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Chapter 2 - Web Site Design Principles REPUBLIC OF NICARAGUA
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1. What is another name for the interface the user must navigate in a Web site? The interface that the user must navigate is often called the look and feel of a Web site. 2. What is a common mistake Web designers make when testing their site? To be successful, your Web site design must be portable and accessible by users who have different browsers, operating systems, and computer platforms. Many designers make the mistake of testing in only one environment, assuming that their pages look the same to all of their users. 3. What is a prime reason users may leave a Web site? If your pages download slowly because they contain large, detailed graphics or complicated animations, your users will leave before they ever see your content. The average user clicks away from a site if the page does not download quickly. 4. What is the single most important factor in determining the success of a Web site? Information design is the single most important factor in determining the success of your site. It determines how easily users can access your Web content. 5. What important factor degrades the legibility of your information? The screen’s low resolution makes the computer monitor a poor reading medium. 6. Name three ways to create a unified look for your site. Use unifying themes and structure that hold the pages together. Choose colors, fonts, graphics, and page layout that communicate a visual theme to users that orients them to your site’s content. The theme should also reflect the impression that you or your organization wants to convey. 7. How does a grid layout enhance Web design? The structure of a Web page is imposed by the grid or page template you choose for your page design. The grid organizes the page into columns and rows, and provides visual consistency throughout your site. You can use the grid to enforce structure, but you also can break out of the grid to provide variety and highlight important information. 8. Which HTML elements can you use to create a visual grid? HTML tables or CSS positioning. 9. Explain active versus passive white space. White space that is used deliberately is called active white space and is an integral part of your design that structures and separates content. Sometimes the strongest part of a design is the active white space. Passive white space includes the blank areas that border the screen or are the result of mismatched shapes. 10. List three ways to create a smooth transition between pages of a Web site. Use repeating colors and fonts, a page layout that allows different hierarchical levels, and consistency in the placement of design and navigational elements. 11. List two benefits of consistently placing navigation tools. Consistent navigation tools provide grounding for the user, allowing them to orient themselves quickly to your navigation structure. Consistent navigation graphics also avoid the need to download a wide variety of graphics. 12. Describe the difference between reading and scanning a page. On a main page or section page, users want to quickly scan the content, scrolling if necessary, pointing to graphics to see if they are hyperlinked, and clicking linked text. Users interact with a page with large blocks of text more slowly, scrolling and possibly clicking hyperlinked words of interest. 13. Name three ways to focus a user’s attention. Organize links into related topic groups and separate groupings with white space, graphics, or background color. Keep paragraphs short for online consumption. Make reading easier by using a text column that is narrower than the width of the screen. Keep your text legible by providing enough contrast between foreground and background colors. Provide links that allow the user to jump quickly to related content. 14. Describe why using “Click here” as link text is ineffective. Avoid using “Click Here” as the hypertext link because it doesn’t reflect the content it is connected to. Instead provide a helpful textual clue to the destination of the link. 15. Describe the benefits of textual linking. You can replicate this nonlinear reading method on your Web site with links that let users move from page to page or section to section. With thoughtful hypertext writing, you can engage readers in a whole new way. 16. Describe the benefits of a hypertext table of contents. The color-coding that shows the users which pages they have visited. By default, links are blue when new; they change to purple after they have been visited. 17. Why is the alt attribute so important to navigation? Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual. For users with assistance devices such as screen readers, a text-only alternate is desirable. 18. Name three differences between paper-based and screen-based design. Although most paper-based media are portrait oriented, the computer screen is landscape oriented—that is, wider than it is tall. While a piece of paper reflects light, a computer screen has light passing through it from behind. Computer screens also use a much lower resolution than the printed page. 19. Describe a good strategy to format text for online display. The text width should be short and easy to read without horizontal scrolling. Design the font for online reading. The white space on both sides should create a text column that enforces the vertical flow of the page. The illustrations should break up the text and relieve the user’s eyes.
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