Good Design vs. Bad Design

I am really glad that we got this reading. I am still an extreme novice at Dreamweaver and know that I have a lot of work to do in order to grow and develop in my design skills. The tips offered were very helpful in a fun way, without being preachy (like "this is what you HAVE to do in order to create a good website"). There are a lot of ways you can make a webpage look great and inviting and it seems the most important part is that you have a good eye for design. I realize that I don't have it yet for the web (and my previous Dreamweaver work has been nowhere up to these standards) so this project will definitely be a learning experience in terms of making a page that is both informative and visually-appealing.

Writing for the Package

After reading "Writing the Package," I understand just how important it is to reinforce your words with visuals and vice versa. Visual journalism is a powerful medium, and its strength lies in its ability to tell a story in two ways. This is especially practical since some people are visual learners and others are audio learners. As I worked on my own video package, I made an effort to show AND tell. By giving viewers both contextual clues to tell the story, you increase that article's appeal and understanding. Research shows that most Americans get their news from nightly or early morning broadcasts. This just shows how powerful the medium, if used correctly, can be.

Design: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Looking at the examples of "amateur" websites, I was reminded of all the homemade sites I visited as a kid. I also realized some major design no-nos on my convergence assignments page. The rules in these chapters seem basic and easy to follow. However, elements like clear navigation become a lot more complicated when creating a website for a convergence story. Thinking about the website for our final project, I'm still worried about constructing a site that flows from one aspect of the story to another. Many of the final project websites from last semester seem to reflect this same issue of organization.

Good Design, Bad Design

The two readings on good and bad design were truly enlightening. Often, I visit a web site and am impressed with the visual appeal of said site; however, I struggle to explain why I like that particular site over other less visually appealing pages. Now, after reading the chapters, I can confidently state that alignment, proximity, white space and typography are among the many things that set the good apart from the bad. As we head into our final projects and into our careers as journalists, I am glad to have this vital tool set and understanding in my belt. My page and my understanding of design is undoubtedly improved after reading the articles.

Tanya Sneddon

Good/bad Design

I'm glad that we were assigned these two readings before our final project websites really got off the ground because I'm a slave to so many of the don'ts mentioned in the readings. I've never given a thought to proper alignment, and on top of that I like to center text and use italicized fonts that are pretty but not practical. I learned a lot about the little things that help a website look professional, for example grouping text together in a logical fashion. The main lesson that I came away from these readings with is that most of the time simplicity will trump complexity in terms of web design. Many of the example websites that I thought were the most aesthetically pleasing were very simple and looked easily navigable. All of the tips in these readings will be especially helpful in these next couple of weeks.

Xenia Shih

Designing for the audience

In general, I think good design is like good writing: it should be able to connect audience to the messages and themes of the website.
Let's say, if you are to design for your personal weblog, the first thing you need to think of is how your weblog is appearing to your parents, friends or unknown visitors who share interest with you on some of the things you are going to write. Most importantly, you want to show your personality to these visitors of your website, without overwelming them with all sorts of distractions.
When designing a general news site, media organization should keep their audience in mind: they are not going to be able to see every link to the massive amount of content. Perhaps it is helpful to think of a visitor to the site as an old mom, who seldom goes online, has bad eyesight and only wants to know about the weather. By organizing and minimizing the amount of reading(processing) and navigation the reader has to go through, the website design has achieved its basic mission. Then there's the issue of website identity. Logos and names should be the most eye-catching content on the site, and repeat itself through out pages. The new york times logo might not be the most preferred font on the web, but sustains the sense of its brand. Good design should be able to sustain a brandname or a personality for average audience.

Design

By reading these two articles I saw how much of a difference that good design can have on a web site. Both articles are interesting becaus they show the same page with slight differences, and all of the changes make a big difference on the quality of the site. All it took was aligning text, moving pictures away from the side of the page or any other easy change and the page went from looking sloppy and hard to navigate to professional and easy to understand.