Design Rationale
Designing a quality web site requires more that acquiring vital data and posting on the web. An effective web needs a lot of attention regarding the selection, organization and presentation of material. Website design requires clarity and should engage in all aspects. It’s very necessary to consider the audience and the objective of the website. Planning is a very vital step prior to the establishment of a website.
Design principle of the website
There are a number of web site design principles that were used in the design of this website. They include such things as balance, connection, colour, graphics, grid, typography and white balance
Balance
This involves ensuring that the design is not tipped to one side. Balance means that one achieves the symmetry or asymmetry. A quality website design has a well constructed balance underlying it. The website presented in the picture has combined both symmetrical and asymmetrical balance
Grid
The rationale for grid is nearly similar balance. However grid refers to series of horizontal and vertical ruler that play a significant role in sorting out various elements in a design. Presence of columns improves clarity since the content of the site is made easy to read. Using the golden ratio and spacing facilitate the gasping of information. The golden ratio or the rule of thirds explains why the side bars on the website have taken about a third of the width of the page a seen n the website. The right and the left column have a strict structuring and are approximately the same making it easy for the eye.
Colour
Colour is not just picked at random in website design since some colour rhyme together while other don’t, despite the fact that there a number of theories regarding combination of colours such as contrasting schemes, a lot is determined by common sense. It’s important to figure out what works together. Just like it has been done in the presented website its important to peak at most three base colours which are then combined with tints and shades. Picking nice colours is equally significant as selecting the right colour.
Graphics
Quality website does not necessarily require fancy graphics but using poor graphic interfere the quality of the Website. Graphics play an important role in summation of the visual message. It’s important that graphic should be made to go well together and also exemplify the style that is used.
Typography
The art of typography is a branch of design that encompasses many elements. There is no complete control over the appearance of web typography. However ideas such as font stacks (the order in which fonts should be rendered), measure and leading (vertical spacing of lines), hanging quotes and bullets can be used to enhance readability.
Navigation and orientation report describing the strategies employed in your website to enhance the accessibility and usability.
Accessibility- legibility is the basis of this aspect on a site as it allows the users understand or rather explores the site effortlessly, hence increasing the likelihood of immediate affiliation to site. The font, the bandwidth of choice as well as the color tends to ‘dictate’ such an outcome hence making at area of apt concentration during design.
In order to increase accessibility and usability of a website navigation orientation are important factors to consider. These two factors give the direction of where to go incase the user are seeking out some information. The buttons that enable users travel around the site have been put in place and are easily found. The text button also indicates where the users are heading to and they also have different colors and images.
Orientation enhances usability and accessibility by indicating the current position of the user. There are a variety of ways in which users can be oriented. This is done by placing a large heading or a own version of the relevant button on the menu. Bread crumb trail, site map and subheadings can also be used for orientation purposes (University of Michigan, 2013)
Conclusion
Design theories or rather principles for a website tends to vary, and entails gathering enough data that would be posted on a website. However, this involves: assessing the goals of the site. in this case the goal of the site includes who one’s audience are, what one in expects to achieve or rather accomplish, and have a hierarchical delineate.
Reference
University of Michigan. (2013).Basic Web Design Principles. Retrieved fromhttp://www.umich.edu/~ece/resources/design.html
