Week 5 articles

I just realized I never reviewed these two articles--how did that happen??

I think the take-home lesson from Five Principles to Design By is that "Good design is something that works well," versus art, which is something people like to look at. When design is good, people don't even think about it -- they're too busy getting all the information they came to your site for. I think that's a really good, simple thought we all need to keep in mind when doing our final projects. I really want my design to function effectively and help get users to what they want in a quick, efficient manner.

Of the 8 Web Design Tactics to Help You When You're Stuck, my favorite were numbers 1 and 2. The first, "design from the inside out," is really helpful because I often get so stuck on what my header will look like that I waste time on the project. If I start with the content, maybe that will help inspire my header. This is actually what I do with writing -- save the headline for last -- so it's good to see it pointed out and applied in another medium. The second tactic, drawing your layout on paper before designing it in a program, is something I always do, but am glad to see repeated over and over in our readings!