Double D, U, and A on the Web!

Yeah! That's a much better title. To explain it, it's defining design, usability, and accessibility on the web. So, taking a look at some of the title, how can we define design when it comes to the web. Web design is unlike most of the other designing areas we may be used to. Most of what we here is from people who don't really understand web design. Designing for the web is designing for simplicity, for specific users, for a purposes without confusing it as advertising or graphic design. When you design for the web, your website should serve it's purpose without becoming a TV add or purely a Flash animation. This also flows into usability. I said earlier web design should be simple, and a websites navigation is probably at it's core the more simple, yet most overlooked aspect of at website. The navigation links are how you move around the site, how a user who visits for the first time finds their way from your home page, to the information that they are really seeking. The navigation of a website should be in the front of your mind the entire time you're designing the website. The navigation should be usable, and it should change to let the user know where they are, where they can go, and should help them get back to there they came from. Finally we come to the accessibility of the web. There is now a program that allows blind people to use the internet. They type in a website, and mouse over the words or links, and a computerized voice will tell them what they are mousing over, and if it is a link or not. Even with this new technology, the website itself has to be set up for this. If it is not, the moused over links will be a jumble of code when the voice reads it off. So the web has gone from something only nerds use, to being something accessible for literally almost any person, regardless of a presumed disability. For those of you thinking of getting into web design, or are interested in learning more about it go to the website www.alistapart.com and read their articles. It'll not only help you become a better web designer, but it'll make for a better web for all of us.

To tutorial or not to tutorial...

So for today's blog assignment I was to view at least 3 out of 27 possible tutorials for creating a website moch-up  via Photoshop. If any reader would like to see those tutorials / do one you can by clicking on the link provided at the end of the blog post. Well I did three tutorials, I didn't actually physically do them, but I went through them. After having done the tutorials, there's one thing I can say for certain, and that is I must download some splatter brushes for Photoshop. Two of the tutorials I viewed used the splatter brushes they downloaded to make two of the graphics I thought where very cool. Beyond that, the tutorials where fairly standard with information. One that I did in particular was very detailed, showing screen shots from Photoshop as well as showing icons for the tools they're actually using in Photoshop. The other tutorials where not as detailed, you could probably stumble through them and make a moch-up website that looks sorta like what they had, but it would have your own touch whether or not you wanted it to or not. After having said there is a lack of detail in some, they're still worth checking out because you may pick up something you didn't know from them... like download-able splatter brushes for instance. Overall definitely worth checking out if this is something that interest you.