Developed by

Cedric Williams. External Student No s0020823.

Central Queensland University (Gladstone Campus)

"What constitutes a good website"?

Richard Anderson proposed this question to Jakob Nielsen and Clemment Mok. (Anderson,R 2000)

Mok responded, in part, that "good is about clarity of communication" or "good is about usability" or "good is about performance". Nielsen supports this concept, but reminds us that the need for technical performance is also a priority, due to the nature and volume of commercial business, now being conducted on the internet. The number of commercial sites grows daily, and due consideration must be given to the needs of this industry.

Mok says "But the web has evolved into a way of doing business, a way to conduct transactions. So skills that have to do with interaction design, software design, application design...are needed"

Nielsen expresses concerns that while technical skills must be considered in good website design, this must not be done at the expense of the user needs of comfort, ease of navigation, and the final achievement of "finding what the site proposes to contain". Poor technical content however, may cause sluggish performance of sites, causing user annoyance and discomfort, resulting in the user moving on to a more friendly page. The bottom line of "what is a good website" will ultimately be decided by the user.

Neilsen supports this in his statement "So, if the site feels accomodating, feels that you're in control, feels that it is giving you what you want...that gives you a good,good feeling---a good experience of being there"

For a user, visiting a favourite website, is like coming home after a hard days work, kicking off the shoes, and relaxing into a favourite chair. It is a feeling of being "at home".

So clearly, websites need to be a comfortable marriage of a high level of efficient technical skills, and user friendliness, giving the user a pleasant interactive experience with the page, easy site navigation, as well as having the technical capabilities to perform all functions asked of it by the user, in a smart, decisive manner.

When accessing a website, the user does not want to be challenged by masses of links, designed to promote various products and services, other than that which the link suggests are on the other side of the "click". Pop up advertising, while useful to the webpage owner, is often over used, causing annoyance to the user who is simply trying to find "X".

This has become such an annoyance that many users have taken advantage of applications designed to rid them of this nuisance. Clearly this should be seen as a warning to designers of "enough is enough".

Web designers need to be aware of the needs of the user, who has the undeniable right to decide whether the site is what he / she is looking for. Indeed, to decide if the site is "good or bad". A site that promises the user "X" must provide "X". A failure to do so will ultimately lead to the demise of the site. The user can be a very intolerant individual. The internet is now seen as a "normal' research tool. It must provide the needs of the user audience, for which it theoretically has been designed.

It was these considerations that have prompted the theme of "Websites!!! User friendly?? or Designer Dreaming??". Designed to prompt the user/reader to ask questions of designers when surfing the net, conducting online research, or making purchases in the rapidy emerging E.Commerce industry.

The theme has been represented in animated form, in a manner that is intended to be eye catching, as well as correctly and concisely displaying the message of the chosen theme. The animation has been designed so as to not distract the user from the content of the page, but to still create an impact that will cause them to further peruse the page for more information

The development of this page, which took in all about 20 hours of work, and the completion of this assignment has been an interesting process, as well as a constructive learning experience.

In page preparation, I have experimented with several background designs, using Adobe Image Ready to develop them, finally settling for simplicity and softness of design so as not to distract users.

While simple, the background is a GIF, designed using colour, style and layering. I found , however, that the challenge when deciding on the background, was to arrive at a position where the background did not cause the loss of clarity of text. I designed many exciting and "flashy" backgrounds, only to find that it was almost impossible to read the text on the page. This of course was in conflict with the need to ensure that the page "held" users, and did not drive them away to a more friendly site. Not wanting to leave a plain white background, I have finally settled for the current soft design.

The development of the animation, which also finally proved to require a very simple, minimal sized GIF file, (3526 bytes) was the result of extended experimentation. Much was trial and error, even with the use of the well presented explanations and direction in the support materials. (Reading No 4. Images-Animations-Colour.) While simple, the final design includes colour, layering, text, transparency, styles and the use of various tools from the graphics toolkit.

The final website was achieved only after many hours of study and experimentation. Over four hours was spent learning the basic skills of using Adobe Image Ready, to achieve the making of the animation. The urge to "use everything" was strong, and with the options presented by Image Ready, it was necessary to curb my natural enthusiasim, and not overdo the structure of the animation. I finally discovered that the 10 frames I originally made, could be replaced by only two, with the same animation resulting. Originally, wild colours and flashing designs reigned supreme, to be finally replaced by a less agressive, but equally as attractive design.

The final result, however, has been very rewarding, and an enjoyable and exciting learning experience. Obviously with time and experience, for me the process will become easier, as well as more accomplished, providing many and varied designs, of both webpages and animations. The process can only be limited by one's imagination, and if the need of both the page designer, who needs to ensure that the page "works", and the user, who works the page, are met, then webpage design becomes a valued commercial skill and an exciting personal accomplishment.

References.

Adobe Image Ready

Anderson,R 2000 ' Conversations with Clement Mok and Jakob Nielsen, and with Bill Buxton and Clifford Nass'. interactions,vol 7 no. 1.pp 46-80

Microsoft Front Page Express

Study Reading. Images-animations-colours. MMST11002 Module 4 animations etc. PDF Pages 29-40

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