DESIGN

I think good and bad design of a website depend on a multitude of different factors. After the lesson last week and after reading Williams article, the CRAP acronym is defintily important. I like the idea that by using the basic principals of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity anyone can simply webpage production. Unfortuanly, through my own personal I have found out that learning the correct "CRAP mix" is the difficult part. I think Alignment comes the quickest. When your looking at a website, elements that aren't aligned correctly seem to jump out at you. Same edge alignment is important. Also, when it comes to aligment I like how the Williams article says that a centered alignment must be a conscience placement. I always thought that a centered alignment was a "lemonade-stand-flyer-folly!"

Aside from alignment, borders are huge. There's nothing worse than logging onto some low-rent website and finding wood-grain borders or stainless-steel looking borders. I hate that. It's unprofessional and makes your website look like a 1980's Nintendo game. Less is more.

Anway, I think the best way to create a professional, clean website is to go by good examples. Many times I have found myself taking layout ideas from popular wesites. While it is hard for me to implement some of those ideas, looking at them still makes me realize what is good and what is bad