week 12~

hello!...today we learn about visual design for the web...there are many aspect we have to consider when designing a website....visual means something that we can see we our beautiful eyes...*wink* so visual design is a process where we plan how our website will look like....

here are some questions that we should consider when designing the web.....

• What colours will look good together on your site?
• What fonts or styles you will use for the written part of your web pages?
• What graphics and multimedia effects are needed?
• How will all of these elements be combined or arrange into an attractive layout?

what can you do??

• Choose a visual theme –connected to your content.
• Use template concepts– consistent
• Use table or division (div) or frame for layout/arranging your visual elements.

typography is one of the important element and general issues in design....just keep simple by limit the number of fonts per page & per site and use the same fonts consistently throughout the site...for the typeface make sure you make the good font choice....whether to use serif or sans serif....suits the typeface with the mood of your content/website/theme....and the most important is ensure the typeface is READABLE..... 

there are tools that can help you in visual design...such as Thumbnails Sketches, Storyboard, Rough Sketches and Prototype....Thumbnails Sketch help to focus on how web pages will look while storyboard helps on web site’s interaction...for the Rough Sketches, usually choose 2 or 3 of the thumbnails to develop further..it is more carefully drawn because the proportions are more accurate....

things you must AVOID in designing the website....

• Avoid using big image as background because it takes time to load....
• Avoid the use of all CAPITAL LETTERS for body text. it is okay to use for highlighting or for titles...
• Avoid the use of too many font faces on one screen or throughout one site (e.g., arial, helvetica, times, courier)...
• Avoid the use of too many colors on one screen, especially font colors....