My name is Alison Howe and I am a Communication Studies major with an emphasis in Spanish at Western Washington University. I wasn't sure what it was I wanted to do with my life when I started college, which made it difficult to choose a direction when it came to classes and a major. One quarter, to fill a humanities elective, I decided to take a Spanish class for fun. I had taken three years of Spanish in high school and it had always been my best class, so why not? All of the sudden I was in college and realized Spanish was something I was passionate about. But what is a Spanish major alone applicable to? If I was in a job interview up against a native Spanish speaker without any other qualifications I would never get a job! So what would go well with my desire to speak Spanish for the rest of my life? A Communication Studies major, or so I was finally told. I am a very shy person in front of crowds, in front of most people actually. So would the shy girl go for a Communication Studies major? As I have learned throughout my experience as a Communication Studies student, communications is so much more than just learning how to talk to people. A Communication Studies major enables you to be that person on a team that can solve problems. You are that person that is versatile and able to take on whatever your boss throws at you. You are the critical thinker. So what do I want to do with my Spanish and Communication Studies BA? I don't know. Yet. But here in Jason's class we are learning to make websites, blogs, business cards, and that technical jazz that will help us in the business world. I don't know about the rest of my classmates, but I am pretty stoked!
As we are learning about web design in my Communication 350 course, Emerging Communication Technologies, it is important to look up the dos and don'ts of creating a website. This is what I found.
1. Simple is beautiful - the more clutter and unnecessary junk you have on your website, the less visually appealing it will be to the viewers and probably deter them from returning. This is also something we learned in Jason's class already.
2. Consistency is key - consistency among lines, colors, placement and buttons is crucial when designing your website so that visitors know where to find things and so that it is visually appealing
3. Fill the browser window - cramming everything into the center of the page will look unusual and even worse for users with large computer screens
4. First impressions - make your website interesting, simple, and user friendly so that a first time visitor will want to return again
5. Navigation - It should not be difficult to find your way around a website
6. Check your website for errors - constantly check all areas of your website for errors you may have made while updating so that your site remains appealing and professional
7. Have good content - while visual first impressions and navigation are important, just as important is the actual content of your website. Be interesting!
8. Write your own code - If you write your own code you will be able to understand what's going on if something goes wrong and have full control over how your website turns out
9. Design for multiple browsers - web pages do not look the same on all browsers, so look at your own website on multiple browsers to check that everything looks how you want it to
10. Color - Neon, clashing colors, or too much color, as we also learned in Jason's class, can deter a visitor because your website may just be too painful to look at!
Citations:
"Top Ten Rules of Web Design ." Sharpened Productions . Sharpened Productions , 13 Jun 2012. Web. 9 Oct 2013. <http://www.sharpened.com/web_design_rules>.
Vella , Matt . "The 10 Commandments of Web Design."businessweek.com . Bloomberg L.P. , 23 Jun 2008. Web. 9 Oct 2013. <http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-06-23/the-10-commandments-of-web-designbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice>.
"10 golden rules in accessible Web Design ." Information Providers Guide. N.p., 09 Sept 2013. Web. 9 Oct 2013. <http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/standards/accessibility/10_rules/>.
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