Before i started this course, i have created this blog to blog about my eldest daughter. However, due to work and partly my laziness, i stopped. As this course requried me to do my assignment in blog, i revitalise the blog and gave it a new facelift.
I did not know that there are so many functions being added for free for me to beautify the blog. I took this opportunity to use their setting and create a better looking blog that it is now.
When i first started, i know nuts about designing for blog or even online or print publications. The course has thought me so much about designing for publication that i began to take notice of this aspect when i read publication print or online.
I have to aadmit that i am a disaster in designing as i do not have the creativity mind in this area, but with the help of this course and the dummy setting that is created for a dummy like me, it makes me happy that as least i can create something presentable.
This knowledge that i gain will be with me as long as i live, it helps me to look at things at another perspective and understand the hard work that designers had put in.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
List of Professional Links
Channel News Asia Website is one of the website that i visited often for the latest updates for new. I personally think that this site is professionally created and its very easy to navigate and read. The layout of the page is nicely frame where it segregate informations in columns and you will not mix up. It is mostly light in colour which make it easier to read. Link to other pages are also easy to see and very interactive.
I like to vist Fifth Gear website as i am interested in cars. This site provide latest information of new cars and reviews of their handling capabilities. The layout is nicely done, the framing of information is very clear as it is box up in different places. Although they have created three columns in the page, but the layout is not so long that alot of scrolling need to be done to read the informations.
Another site that i think is professionally done is gamespot.com. This site introduce and review video games from Wii to PS3. It is nicely done with a dark colour background picture and information on just 2 columns. The right column is the main information and it is nicely segreated, the right side contain all the sub-links to other pages. There are alot of colours because of the pictures they posted, but they not clastered together, information is easy top read too.
Issues related to online publication, Part 3
In print publication, the main body of text is usually small with Sarif Fonts to guide the reader's eyes to the next word. It is done this way because all the texts are claster togther as space is limited.
Sarif Fonts
For online publication, it is recommended to have alot of white space in between lines, sub-heading and paragraphs. It is also adviseable to have wide space margin at the texts boundary. In contrast to print, it is also recommended to have bigger text and titles to be bigger than the main text body and in blold in online publication
In order to provide readers for a better and enjoyable read, it is recommended that online publication to use San Serif fonts as the text are bigger and avoid thin, ornate typeface. The thin fonts tends to get lost in the surrounding of whiteness when projected on screen.
San Serif Fonts
Colours should be used with restraint. consider to use shades or tints of darker colour to add interest to the page, darker shades of colour unify your documents.
Roger C, Parker 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Sarif Fonts
For online publication, it is recommended to have alot of white space in between lines, sub-heading and paragraphs. It is also adviseable to have wide space margin at the texts boundary. In contrast to print, it is also recommended to have bigger text and titles to be bigger than the main text body and in blold in online publication
In order to provide readers for a better and enjoyable read, it is recommended that online publication to use San Serif fonts as the text are bigger and avoid thin, ornate typeface. The thin fonts tends to get lost in the surrounding of whiteness when projected on screen.
San Serif Fonts
Colours should be used with restraint. consider to use shades or tints of darker colour to add interest to the page, darker shades of colour unify your documents.
Roger C, Parker 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Issues related to online publication, Part 2
Multicolumns Layout
In print publication, it is common to see mulitcolumns of text clastered together. Multicolumns makes the best use of space to include word counts to the maximum. It is easy for readers to read as they can just follow the margin frame reading from top to bottom of the first column than mre their eyes up to the next column and down again. It s systematic and easy.
However, it is not adviseable to do the same for online publication. Online publication has space limitation on the screen. If multicolumns is used, readers will have to read by scrolling down the page and scroll back up to read the next column. This is very troublsome for readers. Worst still if readers need to refer back to the bottom of first column, readers will need to scroll back down again to take a look. It is just not feasible to have multicolumns. It is recommended to use single column.
It is also recommended for online publication, to have alot of space on the screen so that it does not look so claster together. The spacing in between text and lines need to be wide enough too.
Roger C, Parker 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.
