designing websites
If you are an expert at designing websites - this is not for you!
Websites are a completely different medium to traditional print - the modern web user knows this and expects websites to perform in a certain way.
There are no absolute rules on how to design a website and often three different approaches can be just as agreeable however, there are some tricks to employ and some to avoid to produce happy clients.
Typography, colour, contrast, navigation, scale, the hierarchy of content and accessibility are all key areas to understand to achieve a professional design. Most of these areas combined are collectively know as 'usability'. Thrown into the mix you also have the choice of the underlying technology to enable the site to both function and facilitate its updates. Taste is purely subjective, its NEVER my job to comment on this!
The guides supplied here are tips gleamed from years of designing & building thousands of websites and online products. Most of them can be read in books - these are tried, tested and proven!
There is no intention to insult the intelligence of any graphic designer - I freely admit I think its amazing how print designers can work in so many formats and understand constantly evolving printing techniques. These notes are for those of you who wish to venture into the digital world, a place often as unsettling as if I were to come into yours!
Lets take a look at 'what to avoid' and 'what to include' . . .
