{"id":420,"date":"2012-11-27T15:11:50","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T15:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/?p=420"},"modified":"2012-11-27T15:11:50","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T15:11:50","slug":"design-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/?p=420","title":{"rendered":"Design Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today we went over some design principles and revised some theory. We looked at Contrast, Shape,\u00a0Movement, Line, Texture, Balance, Unity and Navigation<\/p>\n<h2>Contrast<\/h2>\n<p>Good colour contrast makes text easier to read and makes it easier for people with colour blindness and visual impairments. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.destroyallmonsters.biz\/articles\/guidelines-for-designers\/colours-and-links\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-421 alignnone\" title=\"Examples of good and bad contrast (high and low contrast)\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/contrast-examples-300x212.gif\" alt=\"Examples of good and bad contrast (high and low contrast)\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/contrast-examples-300x212.gif 300w, https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/contrast-examples.gif 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you have time, read more about <a title=\"Accessibility and colour blindness\" href=\"http:\/\/accessibility.psu.edu\/colorblindnessdetails\" target=\"_blank\">colour blindness and see examples of how people can see different colours<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Shape<\/h2>\n<p>HTML web pages are generally designed in grids of columns but you can use interesting shapes including geometric shapes like squares, circles and triangles to communicate better. <a href=\"http:\/\/webdesignledger.com\/inspiration\/25-examples-of-geometrical-shape-usage-in-web-design\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Geometric Shapes in web design\" src=\"http:\/\/webdesignledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/geoshapes13.jpg\" alt=\"Geometric Shapes in web design\" width=\"540\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Movement<\/h2>\n<p>Visual movement is used to guide the user through the web site. \u00a0This isn&#8217;t using animated gifs but pictures where your eye flows over to the important parts of the page. <a href=\"http:\/\/tympanus.net\/codrops\/2011\/01\/14\/visual-movement-flow\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Visual movement on web pages\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn2.tympanus.net\/codrops\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/visual-movement.jpg?84cd58\" alt=\"Visual movement on web pages\" width=\"580\" height=\"315\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Line<\/h2>\n<p>Lines are used to divide up elements on your web page, to organise the space and to direct the user&#8217;s eye. \u00a0The lines don&#8217;t have to be straight! <a href=\"http:\/\/tympanus.net\/codrops\/2011\/11\/17\/lines-in-web-design\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Code Slingers - web page showing use of line\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn3.tympanus.net\/codrops\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/codeslingerschallenge.jpg?84cd58\" alt=\"Code Slingers - web page showing use of line\" width=\"580\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Texture<\/h2>\n<p>You can use texture to give the impression of a surface to your design and to make your website feel more immersive. <a href=\"http:\/\/webdesign.tutsplus.com\/tutorials\/visuals\/the-what-why-and-how-of-textures-in-webdesign\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Examples of textures\" src=\"http:\/\/tuts-authors.s3.amazonaws.com\/webdesign.tutsplus.com\/Chris%20Brown\/2012\/09\/02\/textures.jpg\" alt=\"Examples of textures\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Balance<\/h2>\n<p>Balance on a web pages involved making sure the left and right sides of the page are similar in terms of shape, size, colour, position and quantity <a href=\"http:\/\/tympanus.net\/codrops\/2011\/09\/13\/developing-balance-in-web-design\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Balanced web site\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn4.tympanus.net\/codrops\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Polecat_radial_exp.jpg?84cd58\" alt=\"Balanced web site\" width=\"580\" height=\"374\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Unity<\/h2>\n<p>Unity is grouping all the elements on a page that seem to belong together. <a href=\"http:\/\/tympanus.net\/codrops\/2011\/10\/20\/developing-unity-in-web-design\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Unity in Web Design\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn3.tympanus.net\/codrops\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/featured_image_unity.jpg?84cd58\" alt=\"Unity in Web Design\" width=\"580\" height=\"315\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Navigation<\/h2>\n<p>In some ways, navigation is one of the most important part of web design. \u00a0If the visitors to your website can&#8217;t find the information they want then they will leave your site. \u00a0Good navigation will make your\u00a0visitors want to click and hang around your site a little longer.<\/p>\n<p>Headings need to be clear to help your users navigate around the page. Buttons or navigation bars are usually used to go to the main sections of web sites.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/webdesignledger.com\/inspiration\/30-website-navigations-that-make-you-wanna-click-it\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Web navigation\" src=\"http:\/\/webdesignledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/navigation_4.jpg\" alt=\"Web navigation\" width=\"540\" height=\"228\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For a long time there has been an informal design rule that you should be able to find the information you&#8217;re looking for on a site <a title=\"Three Click Rule\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Three-click_rule\" target=\"_blank\">within three clicks<\/a>. \u00a0However its now felt that <a title=\"Stop Counting Clicks\" href=\"http:\/\/www.uxbooth.com\/articles\/stop-counting-clicks\/\" target=\"_blank\">the usability of your site is more important<\/a> than counting the clicks it takes to get there.<\/p>\n<h2>Links<\/h2>\n<p>You should avoid having web links with &#8220;click here&#8221; written as this makes it difficult for people with visual\u00a0impairments\u00a0using a speech reader<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com\/2012\/06\/20\/links-should-never-say-click-here\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Examples of how to phrase links to avoid &quot;click here&quot;\" src=\"http:\/\/media.smashingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/clickhere_labels.png\" alt=\"Examples of how to phrase links to avoid &quot;click here&quot;\" width=\"480\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today we went over some design principles and revised some theory. We looked at Contrast, Shape,\u00a0Movement, Line, Texture, Balance, Unity and Navigation Contrast Good colour contrast makes text easier to read and makes it easier for people with colour blindness and visual impairments. If you have time, read more about colour blindness and see examples [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,49,43,46,1,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-css","category-html","category-ms-farrells-blog","category-s5-6dmc","category-uncategorized","category-web-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediacomputing.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}