This was a good assignment to do for my web design students. They have been learning how to create web pages with html and how to use dreamweaver to create pages and manage sites. In addition, they were trained on good design vs bad design.
As mentioned in my last blog, this assignment was to review the 6 designs on Dan's blog and then review them as to what you liked about them and what you didn't.
So here's what some of my students had to say about the designs:
For the Coding4Fun website redesign, my favorite page is Clean Orange (Design #1). However, all of the pages had good features. For Clean Orange, the design was very modern, and I liked that people were featured as part of the design. To me, this makes the page more interesting and people-friendly. The site features a very loud shade of orange for much of the page, and this could discourage more conservative viewers from returning to the page. The layout appears to be very simple, which is good for navigation. Comic (Design #2) is probably my least favorite, because I find the graphics to be somewhat immature. The rest of the design is fairly solid, with a simple layout that allows viewers to navigate to their prospective pages easily. The one example that might contrast with this would be the new users link, which is at the top of the page in a speech bubble, following the cartoon theme; some viewers might not notice the link, thinking that it is only another embellishment. Glass (Design #3) is very detailed in layout, but not in a distracting or difficult manner. I liked that there were links under each graphic-identified category, which might help confused viewers to find what they're looking for. The new users link is easy to locate on this page. I also really liked Illo (Design #4). The page was split into three distinctly separate parts, which is very efficient in my opinion. The links to the subcategories are easy to see, and are color-coded for differentiation. The new users link is given an entire portion of the page, making it the easiest to find in my opinion. New articles are given the last portion, in the center, and this page lists the most articles, which would be good for those who checked the site regularly for updates. Metal (Design #5) is pretty simple, with similar graphic-identified subcategories to Glass, but without the sublinks. New articles are also listed, taking up the bottom left portion of the page. The lower right portion is completely blank, which is unfortunate, because scrolling could be limited if articles were put there. I did find the graphics distracting, because they were very detailed. Vista (Design #6) is perhaps the most layout efficient design. The subcategories are once again graphic-identified, but there is a description for each that would indicate to viewers where their information was located. New articles are listed on the side, and start at the top of the page to use up extra space. I liked that the descriptions and articles were featured on different background colors, which was visually interesting, but also separated the two. This site did not feature a new users link.
Design #1- Clean Orange
I like the layout and navigation system of the tabs at the top of the page. I think the picture below the navigation bar is a bit big for the page. It would make the user scroll down to start reading any of the text and by that point the user might have already moved on.
Design # 2 - Comic
I am not a fan of this page. The good part is that the text is neatly set up near the top of the page. However, the navigation bar on the left side of the page is too distracting and loud. It takes away from the text.
Design # 3 - Glass
I like this design. Although the color scheme is a little boring, the page is laid out well. The navigation bar is clearly visible but does not take away from the text written just below it. The name of the site is clearly labeled on the top of the page as well.
Design # 4 - illo
I like the colors of this site. The navigation bar is well placed on the left side of the page with the text tactfully centered in the middle. There could have been a better use of the space on the right hand to the page. It's just sort of empty. That "if you are new" button could have been placed at the top of the page and more text put on the right.
Design # 5 - Metal
This site is neat but the navigation bar could have been made smaller. I think I would like the page much better if the navigation bar was smaller. Also I'm not a fan of the blank space on the right side of the text.
Design #6 - Vista
This page has the best color choice with the different shades of green. I don't like the navigation bar. It would look better vertically laid at the top of the page. Also, the black box with the text in it is too distracting.
1. I liked the first website?s layout because of its simplicity and ?user friendly? links so that it?s easy to see what you?re looking for. It also had a browse section where the viewer can use to help them find things that they don?t see on the home page. I didn?t see anything wrong with this website that I would question because I thought it was very organized.
2. I personally did not like this next layout because there was too much to read. This isn?t good for the viewer because people want a simple answer as to how to get around the website.
3. This layout was very organized. All the links were displayed with pictures to help guide the viewer. I think there could have been a better contrast in color for visual appeal but other than that I though the layout was nice.
4. I liked the link on this layout because they were easily able to be seen because of the huge arrows. I think the font type of the writing could have been more standardized like arial sans-serif. I think they could have put the details to the side somewhere because I thought that they were the center of attention which I think the links should be.
5. This layout was one of my favorites. This is because the ice cubes caught my attention and I thought they were cool looking. I also liked how the links were easily seen on top and shown with graphics and how other details were at the bottom incase the viewer wanted to know a little bit more information about the site without it being in the way.
6. I liked the color schemes of this website because it was very simple but pretty. I also liked how the links were aligned to the side as the description of each was beside it. I think that for descriptions they should either be right next to the link or somewhere underneath them. I think that the comments to the site shouldn?t have been there and instead there should be a link to them named ?comments? so that all of the words don?t bother the viewer.
High school students have a good eye on what they like or don't like on sites. This will help them as they start to design sites on their own. We are almost at the end of the fist nine weeks of school and my students will be learning how to create dynamic web sites with the open source web portal dotnetnuke. I'll be blogging about their progress in the future.