Multi-Part Series
This will be a multipart series on web graphics, web development and how to begin your approach. This first paper is going to be on aesthetics and how the web should look.
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
There are a lot of web sites out there, some fast, some slow, some good some bad. The key to creating good web sites is to approach from several different directions. It will be vital that you reach out and apply good design, that you develop code that performs and that the user wants to come back for more. This breaks your work into a number of categories.
Aesthetics…how does my web site look?
Functionality…does my web site do what I have advertised, does it deliver what it promises?
Fun…do people want to come back again and again?
Performance…am I doing all I can to keep people coming back for more?
This first paper is on Aesthetics.
Aesthetics
There are an awful lot of graphic artists who have begun to approach the web with the same passion for which they have dedicated their life to art. Unfortunately for many of us, this raises the bar, so that our pathetic little web pages do not really seem to meet the mark. It makes me sad to think that my lack of taste and lack of les senses artiest are going to cost me hits when I make a page, but they are I am afraid.
There is help out there for those of us who have not trained our minds to see things in both shadows and light. There is a whole series of books on web graphics that are on New Rider press, that instruct heavily – written by Lynda Weinman, a number of books on the deconstruction of how certain graphical tricks are achieved. They are colorful, funny and very detailed.
The problem that can come up with web aesthetics is that if the site is built to heavily with graphics it can hurt performance and cause slow screen response. Honestly folks, there are so many choices these days, that if we do not have quick response, we wither and die.
Web Feng Shui
A web site must be pleasing to the eye and relaxing in order to make it pleasing to the eye. Things must be placed so that they are easy to read, and easy to follow. Do not let yourself make your background colors force the text colors to be difficult to follow. If your web page hurts people’s eyes, they will not come back for more.
Some people like a side section and framing, some people do not, if you can do it offer people the choice and let them decide. This is a more advanced feature, but with a little work not hard to attain. If you are letting people choose from a file system, or an organized amount if information, give them a tree view or some kind of structure so that they can quickly find what they want. Most of all though do not sacrifice performance with overly detailed pictures.
Of course if you are trying to sell artwork, or vintage cars, you may need to have nicer pictures and sacrifice a little speed…but that is an issue for next article.
Just remember to try to follow Frank Lloyd Wright’s sage advice, “Form Follows Function.” You can’t always do it, and you don’t always want to – so educate yourself on the weight of various picture formats and the speed of back ground coloring. Make it pretty, but give yourself the opportunity to keep your audience.