Chapter 3 of the Crisp Reading was bout the visual and physical styles that gives off a particular force on your typographical practices. Going into this, I literally had no clue what this was referring to. Continue on through the chapter, the author describes two rules of typography . The two rules are aesthetic and pragmatic; which includes the type texture, test color, rags, and breaks. The author explains that these are important factors to typography, because it can make interesting and appealing type textures. I though this was interesting, because we already know about this stuff. However, the way it is described makes this chapter very interesting to read. I also like the way the author referred good three texture as ‘variables of specific darkness or lightness to paragraphs.’ Crisp goes on to explain that texture is a metaphor for the perceived surface quality of a paragraph. Rags and breaks help keep the shape of a paragraph and word-spacing and line height allows the paragraph to be more readable. Finally, text color and textures allow the paragraphs to feel more breathable. 

Continuing through the chapter, the chapter states references many tams referring to color and form when speaking about typography and art forms in general. The author works also add in snippets of what we read before, just to keep you thinking about the content before. I really liked that, because the author is referring to what your dad previously, so you can remember. I really liked that. All in all, it was a pretty easy read. This chapter really emphasized the value of good type, which is the foundation of any graphic design piece. 

Without leaving the homepage, what do you think is the main purpose of this website?

Without leaving the homepage, do you think there is anything missing on this page? Explain your answer.

TASK: Explore the website. Hover over the navigational bar and click on every tab. Be sure scroll through each page. Please take note of any comments you have below.

After exploring the website, did your trust in the organization, increase, remain the same, or decrease? Explain your answer.

When exploring the page, is there anything you think is ‘missing’ on the page(s). 

If there is something you’d change about the website as a whole, what would it be. Explain your answer.

After exploring the website, do you think there is anything missing on the homepage? Explain your answer.

Many internal debates can be solved with user testing. This was the main ideas of chapter 9 and 11. User testing can solve issues, hidden bugs, problems, etc. that normally would be caught by the designer(s). I thought this was interesting because it’s true. There has been many times that I didn’t notice a double space until someone pointed it out to me. As a designer you see the design as a whole, but most people who are visiting your web tie care more about the content. However, sometime the issues that are caught are not as big as they seem. Like stated previously, the book really goes into usability testing. The book states that it most often and not produces great end results. I never really understood optimal usability, until making a website. It never crossed my mind when initially redesigning the Morgantown Farmers Market’s website that all of my design work really doesn’t mean anything to someone that is blind. That person is here only for the content and user testing can help you find out what is the most optimal way to organize that content. Something else I thought was interesting is the notion that doing numerous test gives you a better outcome comparatively to doing very little testing. Continue reading, the book states that the content that should be tested are the welcoming message, questions, home page tour, tasks, probing and concluding. I noticed a lot of this is most homepage affiliated stuff, but I understand why. If your homepage is not interesting and intuitive enough, then it would persuade the visitor to continue clicking on your site. If the website is hard to navigate or have misleading headings, it could, as the book said, diminish the goodwill of the website, however, making thing easier increases that. I remembered back when we did the card sorting, which was exactly what this is referring to. Something else I thought was interesting was the comparative to giving your information to a random stranger. You wouldn’t give your personal information to a stranger, unless you felt that that person is trustworthy. Then, you should not ask for any personal information at the beginning of your website either. You don’t know this website, and you don’t know if it seem trustworthy with your information. This puts things in puts things in perspective, because I realized when researching other websites that not a lot of websites have a place to put personal information on the homepage. There is always a link that will take you to a place to put that said information. All in all, user testing is very important. Without user testing, there can be a huge disconnect between the audience and the designer. The designer may have a particular vision when designing a website, but the audience isn’t there to see your beautiful use of typography or your beautifully animated gifs that animate when hover over. At the end of the day, they are there for there content and our jobs as web designers is help the viewer navigate that content as easy as possible. 

https://www.vr-sessions.com

https://index.studio

https://trends.hautehorlogerie.org/#!/en/2015/home

http://weaintplastic.com

http://adafarmersmarket.com

I loved this site, because I enjoyed the navigational bars on the top and bottom. Along with that, I loved the photo gallery on the ‘Home’ tab.

https://www.tburgfarmersmarket.com

This site is really interesting to me. Again withe footer, they put their sign-up form in the bottom of the home page, and I loved that.

Good Navigation Design

Bad Navigation Design

Chapter 5. Omit Needless Word was an interesting chapter, especially with its inclusion of humor. As the title implies, this chapter is about writing for the web, and how you, as the web designer need to only keep was is necessary. As the author simply puts is,”Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” Reading this, I was initially astonished, because as the designer, I sometimes can’t control how much information my client wants on their website. What am I supposed to do then? Continuing the chapter, the author stated the reasoning for the removal text and how to tell your message with fewer words. One section of the chapter explained why happy talk must die. Reading this section was very insightful. A lot of the times when we write, we are conditioned to write a certain minimum or maximum amount of words, so  we add a lot unnecessary fluff. I’m definitely guilty of doing this. As a web designer, we need to think straight to the point. When designing my mini-site, I was using ‘happy talk,’ which made some sections extremely long and bulky. After revising over and over, I realized that I could say what I want with a single line of text. As the book would say,” I was putting a lot of blah blah blah in my website, whereas I should be writing single phrases and one line sentences.” Continuing reading, another section talked about why instructions must ‘die.’ Just like the precious section, this was about getting rid of unnecessary instructions, because it creates too much noise. I felt this was rather repetitive, because a previous chapter explained that the viewer would like to feel like they’re on the right track even though they don’t know what they’re doing. The feeling of confidant clicks is what the visitor of the site is looking for. 

