Winning web design

Finally got around to looking at the web design award winners...sorry this is late, too.

1) Singularity Design. What I like about this site is, it balances use of an animated character and fun colors to create a whimsical atmosphere and maintenance of a simple, but appealing design. The site appears to have been created in Flash, but if we were to go for static images instead of animation, we could easily achieve something nearly as attractive as this site.

2) Yard Media. The amount of animation on this site was a little overwhelming to me, but I wanted to point out a design element I really like (circled in red):



This navigation tool allows readers to thumb through projects the company has previously completed. I like it because it deviates from the typical "page 1, next, previous" navigation, but it's still recognizable as a navigation tool and therefore usable. Notice that the current page is a lighter color than the other pages, which gives readers a sense of where they are. Could we use this, or something like it? Maybe--I'm not sure how hard it would be to execute.

3) Faster Tomorrow. I looked at this site because it's not in Flash, and I'm assuming that will be the case for Din. It's obviously meant to be more of an informational site than the other two sites (I say this because it has so much text on it), but it still maintains visual appeal through frequent use of images and repetition of design elements.

I think that as we design Din, we should work hard to create a site in HTML (maybe with some buttons in flash, but that's it) that is easy to maintain in the future. We have to keep in mind that this one issue is not the only issue, and we have to hand off the project to someone else. This contingency has to be accounted for in our design.

Thinking about design (briefly)

Somehow I missed this post last week...I thought I had checked the schedule, but I guess I didn't. Oh well, better late than never:

What, for you, is the most important design element(s) that an online editor must keep in mind?

For the sake of maintaining a site that is cohesive, I think repetition is an especially important design principle in considering how the pages go together. Even if the design of individual pages varies, it's important to have at least one design element that brings them all together, such as a repeated logo which appears in the same spot on each page.

In designing individual pages, however, I think all four of the CRAP principles are important. One thing I like about RW is her insistence upon bold, but simple designs--no clutter or excess, just the bare necessities. This need for simplicity is especially true for our publication since the group of people creating it will not be the same group responsible for maintaining it long-term. The simpler the design, the more sustainable the publication.