Designing Usable Web Interfaces (2003)

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Web design will be another aspect of my project that will help to contextualise all of my work. Studygin this book by Julius Wiedemann will aid my learning into the best web design to host videos on the site and will additional teach me the fundamentals to web design.

Within the book I will be specifically looking at Chapters:

  • Types of Web Application (Page 13)
  • The Project Development Process (Page 45)
  • Interface Design (Page 93)

Types of Web Application 

Brand Sites (Page 13) – Brand sites are often referred to as ‘Brochureware sites’ that build up a brand or product for an organisation. The sole objective for these sites is to create an online identity or prescence that the audience can access. Often reflecting the brand image and company morals, the websites that are built are often very aesthetically pleasing, ultisling the same design conventions that are used throughout their products in the real world.

The Project Development Process

Design (Page 54) – The design of a website is critical, often broken down in to 4 areas: information architecture, verbal communication, the use of media and the user interface design, it is essential that my website my follow strict guides within these areas in order to create an highly functional and aesthetically pleasing site.

Information architecture is process in documcntmenting the process flows of the audience, in simpler terms it means it documents that ways in which the audience will use the website in order to access the relevant information that they are after. This process often under goes several revisions, refining the design to make it as easy as possible for the audience to get the the info that they want.

Verbal communication is the selective process of deciding which technical terminology to use within the website, which can be a difficult process. For simple products, this can easy as there are no real terms that need to be utlised in the explanation of the product, however, for my technical products there has to be consideration taken into what vocabulary is used to describe the product as the audience might not necessarily understand it.

Use of media, this process is the stage in which media is evaluated in terms of its relevance. Often when products are being advertised on the website, it might not be relevance for it to be shown to the audience through the use of a video, sometimes a image will suffice.

Interface design, often referred to the stage where the website is given a personality, this process defines the stage in which the website gets colour, typography, media and other design elements added to it.

Interface Design 

Colours (Page 97) – Colours have a powerful significance in communication, enabling them the ability to represent emotions and actions. Because of this, the use of colour a website has will greatly reflect certain meanings and messages behind it, this is why the colour of the website will often try an reflects the messages being the brand and the feelings that they want to denote to the audience.

Typography (Page 100) – Typography or font is the use of a particular style of text, this stage is very important as the type will need to be cohesive with the graphic style that is used throughout the rest of the website. There are often 3 different uses of type in a website or any publication: Heading, Sub-heading and Body Copy.

Layout (Page 103) – The layout of the information is the decision in which the placement of the text should be on the website. Most common layouts, columns are often used to break text up on a page to make it easier on the eye – convention used from print media which aim to make the page easier to ready but also aesthetically pleasing at first glance.

Jadav, A. (2003) Designing Usable Web Interfaces. New Jersey: Pearson.

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