Orbifold. Webdesign-Regeln - Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability - The design of forms. The 960 Grid System Made Easy. By Joshua Johnson The first time I discovered the 960 Grid System, I was immediately excited about the possibilities of implementing complex layouts so easily. However, since I was fairly new to web design at the time, when I downloaded the files, I quickly became overwhelmed at how complicated the whole thing seemed. With all this code, how could this be the easy way to create a layout? This article is for web designers and front-end web developers who are interested in grid-based layout systems but are at a loss on how to decipher them. We’ll focus specifically on the 960 Grid System, but after reading this guide, you’ll find that most of the other grid systems out there are similar and will make much more sense after you understand a few basic principles.
Grid-Based Design Before we get into the specifics of the 960 Grid System, let’s briefly discuss grid-based design in general. Our brains like to simplify things to make them readily understandable. Why Do I Need a Grid System? Typogridphy. 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site. Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything, user-centric design has become a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design.
After all, if users can’t use a feature, it might as well not exist. We aren’t going to discuss the implementation details (e.g. where the search box should be placed) as it has already been done in a number of articles; instead we focus on the main principles, heuristics and approaches for effective web design — approaches which, used properly, can lead to more sophisticated design decisions and simplify the process of perceiving presented information.
Please notice that you might be interested in the usability-related articles about 10 Usability Nightmares1 and 30 Usability Issues2 we’ve published before,we’ll cover more principles of effective design in our following posts. 1. 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement You don’t have to agree upon everything. As a professional web developer you are the advocate of your visitors’ interests and needs; you have to protect your understanding of good user experience and make sure the visitors will find their way through (possibly) complex site architecture. And this means that you need to be able to protect your position and communicate your ideas effectively — in discussions with your clients and colleagues. In fact, it’s your job to compromise wrong ideas and misleading concepts instead of following them blindly. In this context nothing can support you more than the profound knowledge of fundamental issues related to your work.
In this article we present 30 important usability issues, terms, rules and principles which are usually forgotten, ignored or misunderstood. Usability: Rules and Principles You can learn more details about Shneiderman’s Rules For Design in Wikipedia: Shneiderman’s rules for design. Psychology Behind Usability It's done. 10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement Sometimes you just want to get the information you’re after, save it and move along. And you can’t. Usability nightmares — which are rather the daily routine than an exception — appear every now and again; usually almost every time you type your search keywords in Google. In his article “Why award-winning websites are so awful1” Gerry McGovern points out that “the shiny surface wins awards, real substance wins customers” and that is absolutely true.
Nevermind what design you have, and nevermind which functionality you have to offer — if your visitors don’t understand how they can get from point A to point B they won’t use your site. In almost every professional design (except from special design showcases such as, e.g., portfolios) you need to offer your visitors a clear, self-explanatory navigation,precise text-presentation,search functionality andvisible and thought-out site structure. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 11 are links, and 2, 5, 8, 9 and 10 aren’t. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.