WEB ARCHITECTURE:
Designing Your Own Page
by: Carolyn G. Agmata
Psy 409a, G11
by: Carolyn G. Agmata
Psy 409a, G11
Table of Contents
Introduction
Earlier
Generations
Web
Designing Principles As I See It
Psychological
Aspects to Web Design
What's
It Like to Become a Web Designer
Annotated
Index to Web Design
Like I've mentioned earlier, this
is my "second attempt" with Dr. James. I took his Traffic Psychology
class in the summer of '98 and that was such a great experience.
At first, I was hesitant because I knew little about the basic computer
programs and nothing about HTML. The one thing I knew how
to do then was e-mail and a bit of surfing here and there. I even
thought about dropping the class the first day when he gave the students
the syllabus. All of the assignments looked overwhelming. And
yes it was! Although it was time consuming and all, everything was
worth doing by the end of the semester. Then compared to now, I must
admit, things have changed. From the amount of work to be done, to
the instructions, to the way we do orals and discussions, and so fourth.
I shall say that with this time around, I'm gaining more and more.
Every day is a learning process, especially with more people exploring
the web and other programs being developed such as the Road Runner.
I'm now enrolled in Cyber-Psychology, Generation 11 and it's going pretty
smooth. Hopefully I'll survive it through like I did in G9.
Cherisse
Eguchi mentioned that she really didn't have the interest in
computers. Her initial reaction was "FORGET IT!" It got frustrating
for her at times, yet whenever she would learn something new, she'd feel
the drive to figure out more. In addition to that, within three months,
she have become very "into computers". Ever since she overcame her
technophobia, It's now a daily necessity for her to use her personal computer.
Cherisse concludes that there are some things that books don't tell you...it
gets easier due to "practice and experience".
It shows that
Cherisse is more than willing to face new challenges. I agree with
what she said about the work we do: "I have come to appreciate my own work
as well as the work of other students who have taken this online course".
Her enthusiasm and positive attitude just pushes me to do more.
Flordeliza
Finta talked about her trip to Korea and how she discovered "Feng Shui"
which is an ancient Chinese philosophy that helps us to live in harmony
in our environments. She used the term to explain what it takes for
an "auspicious" website. She says in order to achieve a good Feng
Shui site you must 1) balance light and dark colors, 2) focus on what your
site is all about, and 3) design it as an extension of your personality.
Flordeliza really
emphasizes the point of being yourself. I thought that it was an
outstanding statement because who are we to deceive? Aside from that,
she was very unique in applying the word Feng Shui with designing a website.
Aaron
Libed wrote in big bold letters "IN THE BEGINNING, I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT
WEB DESIGN!". He adds that if your links don't work or your page
doesn't look to appealing, there's no need to worry because "everyone who
does HTML and Java programming began where you are right now".
Although Aaron
had a bit too many icons, he did a great report. It was honest and
creative. I like the fact that he admitted to being scared and that
it didn't stop him from "getting the computer in ways he never thought
possible". I feel that Aaron's a straightforward person who doesn't
let anything stand in his way.
Brandon
Suetsugu wanted to learn how to make home pages so he signed up for
the class. He advises the future generations to not give up.
He also said "you'll notice the difference when you are not pressured to
put out a good report".
Brandon talked
mainly about other people's experiences when he should have shared more
about himself. He mentioned that "they seem to be rephrasing what
people already have said" or "so and so doesn't have a conclusion" or "this
person could use a little more explanations". I think Brandon's being
hypocritical here. He criticized their reports and didn't correct
it with his own.
CONCLUSION: Like most of us,
we started from scratch, literally knowing "0" about web design.
Nobody is perfect and there's always criticism...which is good because
you can learn from it and improve on it. Nevertheless, it surely
is worth it after getting the hang of it. There's always room for
improvements, but knowing that you've accomplished this much is more than
enough.
Jeff
Glover's site's purpose is to guide us for some direction and to help
us "learn about improvements we can make to our website to make it more
pleasant for our visitors". It contains ways to tell if you have
a sucky home page. They are as such: Blink, Auto Background
Music and Sounds, Loud Background Images, Gratuitous Use of
Frames, Overusing Image Maps, Construction Signs/Notes, Scrolling Marquees,
Javascript Alerts, and Ticker-Tape Status Bars. One site Jeff created
similarly is called "Top Ten Ways To Tell If You Have A Sucky Home Page".
Here's what they include:
10. Your header picture is over 50K!
9. You put up a 400K picture of yourself, and you
appear in the lower-left 20K!
8. We can only stomach so many pictures of your
pets.
7. Obnoxious background music.
6. You use bad, bad, bad, bad scans.
5. Ticker Tape Status Bars
4. You use Construction pics on your page.
3. Your home page consists of a desperate plea for a
job.
2. Blink
1. You're on your own Hot List!
Although this
list is considered the top ten "sucky's", not everyone will agree with
it. For one, I use construction pictures on my pages that I'm working
on. I feel that this is a way to tell people it's being "constructed".
And two, blinkers. In ways, blinking text/icons could be good
to use in order to stress whatever you're trying to express or advertise.
There are also
savvy things like the following:
Flexible Window Widths
Use Thumbnail Graphics
Use Height and Width Tags
ALT Tag Your Important Images
Include Contact Info
Be Unique!
