Session 07 - Images / User Experience and Design

Topics

1. Graphics and Images
2. JPEG
3. GIF
4. PNG
5. SVG
6. WebP
7. Comparison of Image Formats
8. Working with Images
9. Overview: User Experience
10. Strategy
11. Scope
12. Structure
13. Skeleton
14. Surface
15. Creating Links

Session 07 - Images / User Experience and Design, slide1
Graphics and Images, slide2
Graphics: Purpose, slide3
Graphics Formats for the Web, slide4
file or file or file -- Does it matter? , slide5
Graphics: Vector and Bitmap, slide6
Colors, slide7
Color Depth, slide8
Indexed Color Systems, slide9
Bitmap images: Size and Quality, slide10
Graphics Formats for the Web, slide11
JPEG, slide12
JPEG Compression, slide13
JPEG Compression Artifacts, slide14
GIF, slide15
Palettes, slide16
Palettes: Exact, Adaptive, Web 216, slide17
Adaptive Palette: Shift and Dither, slide18
GIF Images and Bit Depth: Color Shift, slide19
GIF Images and Bit Depth: Dither, slide20
Compression for Indexed GIF, slide21
Compression and Dithering, slide22
Transparency, slide23
GIF Animation, slide24
PNG, slide25
Compression for Indexed PNG, slide26
Compression and Dithering, slide27
Transparency, slide28
SVG, slide29
Basic SVG Shapes, slide30
United States Flag, slide31
Harvard Division of Continuing Education Shield, slide32
Massachusetts Map, slide33
Icons, slide34
SVG - Increasing Importance in the Future, slide35
SVG and D3 JS Library, slide36
WebP, slide37
Comparison of Image Formats, slide38
Cartoon Art, slide39
Working with Images, slide40
Start with Original PSD/AI/etc. or High Resolution 24-bit PNG, slide41
User Experience and Design, slide42
Overview: User Experience, slide43
Elements of User Experience, slide44
Elements of User Experience, slide45
Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams, slide46
Planning and Designing a Site: Resources, slide47
Strategy, slide48
Who are our Users?, slide49
What Audiences can be identified?, slide50
Audience(s), slide51
Audiences for an Academic Department, slide52
Audiences for a Fitness Club, slide53
Scope, slide54
Content, slide55
Think About the User, slide56
Structure, slide57
Structuring Content, slide58
Organize, slide59
Structural Models, slide60
Hierarchical, slide61
Biological, slide62
Open Directory Project, Yahoo! Categories, slide63
Too deep or too shallow?, slide64
Sequential, slide65
Organic, slide66
Site Architecture, slide67
Label, slide68
Labels - Are there conventions?, slide69
Skeleton, slide70
Page Components, slide71
Wireframes and Sketches - "Low" to "High" Fidelity, slide72
Navigation Systems, slide73
Harvard College, slide74
Breadcrumb Navigation, slide75
Clamshell navigation, slide76
Dropdown/Popout Menus, slide77
Multiple Navigation Modes, slide78
Surface, slide79
F-Pattern, slide80
Non-Designer's Design Book, slide81
Non-Designer's Design Book, slide82
Colors, slide83
Home Page -- Don't Make Me Think (Steven Krug), slide84
Don't make me think, slide85
Creating Links, slide86
The Scent of Links, slide87
Deep Linking, slide88
Old Example from Logan Airport (BOS) - Old Site, slide89
Old Example from Mass RMV, slide90
"Click Here", slide91
"Click Here", slide92
"Click Here" to prompt an action, slide93
"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better, slide94

Presentation contains 94 slides

Graphics and Images

Simply Chocolate

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

NASA

Graphics: Purpose

• Content
• Design

Images and Markup

Two ways of including images:

1. Markup: img element
   • alt attribute
   • height and width attributes

   <img src="images/shield.png"
    alt="Harvard Veritas" height="328" width="281"/>

2. CSS: background-image property

   #header {
     background-image: url(images/shield.png);
     background-repeat: no-repeat;
   }

Graphics Formats for the Web

PNG

Portable Network Graphic

.png

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group

.jpeg or .jpg

SVG

Scalable Vector Graphic

.svg and .svgz

WebP

WebP is a modern image format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. Using WebP, webmasters and web developers can create smaller, richer images that make the web faster.

.webp

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format

.gif

Other formats

Image formats you might encounter, but aren't super-relevant for the web:

• TIFF
• JPEG 2000 (JP2)
• HEIC (Apple Live Photos)
• RAW
• BMP

file.jpg or file.JPG or file.jpeg -- Does it matter?

