Class 2: Setting the foundation for a successful website design

Web Design: Lecture 2

Design as Problem Solving & Core Web Design Principles

Don Stanley UW-Madison || 3rhinomedia

www.donstanleyteaches.com

dtstanley@wisc.edu

@3rhinomedia

DON STANLEY | @3rhinomedia | #uwlsc532

What is Design?Clutter and confusion are failures of design,

not attributes of information” -- Prof. Ed Tufte

• Problem Solving/Sense Making• DESIGN = Communication

Let’s play

Let’s investigate

What is Design?Clutter and confusion are failures of design,not attributes of information” -- Prof. Ed Tufte

What is Design?

Problem Solving/Sense Making

DESIGN = Communication

Clutter and confusion are failures of design,not attributes of information” -- Prof. Ed Tufte

What is Design?

Problem Solving/Sense Making

DESIGN = Communication

Clutter and confusion are failures of design,not attributes of information” -- Prof. Ed Tufte

What is Design?

Problem Solving/Sense Making

DESIGN = Communication

Clutter and confusion are failures of design,not attributes of information” -- Prof. Ed Tufte

Why Study Design?

Vision trumps all other senses when it comes to our brain. Our brain is highly attuned to the sense of vision.

Recognition and recall soar with pictures. According to John Medina, Ph.D., if we hear a piece of information, three days later we will remember 10% of it.

Add a picture and you will remember 65%!

Interfaces Impact ExperienceInterface design refers to what we see and interact with. What we see has a huge influence on our experience (Don Norman, Ph.D.)

User Experience Our experience determines if we will interact with a product or tool. And we have choices.

Consider these two text blocks …

Interface Design, UX, How We Use

Thinking Like a HumanUsability Expert Steve Krug says “Don’t Make Me Think”

Fact #1: We don’t read pages, we scan them

DON STANLEY | @3rhinomedia | Spring 2013

Thinking Like a HumanUsability Expert Steve Krug says “Don’t Make Me Think”

Fact #1: We don’t read pages, we scan them

Fact #2: We don’t make optimal choices, we satisfice

DON STANLEY | @3rhinomedia | Spring 2013

Thinking Like a HumanUsability Expert Steve Krug says “Don’t Make Me Think”

Fact #1: We don’t read pages, we scan them

Fact #2: We don’t make optimal choices, we satisfice

Fact #3: We don’t figure out how things work. We muddle through because it works enough.

DON STANLEY | @3rhinomedia | Spring 2013

Think of the Blink Test

Reality

Design is a Planned Process4 Phase Plan, the 4Ds:

1. Discovery

Design is a Planned Process4 Phase Plan, the 4Ds:

1. Discovery

2. Design/Dictate

Design is a Planned Process4 Phase Plan, the 4Ds:

1. Discovery 3. Develop

2. Design/Dictate

Design is a Planned Process4 Phase Plan, the 4Ds:

1. Discovery 3. Develop

2. Design/Dictate 4. Deliver

Discovery: Most Important D

Discovery:

Questions to Consider

Discovery: Questions to Consider

TARGET/TARGET ACTION: What is your target? Why are you creating this site? Sales? Contacts? Build Audience? Thought Leader? Build Brand?

Discovery: Questions to Consider

TARGET/TARGET ACTION: What is your target? Why are you creating this site? Sales? Contacts? Build Audience? Thought Leader? Build Brand?

KEY AUDIENCE: Please list your audiences. Who is the most critical audience you need to connect with? Please describe the most important visitors? How often are they online? What do they use the web for? Connections?

Discovery: Questions to Consider

TARGET/TARGET ACTION: What is your target? Why are you creating this site? Sales? Contacts? Build Audience? Thought Leader? Build Brand?

KEY AUDIENCE: Please list your audiences. Who is the most critical audience you need to connect with? Please describe the most important visitors? How often are they online? What do they use the web for? Connections?

PROBLEM SOLVING: What problem does your audience solve by coming to your site? What do they get?

Discovery: Questions to Consider

TARGET/TARGET ACTION: What is your target? Why are you creating this site? Sales? Contacts? Build Audience? Thought Leader? Build Brand?