Optional Plug-Ins
Again, you may not totally agree
with them. Jeff on the other hand, does "encourage you to create
your website however you want, regardless of what some doofus says is sucky
or a don't!" Furthermore, he says that good design is a matter of
your personal taste and style. That's one wonderful advice that I
will stand by him.
Leon James gave a lot of information about the Social Psychological Principles of Home Page Architecture. I will quote and comment on the following three that I liked best:
Cyberspace Home
"I find
that Home Pages are always under construction for those owners who are
personally involved. Constructing Home Pages on the World Wide Web is an
exciting activity! Just think: you have the world at your finger tips.
Because you determine what the browser sees and has access to, you are
acting like a virtual god -- building a cyberspace architecture through
virtual pathways to people's minds."
"The shape of cyberspace is dependent
on hypertext technology. The super-magical word here is "link." From the
outside perspective, a link is a virtual teletransporter on your Page.
Click on it, and in one or a few more seconds, you are inside someone else's
cyberspace castle. You can't tell by the travel time how far you've gone.
You can go from one of my Pages to a student Page that is physically located
on the same computer. Or you can go to a Page in Paris or Moscow or Tokyo
and it will take about the same amount of time. The time factor actually
varies and depends not on distance, but on traffic density. If 200 students
and 1000 visitors are all trying to look at the same Page at the same time,
they will each experience a few seconds of delay while the computer is
scrambling to serve each visitor's request to view something."
Constructing
a homepage is definitely an exciting activity. To be aware that anybody
who surfs the net or has access to it can actually view the hard work you
put into designing your site. You are the master, "virtual god" as
Dr. James puts it, of your design and you decide what you want people to
see. Whether it be for a class, creating resumes for jobs out there,
business, or even for personal wise, it's is very rewarding to have your
creation posted up on the web for the whole world to see.
Informational Content of Home
Pages
"We need to look at our Home Pages with
an objective eye. In general, we try to achieve two important results with
a Home Page. One is that it should be clear (unconfusing), informative
and useful. The other is that it should be beautiful, with a creative and
entertaining style. These two aspects can be discussed as the informational
and stylistic features of Home Pages."
"Whether long or short, we want our
Home Pages to be, above all, clear. Clarity and orderliness greatly help
the fight against confusion. Look at your Page and ask yourself how visitors
would react, where their eyes would go, what can they conclude, what clues
can you give them, what are they to do next, and so on. Therefore you need
to take charge of your Home Pages. You need to manage the visitors, choreograph
their steps (or hops), so to speak. Make them feel guided, rather than
left alone in an impersonal system."
I am in agreement
with Dr. James here. Our homepages shouldn't confuse anyone.
Making it clear, orderly, and informative, as well as beautiful and entertaining
will attract a lot of visitors. I try to impress people by being
creative with my pages instead of being loud nor boring.
Sylistic Features of Home
Pages
"Above all, be sure that visitors
don't end up waiting impatiently for your Page to load. No spiffy background
effect or spectacular images will be appreciated by cybernauts who have
to wait precious seconds for you to load just so you can show off!! So
how much is too long to wait? In my opinion, the shorter the better. As
a rule of thumb, I would say that anything more than 10 secs. is too long
to wait for a Home Page. This rule is different for long text files with
no images. These can be tolerated since they yield text or content, not
just appearance."
"The links need to be close together,
but not too close. Avoid wasting screen area (where there is nothing).
Avoid forcing visitors to keep paging down unless the text itself requires
it (as in reports). Avoid being frivolous since this is an educational
and scientific cybercommunity! On the other hand, it's good to have a certain
tone or mood that is definite and recognizable. This tone could be serious
or humorous (but not frivolous or adolescent). The ultimate purpose and
justification for links is to be useful in navigation for cybernauts."
I hate waiting
for pages to load! That's why I avoid over decorating with unnecessary
images or backgrounds. I get impatient after a minute or so when
it's being loaded. If it takes that long, I don't even bother to
check it. I just go to another option. One more thing that
I dislike is wasting screen space. I don't put too many spaces between
paragraphs, but I do only if I'm discussing a new subject. Pages
will look decent if it's well formatted.
Honestly, the first time I enrolled
in Dr. James' class, I had no idea what it was about. I just needed
to take an upper division writing intensive and since I am a Psychology
major, I took it to fulfill my requirements. Then when I bought the
books, I went hysterical. Since my mom paid for the class, I had
to try it out or else I'll be "busted". Without any knowledge of
HTML, I was forced to read Elizabeth Castro's book to actually start on
my own web page. I knew I wasn't the only one who was "lost" so I
took advantage of the "repeaters" and asked a lot of questions. And
ofcourse, I stayed in the lab for hours trying to figure out some stuff.
Despite this being my second time, I feel I am no professional. I
still have many things to learn. I can easily create a simple web
page but as far as ultimately beautifying and being really creative, I
gots lots to work on. I am more than willing to learn new options.
My advice to future generations is to never give up. As long as you
try your best, you'll never regret anything. For Dr. James, keep
on teaching these courses. It's really an informative class that
is beneficial to any individual!
When searching, I first "search"
in Netscape.
Here's some recommended sites that I found in Netscape for people who want
to know more...
- How
Do They Do That With HTML?
http://www.nashville.net/~carl/htmlguide/index.html
- HTML
User
http://www.zdnet.com/devhead/filters/html/
- Web
Monkey
http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/html/
Check this
site out there's many other links to view!
http://excite.netscape.com/directory/computing_and_internet/internet/web_design/html/
I also use Yahoo
or AltaVista.
