Unit 05 Reading Response

Unit 05 Reading Response

I found these two chapters to be very helpful for someone who is wanting to get into the world of website development. What I have noticed about this book is that it has a great way of bringing out the obvious which we often take for granted. We know that simple is what we all want, but for some reason, designers want to make things look flashy, complicated, and ostentatious. The result is the exact opposite of what we want.

Likewise, in this chapter, the idea of a focus group always sounds like a good idea, because the concept is what's been bred into our minds as the "correct" way to approach infallible design.

I was always under the impression that it was a focus group that was needed to make a nice website. However, over the course of the past few months, I have noticed that it's not been a focused group that I have been showing my site to for direction, but rather random people I work with who have very different objectives and hopes. Without realizing it, I have been using my coworkers as Usability testers. And, without realizing it, they have been helping me solve the most glaring issues. I have always been worried about taking care of the minute details, when I should have been focusing on fixing the main issues.

I loved reading the test script at the end of the 9th chapter. This was quite enlightening, as it shows what matters to everybody. The fact that the test subject talked about color first shows that designers should be focusing on the big things that are important to people, rather than focusing on the minute details that most people might not see, or ignore, or even disregard. Color is the most important aspect when it comes to design, and that was her first comment. Had it been a color of which she did not approve, she might have simply left without looking at what is important to the business / website itself.

For my project in this class (Portfolio Website) I have been using too much gray tones and shades, when I have been ignoring colors. I have also been trying to mix up textures and patterns as means of separation, when I should be keeping things simple and organized. This chapter was very helpful and I enjoyed reading it immensely.



Useful Websites:


http://www.gravitatedesign.com/blog/designers-and-developers/

http://www.two-cat.com/oldsitestuff/articles/developer.htm

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/5-pet-peeves-developers-have-with-designers-and-how-to-avoid-them/

http://designmodo.com/designer-vs-developer/

http://visual.ly/web-designers-vs-web-developers