Chapter 6. Street signs and Breadcrumbs was another good chapter. Before reading tis chapter, I’ve been really enjoying the quotes in the beginning of each chapter. Those quotes really sums up the chapter in a sentence or two, and most, if not all, of the quotes are rather funny. This chapter is about deigning the navigations of a website. I believe the navigations are some the most important pieces of content of a website, and this chapter supports that. Continuing reading, the chapter relates how you should design the navigational bar to a grocery store. I thought this relationship was actually pretty cool. You know what you’re looking for when you’re in the store, and the store has signs that is related to what you’re looking for. I thought this was a really good real-world example. When creating our navigational bar for our next project, I will definitely keep this exhale in mind. Later in the chapter, there is a section that explains the basics when it comes to designing the navigations of the website. This list of instruction was solidified by the example of the store. By far, this section stuck with me the most.  

Chapter 3, 4 and 7 where all very interesting, unique and gave some new insight about design. Chapter 3 Billboard Design was the first chapter. As the name implies, it talks about billboard design, and how some principles of billboard design is used in web design. The first parts about what makes a good billboard; making it to be scanned not read, eliminate all distractions in the design, make things obvious, and etc. These are principles that I already knew, however, there was something that caught my eye. It read,” If you’re going to innovate, you have to understand the value of what you’re replacing (or as Dylan put it, “To live outside the law, you must be honest”), and it’s easy to underestimate just how much value conventions provide.”

I thought this was very interesting, because it brought up something very important. If we as designers innovate something, we rarely ask the question of the value of what we’re replacing. This is relevant to app and web design, because if we want to innovate and create brand new icons, then no-one will know their meaning. Of coarse this doesn’t apply to all aspects of design, but I thought it was interesting for app and web design. Later it states that the author isn’t saying not to be creative, rather, they are saying make as many aesthetic decisions as you want. Although, the authors says that clarity trumps consistency, which I don’t really agree with. I believe you can make something with a clear and concise aesthetic while keeping the app or website understandable. 

Chapter 4 Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral was a very interesting, and sometimes funny, chapter. It starts off saying that users like mindless choices, which made me chuckle a little. While reading the chapter is states that it doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice. I was thinking about this and it’s so true. When you go to a site, you have an agenda and you don’t care how many click it is until you reach your destination. You don’t know where you’re going, but you don’t care about how long it takes to find what you’re looking for. Then, when the author stated that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there, but it matters if the clicks you are doing make you feel confident that your are on the right track. This opened my third eye, because I will do this. If I don’t know her I’m going, I will still feel like I’m on the right track. 

Chapter 7 The Big Bang Theory of Web Design was interesting, because it explains the importance of getting people off on the right foot. This chapter really goes over how a site should be laid out and how hierarchy works. To be brutally honest, I really didn’t care about this section too much. I speed through this section an I didn’t really remember much of the section. It wasn’t as memorable as the other chapters. 

How To Grow A Designer

Growth in any sense is very difficult. A flower must grow in the right soil, watered the right amount, experience the right amount of sunlight, be in the right temperature, and only then, it will bloom, however, this strategy doesn’t work for every flower. You cannot grow an orchid in a field of sunflowers, so what do you do? You replace the orchid with another sunflower. You don’t cater to the single flower. You get rid of the single flower, so it can look like everybody else. This is relative to design today. We take logos using older, more stylized typefaces and change it to generic sans serifs. We take original logos with gradients and drop-shadows and turn them into outlines and silhouettes. We take the individuality and uniqueness out of each bouquet and replace every orchid, rose, and daisy with sunflowers. In this field of sunflowers, how could a designer grow? 

Becoming more uniform isn’t inherently bad. Designers learn to blossom from other designers, so if your favorite designer loves using sans serifs in all of his/her designs, then you’ll start mimicking that same process. You’ll incorporate something you learned from a professional into your own work and that’s okay. That is how you grow, but what is not okay is changing your work to look like everyone else. We can’t inform others that you need to give up your individuality and unique style to adhere to the standard. We need to inform others, especially young inspiring designers, that you should learn from other, not copy them.

Growing as a new designer is no easy task. You must go through many years of schooling, countless internships, and deal with the continuation of oversaturation of the same thing, but when you overcome these challenges, only then you will grow. 

Each are seamless to the environment, and the middle post is interactive. The people don’t know that they are participating.