The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Identifying Web Design Guidelines
In groups of 2-3, browse the list below and select six sites of your own choosing. Spend time exploring what these sites have to offer and how they go about presenting it. Come up with a written list of what you think makes for good and bad web design, as well as any examples of or exceptions to these "rules".Try to identify why you find particular features useful or attractive or annoying. Keep track of which features you see in each of the various sites so that we can look at them as we discuss these in class.
Here are some design features to which you might pay particular attention:
- Layout
- Color
- Styles
- Backgrounds
- Buttons, menus, & other imput features
- Images
- Text/Font
- Navigation
- Hierarchy/organization
- Interactivity
- Special features (Flash, animated gifs, sound, video, etc.)
- Communication features (chat rooms, mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.)
The
list below is a somewhat random collection culled from award-winning
and award-losing contests, Jennifer Sheppard's favorites, and design directories.
It was compiled to help you see the broad range of design approaches
out there on the web.
- Tolerance.org
- The Jason Project
- Breast Cancer Action
- Teenwire
- Peace Corps
- Idealist.org
- Human Rights Campaign
- Anti-Defamation League
- Amnesty International
- National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
- Witness- Using Video and Technology to Fight for Human Rights
- Taking it Global- Human Rights
- Yahoo Directory of Human Rights Organizations
- Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
- Coalition to Defend Affirmitave Action and Integration By Any Means Necessary
- PFLAG
- Protest Net
Design & Designers
- Dahlia Digital
- What Design
- Goto Media
- Wax Creative
- Gar Benedick
- Yugop.com
- WebQual
- Ender Design
- Pixel Surgeon
- Melon Design
- Swankytown
- Fischer
- Entropy 8
- Qaswa
- Feindesign
- Web Page Design for Designers
- Use-It.com
Disaster Relief/Humanitarian Agencies:
- Action Against Hunger
- American Red Cross
- BAPS Care International
- CARE
- Direct Relief International
- GOAL
- Habitat for Humanity
- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
- Islamic Relief
- Network for Good
- Oxfam International
- World Food Program
Blogs
Education and Science
- The Exploratorium
- eNature
- PBS Africa
- African Voices
- Adbusters
- Staten Island Zoo
- They Rule
- Becoming Human
- NOVA
Entertainment
Music & Audio
News, Zines, & Resources
- All Africa
- The Advocate
- Salon
- The Onion
- The Daily Show
- MSNBC
- Los Angeles Times
- Slashdot
- National Geographic
- Shift
- Spark
- Digg
- 37signals
- riya
- Techmeme
- Technorati
- Wikipedia
- Open Secrets
- The Smoking Gun
- The Drudge Report
Random