Crap sites of the web unite!

Todays lecture was on Human computer Interfaces(HCI's).
Hci's are designed to aide the user and to make the operation of a computer more simple and user friendly. HCI's range from the Graphical user interface of an operating system, such as Windows Vista or Mac OSX. Features of these HCI's are things like the windows, tabs, drop down and pop up menus, or the much dreaded cascade menu(which single handedly pushed me to uninstall windows media player 10!). Icons are also used in these operating systems to help the user identify files, folders or programs more quickly. These HCI's replaced the DOS operating system, which was command based, instead of the array of colours, sounds and graphics that make up more modern operating systems. Today DOS only really exists as an emulated platform in windows ME,XP and XPpro. Although not user friendly it is very useful for more advanced users and often alot faster than going through all the windows,directories and menus of a HCI. HCI's are also used in websites. Web designers utilise lots of methods to add to the user experience and make there sites more appealing and useable. for instance text can be made bold or underlined to make it stand out, flashing text can also be used as well as using text that stands out from the background colour. Text can also be presented in different ways to add to its apperence. You can use CAPITAL LETTERS to make the words stand out from the page. or you can allign the text to the right with a jagged left edge to make it stand out from other infomation. Also the use of colours can be used to make the page more appealing although you should tread carefully in this area. You cannot choose a colour scheme to please everyone but you should hold certain things in mind when you choose the pallette of your design. As a rule you should limit yourself to 4 colours so the page will not become overdone. You should also bare in mind that not all monitors can display as many colours as others.some for example 256bit monocrome monitors can only display 256 colours and due to this many will not display correctly. for this reason it is advised that projects are designed in monocrome first. It is also important to concider that colours represent different things in different cultures, for example in the western world blue is a calming colour and is quite regal. But in japan it is concidered to represent "dirty work" or generally frowned on activity. As you can see user concideration is paramount in web design. Disabled users with disabilitys such as colourblindness cannot see certain colours and others can only see shades of grey. Even the healthy eye has problems with certain colour schemes. it is very difficult for the human eye to destinguish between the primary colours blue and red quickly.
In the end of the lecture we were shown examples of good and bad websites. radioqualia.va.com is a good example of a terrable website. the site had no real navigation and was just barely viewable icon leading to bland illegable text! it was soo bad it was frustrating to look at. Also arngren.net was an example of a totally overcrowded website! it was as bad as milliondollarhomepage.com, but atleast that guy made a cool million for barly any effort! i learned the web is great if sites are done well, however a poorly designed site is either annoying and frustrating or just simply a laughing stock!

peace
x