E-learning Course
When looking over the topics on Openlearn.uk, I noticed a topic that I thought would be a good one. I chose Designing the User Interface as my topic. We have all taken classes in Information Architecture and User Centered Design, and we were told a few things that make sense as to why we do things a certain way. This e-learning module gives more reasoning behind these rules. We know not to put alot of banner ads, refrain from putting blue text on a red background, and not to have overly load music blaring on the start-up page. This module tells you why.
This class had some very nice items to it technology wise. They asked you to do some thinking, and instead of giving you the answers right away, it has a link with the answers that through AJAX drops down the answers to review. I thought this was a neat feature. Instead of testing you over the part you read, it asked you to think about the hows and whys of the subject. Then you relate what you read to their questions.
After completing the four hour class, here is what I took away from it.
Color choices:
There are a few things to remember when choosing your colors for a website, who is it for, what are its goals, and what are its users used to. Color psychology is important to convey the mood of your website. The red that you use to promote excitement, might be offensive to certain cultures. Certain colors of text on certain colors of background can cause a crawling effect on the screen. Blue and red are perfect examples.
Text:
Although there are only certain fonts that are available for web designs, typography is extremely important. The heirarchy that can be used to give visual excitement with the same font. This also allows users to see what is most important on a page and what is considered not as important. Once again, these are things we should know, but this module gives the reasons why.
Images:
Of course we all know that the images we use on websites need to be smaller and 72 dpi. This module helps in learning how we can use our images to greater effect. If you are building a website on the White House, diagrams and pictures would be necessary to show what it looks like. There are other instances where images are not needed. It is important to know when to use them and when not to. There is also a part on moving images, animation and video. This section goes over when to use animations and video and when not to and why. I found this particularly relevant.
Audio:
This section goes over screen readers and how important it is to provide viable text for these devices. We sometimes forget that there are users that will visit our websites that will be using these items. This module goes over the imporatance of sound, and how to use it effectively. Some great common sense items are here.
I would say overall that this would be a great learning assignment for beginning web designers, and those that want to design better designed user friendly websites.
