Web DesignWith Miek

Everything we use is accompanied by an experience.

Every decision that do or don’t make in shaping your hypertext has an effect on the way a person may experience it.

Many think design is about making pretty things.

Design is about planning and shaping things for certain purposes.

Design is about shaping things to in turn shape the way a person has an experience.

That experience may be learning, understanding, being informed, playing, sharing...

Your essay will be experienced too... But what do you want people to experience?

The following are some of the principles of web design that may help you to shape your hypertext essay.

LayoutHierarchyThe order of things on the page/screen

What do you want people to read first?

What is the order of importance for information?

People read in an ‘F’ pattern

Do you want any order at all?

LayoutPage/screen structureTemplating your layouts can be useful to create predictable order

Make things easy to find, like navigation

Layout

LayoutScreen sizeWe have to take into account how large people’s monitors are.Currently, we can safely say that 1024 x 768 pixels is the minimum.

So, to stay within that,we say 960px is the max width, but height can be anything

1024

960

768

TypographyThe craft of arranging typeGood type is easy to read, and easy to scan

On the web, we only get a few fonts, but we can make those fonts look pretty good.

TypographyTypography is all about contrast...

About mAking heAdings obvious thAt they Are heAdings

Links obviously links, and emphasised things obviously emphasised.(But don’t overdo it)

TypographyKeep line lengths at about 10-15 words across. Too many can be hard to read, or just plain daunting.

Put space between your paragraphs, give your text room to breathe.

Be careful about white text on black backgrounds. It can get hard to read for sustained periods of time. Good for headings, not good for body text.

TypographyOh, and never use Comic Sans.

Unless it’s ironic like this!

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NarrativeInformation ArchitectureIn web design, the structure that you give to your pages an navigation is called the “information architecture.”

Like architecture, it is about creating spaces for people to experience and find things.

Experience is as much about what’s in the pages as what’s between them.

Narrative:The way you structure your hypertext network can change the way it is read or experienced...

Like Adrian pointed out, hypertext allows us to break linearity, and create something that can be experienced in many different ways_

Narrative:

Hierarchy Non-hierarchical

Narrative:

Clusters

Narrative:

Re-visit ideasAllow people to explore

Narrative:

Surprise people

Navigation & WayfindingMenusYou can use menus to allow people to get to the various clusters or sections in your hypertext.

Menus can also communicate “where” a person is in your text

But be aware of how it affects the experience.

Navigation & Wayfinding

Category > Idea

Designing your hypertextSketch your ideasYou can use a pen and paper to sketch out an information architecture for your hypertext.

What ideas go where? How do they link together?

That sketch can inform the way that you write.

As you write, the sketch of your structure will change as well.

Designing your hypertextHave an intentRemember, the decisions you make affect the experience that people have.

It is good to have an intention, like what kind of experience you would like to create. For instance, you may want to explore a topic in detail.

You may design your hypertext to give multiple viewpoints on a topic.

Designing your hypertextHave an intentWhat kind of experience do you want people to have?

Will it be fast-paced? Slow? Why?

Do you want people to feel confronted, bored, confused?