Planning a Site Information on B'wood Site
Basic Web Design Principles: A good web site has a unified look and flows together well. Using a combination of color, graphics, and layout, the pages of a site should visually relate to one another. Site visitors should never wonder if they have left the site when jumping from page to page. Color, graphics and layout should help carry out the theme that represents the content of the site. The following are generally accepted design principles you should know and demonstrate in your Greatest Web Site:
Accepted Design Principles:
Consistency - Consistency mean uniformity from page to page, and it gives the site visitor a feeling that it is a single site created by a single developer. (The exception to this might be slight differences in the home page.) Consistency includes things like:
 | Consistent navigation location and format |
| Consistent banners and heading styles |
| Repetition of logo or other familiar graphic |
| Consistent color scheme |
| Consistent size of banners and buttons |
| Consistency in fonts and font sizes |
Repetition - Similar to consistency, this is the process of repeating elements throughout a Web site. Using a template to repeat common page elements or adding a logo to each page are examples of this.
Alignment - Lining up page elements consistently for ease of use and pleasing effects. Reasons why you should look at alignment include:
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Large blocks of centered text are difficult to read. |
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Wrapping text around graphics may give unpredictable results in browser. |
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Lines created by sides of unaligned text blocks and graphics confuse the eye. |
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Avoid “jumping” navigation bar effect from moving buttons. |
Proximity - Proximity or closeness creates a bond between elements on a web page. Suggested ways to help this include:
| Pull heading in closer to topic |
| Add small space between topics |
| Reduce excess space to create unity in page |
| Consistency in font & heading sizes |
| Keep captions close to related pictures |
| Add small space between pictures |
| Ratio of text to white space |
White Space - This is the blank area on a Web page. By placing appropriate amounts of white space around an element or group of elements, you can define proximity. With it, you make your Web page much easier to read and more pleasing to look at. It is recommended to have 2/3 content and 1/3 white space. In summary, white space:
| Increases focus on important page elements |
| Helps increase readability of content |
| Avoids the “cluttered” look |
| Separates unrelated page elements |
Balance - It is important that no one element in a Web page overwhelm the other elements on a page. Suggestions on how to avoid this include:
| Resizing images and text blocks, including font size |
| Use horizontal rules and other graphic elements to create balance |
| Use tables with text and graphics to balance text content with appealing graphics |
Use established design principles including consistency, repetition, alignment, proximity, balance and ratio of text to white space in your Greatest Web site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
