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GDT 150 Design for the Internet: Fall 2001

Class Notes 9.18.2001

Using FTP

See Using FTP

Reading

Chapter 2

Web designed to share data

Usability - keep audience/ users in mind -- site people can use

Web design

- aesthetic
- emotional
- unquantifiable

Clarity, brevity, bandwidth

Tension

- structure vs. style
- function vs. aesthetics

Plaform independent

- variances:

- gamma (brightness)
- screen resolution
- color palettes
- typography

Device independent

Standards-based

Web is empowering, democratic medium

Viewer is in control

- change font size
- turn off images
- turn off javascript
- use different fonts and colors
- use different stylesheet
- people who do these things may be very vocal

Conserve bandwidth

- use text + code instead of graphics
- optimize graphics
- eliminate redundancy
- reuse graphics (cache)

Designing for variations in platform / device

Screen resolution

- liquid design

- percentage based

Color depth

- 24-, 32- bit (millions)
- 16-bit (thousands)
- 8-bit (256)
- websafe colors (216)

Gamma

- brightness
- PC's darker than macs

- inconsistent

Typography

- different system fonts

- limited number

- type resolution

- 72 ppi mac
- 96 ppi pc (33% larger)
- ie5 mac, ns6 mac use pc defaults, but...

- I changed my default resolution to be traditional mac (both mac browsers and pc)

- users can resize text size

Accessibility

- design for all users

Chapter 4

Just some history and context.