Matthew's Obligatory Blog

1.) Read and respond to Jeffrey Zeldman’s article Understanding Web Design. published on A List Apart in 2007.

Zeldman states “We get better design when we understand our medium.” and describes web design of being like digital architecture. He also states that similar to how real estate deals is much more focused on than architecture, web design is very business focused and barely covers art and ideas.

2.) Read and respond to the article, Responsive Web Design in the Browser Part 1: Kill Photoshop, from the Treehouse blog.

Photoshop absolutely should be rid of in web design. Its a program that requires extra training, costs alot of money, and isn’t very fluid when it comes to web design because it wasn’t wasn’t meant to be used like that.

3.) Write about—and show—one website that you think is well designed. What makes it work so well?

https://bcorporation.net/

Web design here is simplistic, overall easy to navigate, and I love the use of imagery here.

4.) Write about—and show—one website that you hate. What makes it so horrible?

I find the Norfolk.gov site to be bad. On the surface its not so bad, but trying to navigate it is like driving an old beat up car; I’m afraid its going to break down or crash.

5.) Read and respond to the Medium article Designing in Browser vs Photoshop.

If I didn’t know Photoshop, I’d probably stick with designing in Browser, mostly because its makes more sense and thus has a better work flow.

6.) Read and respond CSS Tricks’ article about the CSS Box Model at this link.

Web design in a nut shell consists of rectangular boxes. These boxes are calculated by width and height, and if such elements are not declared, wacky results are sure to follow.

7.) Check out the W3Schools’ HTML Color Picker at this link. Provide the hex value of a color that best represents you.

#00ccff

8.) Explore color a bit more at Adobe Color CC. Post examples of three color schemes you favor, along with each color’s hex value.

#000380 #FFDF00 #A60505

9.) Check out the website Don’t Fear the Internet.Read the article, 17 Websites with Typography-Driven Design published on Design Bombs. Post an image of your favorite example and explain why you chose it.

The Polar Spring. I love how it handles the layout with the imagery and text. I also like the story they have there.

Response 1: After rambling on Christopher Wren and building foundations it goes into how a website’s design can be affected by the intended screen resolution that its going to be viewed on.

Response 2: Its no surprise that mobile browsing surpassed desktop browsing given that every one and their mother has a smartphone. Its another thing that all businesses big and small must adapt to.

Response 3: Rule #9 to me is the most important. Keeping it simple is the one rule that all designers must adhere to. With the rise mobile web browsing, websites must be mobile friendly and the less clutter there is to move around and load, the more optimized and mobile friendly the website will be.

Response 4: Rule #1 is the most terrible mistake. Aside from the obvious problem of long loading times, websites with a ton of images are a migraine inducer. It also makes the website resemble a scam website complete with ads for male enhancement products and hyperlinks to adult websites.

Response 5: The article introduces the grid system. A form of web organization that has become ubiquitous in web design.

Response 6: The website by Alessandro D’agnano is my favorite. Its simple, with black and blue text on a white background and a layout that makes me think of a windows phone for some reason. It also looks great on mobile.

Response 7: My two favorites are Typography from Fifty-Two 80’s, and Map from Jongmin Kim. Fifty two eighties has a retro video game aesthetic to it which I have a soft spot for, and Map reminds me of the interface for NordVPN.

Response 8: Future City from MUTI really grabs my attention. It is viewed from a top down perspective, and has moving objects complete with wind turbines, cars, and a ship.

Response 9: Style tiles are an effective way communicating the clients wishes when doing a project. Aside from that, the website give good advice in general when it comes to interacting with clients.

Response 10:

From what I can tell from these two articles, there is a clash between monotone and multicolor design formats. For me, I will always prefer monotone over multicolor because it gives the design a sense of uniformity.

But for the sake of this blog post, I’d say my favorite multicolor design from these two blog posts is London Grammar for the blob of mass it has in the center. It makes me want to manipulate it like a piece of play dough.

https://moodmix.londongrammar.com

Meanwhile, my favorite monotone design is from from Fedex, because its purple and because it has the whole cyberspace feel to it.

Okay, from what I could gather, the message this article is trying to convey is that training and expertise are an obvious necessity, but without knowledge and experience, it all means diddly squat. A successful designer must also be flexible and not tethered to one specialization.

One particular skill that can be handy is general marketing techniques, maybe not college degree levels of mastery, but enough to fine tune and really nail the message and goal home of the website in question. Beyond that, it just takes years of experience.

Unique value proposition in my view is the added total amount of reward or stimuli the user gets the longer they stay on a website.

Above the fold is the upper half of the front page of a newspaper or tabloid where an important news story or photograph is often located.

The most common form of web design is when the information is placed in the upper left corner while placing content in the center. Its no coincidence that anyone who speaks a western language reads a book this way, they start reading from there because its where the page starts.

A call to action button’s purpose is to get users to do something. Most of the time its to get them to buy something or sign up for something, but it also has a bit of a darkside. It can also be used by someone with dubious morals to steal a users identity, and install viruses onto their devices.

Such examples include:

I personally think that the two most important things when it comes to designing a website is the content itself and visuals that convey said content. Afterall if your website looks bare bones and primitive, there is 50/50 chance that users will simply click off.

Now this brings back memories for me. I remember using AOL on both windows 95 & XP machines back in the early 2000s and hearing the dial up sound.

Neocities has to have my favorite sites because it truly encapsulates everyone that made up 90’s web design.

This trend may bring a lot of nostalgia with it, but it also ousts all of the developments we have acquired since then.

Regarding the theory as to why 90s web design is making a comeback, I think it has more to do with negative reception of social norms and cultural zeitgeist of today, among older generations who are in search of bringing back the good old days.

Emily Weiss, the founder of a skincare company called Glossier, won the Webby Entrepreneur of the Year award. The fact that it started as a simple blog that grew into a $1.2 billion dollar corporation amazes me. That being said, with a white Glossier’s website looks a bit bland for my taste with its simple layout and white background.

Seeing as how Smartphones are instruments of communication and the popularity of social media, I fail to see how technology is causing social isolation. If anything, its increasing social activity, just in a different. That being said, the internet must be treated like the Wild West, where anything can happen, especially with how easy it is to maintain anoynimity .

I would have to say the Huffington Post article has the correct stance when it comes to tech. Smartphones have given me the luxury of entertaining myself and access to a well of information wherever I am. Smartphones are still a relatively new thing and have as many merits as they have detriments, both of which will balance each other in the near future.

This article tells us how easy it can be to get lost in the online world and become disconnected and out of touch with the real world (I have a problem with that myself on occasion.) by bringing up and extreme scenario featuring JasonRussell and his downward spiral. The fact that we’re connected to our devices 24/7 can also be blamed for a rise in ADHD in kids, a rise in compulsive decisions being made, and a negative impact on mental health in general. What this article doesn’t go into however is the cultural zeitgeist of the 2010s revolving around the desire to build and maintain an online presence that has been ingrained into this generations youth.

After rambling on about how the printed press and the web are like parent and child, the article goes on to describe the evolution of web design since the early 1990s aswell as how flexible one should be and not fixed on one outlook.

Designing web pages to be flexible is also making them more accessible regardless of browser, or platform that the reader is using. This can be accomplished by thinking outside the box and considering what pages can do rather than how they look like. Although it sounds difficult, this philosophy of design will one day become the universal page where web pages will be required to provide universal access to any and all users, much like how buildings require keycards to access.