In print publication, it is common to see mulitcolumns of text clastered together. Multicolumns makes the best use of space to include word counts to the maximum. It is easy for readers to read as they can just follow the margin frame reading from top to bottom of the first column than mre their eyes up to the next column and down again. It s systematic and easy.
However, it is not adviseable to do the same for online publication. Online publication has space limitation on the screen. If multicolumns is used, readers will have to read by scrolling down the page and scroll back up to read the next column. This is very troublsome for readers. Worst still if readers need to refer back to the bottom of first column, readers will need to scroll back down again to take a look. It is just not feasible to have multicolumns. It is recommended to use single column.
It is also recommended for online publication, to have alot of space on the screen so that it does not look so claster together. The spacing in between text and lines need to be wide enough too.
Roger C, Parker 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Issues related to online publication, Part 1
One of the big difference in print and online publicatiion is light. On print, it is easier for a reader to read because lights reflected on the print surface, much of the lights is absorbed on the print surface so the contrast range is not as much.
Publication online is different because reader have to read it on screen which directly projected lights into reader's eyes, this causes fatigue to their eyes more easily. If the contrast on the screen is not adjusted to suit the reader's eyes, readers will tend to stop reading very fast.
Another difference is, on print publication, readers get to see the big picture of what is presented to them first, from there, readers are able to skim through and choose which area they want to focus on. But for online, it is on a limited area of view on the screen, and readers are only shown part of the page, reader have to go through all the pages just to find out which part the reader is interested in.
Roger C, Parker 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Publication online is different because reader have to read it on screen which directly projected lights into reader's eyes, this causes fatigue to their eyes more easily. If the contrast on the screen is not adjusted to suit the reader's eyes, readers will tend to stop reading very fast.
Another difference is, on print publication, readers get to see the big picture of what is presented to them first, from there, readers are able to skim through and choose which area they want to focus on. But for online, it is on a limited area of view on the screen, and readers are only shown part of the page, reader have to go through all the pages just to find out which part the reader is interested in.
Roger C, Parker 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Print related issues - Framing
Framing of a layout can either be connected or disconnected. Information may be presented as one unit of information for connected and the vice versa for disconnected.
Connection and Disconnection comes in different ways, an example is frameline, the thickness, the colour and empty space can indicate the strenght of connectivity.
An American typographer and teacher Edmund Arnold mentioned "we're taught to start reading from top left corner to bottom right corner and from left to right." As such, printed page text is liner and stictly coded. Pages are design to be read left to right and top to bottom.
Newspaper pages are read differently, the reading path is less strictly coded. They are scanned through before an article is read.
There is a path in scanning too. Layout of pages can determine scanning path. reading starts from the most salience and move on the the next salience and so on.
Framing on print is important in a sense that it leads the reader on the layout of the page and bring them to where their attention is needed most in a page.
Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of the newspaper layout, Blackwell, Oxford.
Wheildon, Colin 1990, Communicating or just making pretty shapes: a study of the validity -- or otherwise -- of some elements of typographic design, Newspaper Advertising Bureau of Australia, North Sydney.
Print related issues - Salience
The fundemental of layout is textual, layout as a whole will provide ordering and coherence. Layout involves degrees of salience on a page. Salience can create importance in an article, it can reflect the importance or worthy attention of an article.
Salience is a complex realtionship between a number of factors: size, sharpness of focus (amount of details and texture shown), tonal contrast, colour contrast, placement in the visual field and perspective.
It is not easy to weight salience as different people have different view and perspective, what one percieve as nice may not be agreeable by others, therefore reading and assessment of salience is a complex process.
In order to meet the complex process, one have to strike a 'balance' in all the elements mentioned above.
Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout, Blackwell, Oxford.
Salience is a complex realtionship between a number of factors: size, sharpness of focus (amount of details and texture shown), tonal contrast, colour contrast, placement in the visual field and perspective.
It is not easy to weight salience as different people have different view and perspective, what one percieve as nice may not be agreeable by others, therefore reading and assessment of salience is a complex process.
In order to meet the complex process, one have to strike a 'balance' in all the elements mentioned above.
Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout, Blackwell, Oxford.
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