KEY AUDIENCE: Please list your audiences. Who is the most critical audience you need to connect with? Please describe the most important visitors? How often are they online? What do they use the web for? Connections?

PROBLEM SOLVING: What problem does your audience solve by coming to your site? What do they get?

ACTIONS: What activities do they need to take to achieve their goals? (watch a video, sign up for email, download something, etc.)

Discovery: Questions to Consider

TARGET/TARGET ACTION: What is your target? Why are you creating this site? Sales? Contacts? Build Audience? Thought Leader? Build Brand?

KEY AUDIENCE: Please list your audiences. Who is the most critical audience you need to connect with? Please describe the most important visitors? How often are they online? What do they use the web for? Connections?

PROBLEM SOLVING: What problem does your audience solve by coming to your site? What do they get?

ACTIONS: What activities do they need to take to achieve their goals? (watch a video, sign up for email, download something, etc.)

BUILD AUDIENCE: What is the best way to share this with your key audience? How do you promote your site?

Design CRAP: ContrastClutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information” -- Ed Tufte

CONTRAST - Making key elements stand out with color, size, shape,

It guides the users eye, swiftly and effortlessly It differentiates elementsIt brings out dominant elementsIt mutes lesser elementsIt creates dynamism

Think google.com

Design CRAP: Contrast

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information” -- Ed Tufte

CONTRAST - Making key elements stand out with color, size, shape,

It guides the users eye, swiftly and effortlessly It differentiates elementsIt brings out dominant elementsIt mutes lesser elementsIt creates dynamism

Think google.com

Design CRAP: Contrast

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information” -- Ed Tufte

CONTRAST - Making key elements stand out with color, size, shape,

It guides the users eye, swiftly and effortlessly It differentiates elementsIt brings out dominant elementsIt mutes lesser elementsIt creates dynamism

Think google.com

Design CRAP: Contrast

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information” -- Ed Tufte

CONTRAST - Making key elements stand out with color, size, shape,

It guides the users eye, swiftly and effortlessly It differentiates elementsIt brings out dominant elementsIt mutes lesser elementsIt creates dynamism

Think google.com

Design CRAP: RepetitionREPETITION - repeating the use of various elements such as color, size, layout, typefaces, image styles to convey meaning. How does this apply to navigation? Headers? Multiple pages?

Design CRAP: Contrast

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information” -- Ed Tufte

CONTRAST - Making key elements stand out with color, size, shape,

It guides the users eye, swiftly and effortlessly It differentiates elementsIt brings out dominant elementsIt mutes lesser elementsIt creates dynamism

Think google.com

Design CRAP: AlignmentALIGNMENT - Alignment is another way of creating associations between visual elements, which help users quickly understand the relationships of objects on a page.

Design CRAP: Contrast

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information” -- Ed Tufte

CONTRAST - Making key elements stand out with color, size, shape,

It guides the users eye, swiftly and effortlessly It differentiates elementsIt brings out dominant elementsIt mutes lesser elementsIt creates dynamism

Think google.com

Design CRAP: Contrast

Design CRAP: ProximityPROXIMITY - Elements that are related should be visually connected. Likewise, elements that are not related should be visually separated. Use whitespace, colors, backgrounds, etc.

Let’s look at an example of the principles in action.

Design CRAP: Proximity

PROXIMITY - Elements that are related should be visually connected. Likewise, elements that are not related should be visually separated.Use whitespace, colors, backgrounds, etc.

About copy

Optimizr analyzes your web page or entire website and then transforms convoluted table structures and tagless content into lightweight, CSS positioned div layouts and semantic markup. It’s 2.0-licious!

One-click Optimizing! Optimizr’s functions are automatic and require no knowledge of html or css. Registration copy

Create an account >>

Individual Level For individual users with one static website. Learn more >>

Pro Level For individual users with multiple static websites. Learn more >>

Enterprise Level For users with CMS-driven websites. Learn more >>

Homework

Begin thinking like a problem solver. Find an interface to redesign. Consider the questions we discussed today.

Read Chapter 18 from the course text

Begin sketching out your ideas for the redesign

Next Class, we will talk about Grid Design, the Design Process and Anatomy of Good Design.

If you’d like, read the “blink test” article by HubSpot