Layout and Grid-based DesignIS 403 – Fall 2013 12

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Today• FREEDOM

– From HTML– From user-centered

design basics

• Next few weeks– Basics of visual

design– Making sites that look good (and work well)

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Comments on A1• Back after class (75% got an A or A-, the rest B or

B-)

• In general, good, but a few places to improve– How did tasks map to your comments?– Use images to help, not just eye candy– Pick sites that you have something to say about– Writing quality

• Run on sentences, grammar, etc.• Too many words• Sentences that don’t say anything

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Writing tips• Don’t speak for users that you don’t know

– “this will be confusing to most users”

• Simple sentences– “the main home page displayed a highly contrasted

scheme with light background and dark text that enabled easy reading”

– “the home page had a high-contrast color scheme that was easy to read”

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Writing help• UMBC writing center

– http://umbc.edu/lrc/writing_center.html• Get friends/family to proofread• More drafts

– More drafts– More drafts

• I will look at writing during office hours (or by appointment)

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Upcoming• Thursday 10/10: Intro to type

• Tuesday 10/15: A4 demos in class

• Thursday 10/17: Guest lecture– Shaun at youth STEM mentoring event

• Tuesday 10/22: Guest lecture– Shaun at ASSETS ’13 conference

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Why layout matters• Lead the eye

– Reading order

• What goes together?– Things that go together

should look that way– Things that don’t…

shouldn’t

• And maybe it will look nice too…

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The Non-Designer’s Design Book

• It’s really good• You should buy it

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Robin Williams’s principles of design

• C• A• R• P

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Robin Williams’s principles of design

• Contrast• Alignment• Repetition• Proximity

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Contrast• “If two items are not exactly the same,

then make them different. Really different.”

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Contrast• “If two items are not exactly the same,

then make them different. Really different.”

• How can items differ?– Color (light vs. dark, bright vs. muted)– Size– Weight (heavy/bold or light)– Border effects etc.

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Repetition• “Repeat some aspect of the design

throughout the entire piece.”

• Why?– Create a consistent “design language”– Give readers something familiar to latch on to

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Proximity• “Robin’s Principle of Proximity states that

you group related items together, move them physically close to each other so the related items are seen as one cohesive group rather than a bunch of unrelated bits.”

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Alignment• “Nothing should be placed on the page

arbitrarily. Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page.”

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Center alignmentTyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skiesBurnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand dare sieze the fire?

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Center alignmentTyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skiesBurnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand dare sieze the fire?

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Center alignmentAnd what shoulder, & what artCould twist the sinews of thy heart?And when thy heart began to beatWhat dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?In what furnace was thy brain?What the anvil? What dread graspDare its deadly terrors clasp?

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Center alignmentAnd what shoulder, & what artCould twist the sinews of thy heart?And when thy heart began to beatWhat dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?In what furnace was thy brain?What the anvil? What dread graspDare its deadly terrors clasp?

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White space• Literally just empty space in the document• Helps “chunk” related items• Space around the edges help with reading

too

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White space• Literally just empty space in the document• Helps “chunk” related items• Space around the edges help with reading

too

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Is this all subjective?• Yes, but there are useful principles and

guidelines for design

• For this class: be able to justify your design decisions based on readings or principles

• Breaking design rules can be good– Especially to attract attention

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Breaking the rules

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Thumbnail sketching• Sketch to get the major points of the piece

– But not get bogged down by details

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Let’s try it• Take this boring business card and spice it

up with contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity

• 4 minutes (design one side only)

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Your Name HereIS 403 studentSkills: UI design, HTML and CSS, user-centered design, prototypingyouremail@umbc.eduhttp://umbc.edu/~yourusername

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Your Name HereIS 403 studentSkills: UI design, HTML and CSS, user-centered design, prototypingyouremail@umbc.eduhttp://umbc.edu/~yourusername

Your Name HereIS 403 studentSkills: UI design, HTML and CSS, user-centered design, prototypingyouremail@umbc.eduhttp://umbc.edu/~yourusername

The typographic grid39

Next:

The problem• Why do we need grids?

The problem• Complex documents can be too cluttered,

difficult to search

• Providing a grid structure improves visual search

• Grids help even if the user doesn’t notice them

How to do it• Lay out a page on a 2D-grid

• Identify an underlying grid structure (rows, columns)– Grid cell sizes are multiples of some “base” size

• Fill grid cells with content– Grid columns may not be same size– Elements may fill more than one row/column

1x 2x 4x 4x

Grid ≠ boring

Whitespace matters

ur doin it wrong

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Grids in HTML• The old way: HTML tables

– Possible; bad for several reasons

• Using CSS– The “box model”– Hard to get right… but some libraries can help

• http://getbootstrap.com• http://960.gs/• http://yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/cssgrids/• http://www.thegridsystem.org/

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Let’s try it• Put Blackboard on a grid

• Next time: Working with type

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