The Principles of Design (Posting Three)

The article the Principles of Design by Joshua David McClurg-Genevese speaks about the basic factors of designing for the web and how it guides the purpose for good design practice. In addition, it also speaks about how it affects the arrangement of objects within a composition.

On the whole, my interpretation of a good document design is based on simplicity and how users could interact with the website. I believe that if a website is simply not credible and contradicts the way it writes then users would choose another site which could provide more information to them. This is true when Jakob Nielson says ‘If a website is not easy to use, people simply leave’ (Nielson, 2006)

The author of the article also talks about some of the following examples of the principles of good design. He writes that most designers should focus on the balance which is the arrangement of the objects in a given design and comes in two forms symmetrical and asymmetrical. Then he moves on to rhythm which creates a sense of movement, and can establish pattern and texture. Besides that, he’s article also mentions about proportion which is the comparison of dimensions or distribution of forms, and lastly the dominance and unity. (McClurg, J. 2005)

As I mentioned prior to the examples of the principles of good design, users might tend to read an article if it is based on simplicity as well as simple facts. Meanwhile, Nielson (2006) also says that ‘‘People rarely read web pages word by word; they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences.’ (Nielson, 2006)

In addition, the multimodal text also plays an important factor in document design. Multimodal text is defined as spoken or written language as well as still or moving images. They may be produced on paper or electronic screen and may incorporate music and sound. (Walsh, 2006)
Subsequently, Walsh also says that multimodal text online develop meaning through the visual voice which includes positioning, perspective, offers and demands. In addition the visual style also plays an important element because it involves the arrangement of colour, graphics, animations and hyperlinks. (Walsh, 2006, p.35)

In conclusion, I consider the principles of design to be essential for web designers to follow if at all they would want a greater sense of readership and if they want users to interact with their websites and offer feedbacks.

Source: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/