Web Design Principles
Overview
There are numerous sites on the web which dicuss guidelines for good design. One site that can be helpful in this regard is A List Apart, a web design eZine. A search on Google will quickly turn up more sites than you can check out.
Most of the sites which discuss principles of web design have lists of things you should and shouldn't do. A lot of the issues tend to deal with usability. Since my background is engineering, I have always wanted to learn more about the aesthetic principles. What I would like is a site which discusses and appplies to the web such general design principles as line, rhythm, color, focus, balance, proportion, texture, harmony, and composition.
Another approach that I like is to learn good design by studying bad design. Why not learn from the mistakes of others?
Web Resources
- A List Apart (Web Design eZine)
http://www.alistapart.com/index.html - The HTML Writers Guild
http://www.hwg.org/ - Web Style Guide
http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html?/contents.html - Links to resources
http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/Design/webdes.htm - Library of Michigan Powerpoint presentation
mel.lib.mi.us/toolkit/content/training/principles/ - Web Pages That Suck
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ - Typical list of things to avoid
http://www.ratz.com/featuresbad.html
Examples of unusual or poor web design
Note: These links will open a new browser window.
- bad background
http://trfn.clpgh.org/About/bad/badexample1.html - distracting background, poor color choices
boxback.html - broken graphics, annoying music, outdated "New" info
http://my.pclink.com/~dkelley/igcare.htm - page that is way too long
http://kishwaukeecollege.edu/faculty/dklick/cis161/objects2.html - non-intuitive navigation
http://www.robotsandmonkeys.com/ - hard to read, poor navigation
http://www.2advanced.com/ - annoying sound, excessive animation, hard to read
http://www.xs-engineering.com/ - hard to read, poor navigation, huge downloads, poor structure
http://www.volumeone.com/dev/bigframe.html - navigation problems, large download
http://www.2003.danilosandner.de/ - mystery meat navigation
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/workspheres/ - poor use of images, unprofessional site
http://sold.nu/ - annoying
http://www.zombo.com/ - long and too cluttered
http://www.brownielocks.com/ - pointless, large download
http://www.cow.be/ - multiple navigation areas leads to same spot
http://www.mace.co.uk/ - non-obvious navigation
http://www.thirddoordown.com/ - bizarre navigation for a major company
http://www.qualcomm.com/ - difficult to read
http://www.dsdesign.be/ - hideous navigation
http://www.verydisco.nl/ - COBOL can be cool?
http://www.ils-international.com/ - this site used to only have the Flash navigation (they fixed it)
http://www.erau.edu/ - bizarre navigation
http://www.timehunt.com/ - unusually fleeting navigation
http://www.risd.edu/ - poor navigation and other problems
http://francisfrancis.com/ - long downloads, questionable use of company marketing dollars
Note: Don't miss playing the "Great Root Bear" game
http://www.awrestaurants.com/ - quite a few links for a relatively short page
http://www.nv.gov/ - what's the point of this site???
http://www.pmld.org/ - bizarre navigation, not the most accessible site
http://www.rushofbloodtothehead.co.uk/ - more poor navigation
http://www.orchard.co.uk/modules/orchard.html - long downloads, strange navigation, popup descriptions that can't be read
http://www.oilily-world.com/ - too much stuff, long download
http://www.jerryosborne.com/ - redirection. long download, no reason for splash screen
http://www.healthnetwk.com/