.
Now, we’re going to continue
putting these terms and skills
into practice by seeking out
other websites that do (or
don’t) use these principles
successfully.
I would like each group to seek
out a series of different
websites—sites that
demonstrate the successful
use of a design principle and a
less-than-successful use of a
design principle.
Since Williams identifies four
key principles, you’ll need to
find eight examples.
I’d like each group find
examples of sites that both
successfully and unsuccessfully
employ Williams’ four design
principles: alignment,
proximity, repetition,
contrast
More importantly, I’m going to
ask you to articulate WHY
these websites are (or are not)
successful.
The better your are able to
write about what constitutes
good or bad design, the better
you’ll be able to apply that to
your own work, especially for
Project Two.
I’d like to you then write a few
sentences for each example,
explaining why your group
thought that this was
successful or not.
When your group has found,
discussed and written about
your websites, I’d like each
group to share your findings
with the class.
Good luck and have fun!
How to Recognize Good and Bad Design