JPG or jpg

• Yes. If your filename is "beach.JPG" then you need to reference it as "beach.JPG" -- having "beach.jpg" in the URL won't work!
• No. As long as the case of your filenames match the case in your URL references you'll be fine.

jpeg or jpg

• No. Media types can be mapped to multiple file extensions, so generally either picture.jpg or picture.jpeg filenames are fine.
  And for JPEG images, the media type (also known as MIME type) is "image/jpeg"

Graphics: Vector and Bitmap

Bitmap	Vector
Original image (PNG):	Original image (SVG):
Magnified (16x)	Magnified (16x)
Bitmap formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF	Vector formats: SVG

Colors

RGB Color Space

Color Depth

• RGB color is a 24-bit system (16 million colors)
• 8 bits (256 colors) for each channel (red, green, blue).

  2⁸x2⁸x2⁸ = 2^{(8 + 8 + 8)} = 2²⁴x = 16,777,216

RGB

• Three channels specified with decimal values (each channel 0 to 255):
  rgb(50, 150, 0)
• Three channels specified with hexadecimal values (each channel 00 to ff):
  #993333
• Three channels specified with percentage values (each channel 0% to 100%):
  rgb(50%, 10%, 75%)

Indexed Color Systems

An 8-bit indexed image has a palette of up to 256 colors that the image can contain. Color information is not stored for each pixel, but rather just a reference to which color in the palette.

Palettes

• Exact (if 256 or fewer colors)
• Adaptive (weighted based upon colors in document)
• Web Palette (216 Web Safe Colors)
• System
  • Windows
  • Macintosh

But what happens to the other colors?

If you take a photo that is saved in an RGB system (millions of colors) and then convert it to an indexed system with 256 colors, what happens?

• dither
• color-shift

Bitmap images: Size and Quality

Factors that can contribute to image size:

• Dimension
• Compression
• Number of Colors

Graphics Formats for the Web

Property	GIF Graphics Interchange Format	JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group	PNG Portable Network Graphic		SVG Scalable Vector Graphics	WebP
Color System	8 bit indexed (256 colors)	RGB (24 bit; millions of colors)	8 bit indexed (256 colors) RGB (24 bit; millions of colors)		RGB	RGB
Compression	Lossless Compression (LZW; horizontal repeating units)	"Lossy" Compression (compression optimized for gradual color changes)	Lossless Compression		Lossless Compression	Lossless and Lossy
Other Features	.gif file extension Transparency Animation	.jpg and .jpeg file extensions No Transparency No Animation	.png file extension Transparency		.svg file extension Vector-based Transparency XML format	25% smaller than equivalent PNGs and JPEGs. Supports transparency
Typical Uses	Illustrations (logos, icons) Animated banners and icons Images with small dimension	Photographs	Any		Illustrations Graphs, Charts, Maps - 'plain' and 'interactive'	Any
Property	GIF Graphics Interchange Format	JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group	PNG Portable Network Graphic		SVG Scalable Vector Graphics	WebP
Photograph 250 × 188 px	29.3 kb	16.8 kb	25.8 kb (indexed, 8-bit)	81.9 kb (RGB, 24-bit)	N/A	9.6 kb
Illustration 148 × 179 px	1.47 kb	6.12 kb	1.02 kb (indexed, 8-bit)	1.89 kb (RGB, 24-bit)	0.575 kb (compressed, 1.7 kb uncompressed; RGB, 24-bit)	0.724 kb

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group

Property	JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
Color System	RGB (24 bit; millions of colors)
Compression	"Lossy" Compression (compression optimized for gradual color changes)
Other Features	.jpg and .jpeg file extensions No Transparency No Animation
Typical Uses	Photographs
Property	JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
Photograph 250 × 188 px	16.8 kb
Illustration 148 × 179 px	6.12 kb

JPEG Compression

The amount of compression (quality of image) for a JPEG image can be chosen (from a scale of 0 to 100). The image quality is inversely related to the amount of compression since the compression algorithm is "lossy".

Properties	Image
Quality: 80 34.1 kb
Quality: 70 26.0 kb
Quality: 60 22.4 kb
Quality: 50 17.0 kb
Quality: 40 14.3 kb
Quality: 30 6.97 kb
Quality: 20 4.80 kb
Quality: 10 3.75 kb
Quality: 1 3.21 kb

JPEG Compression Artifacts

Typically first appears at boundaries in images. Portions of image can also become "blocky".

Schlieren at boundaries:

Blockyness

GIF

Property	GIF Graphics Interchange Format
Color System	8 bit indexed (256 colors)
Compression	Lossless Compression (LZW; horizontal repeating units)
Other Features	.gif file extension Transparency Animation
Typical Uses	Illustrations (logos, icons) Animated banners and icons Images with small dimension
Property	GIF Graphics Interchange Format
Photograph 250 × 188 px	29.3 kb
Illustration 148 × 179 px	1.47 kb

Palettes

An 8-bit indexed image has a palette of up to 256 colors that the image can contain. Color information is not stored for each pixel, but rather just a reference to which color in the palette.

Palettes

• Exact (if 256 or fewer colors)
• Adaptive (weighted based upon colors in document)
• Web Palette (216 Web Safe Colors)
• System
  • Windows
  • Macintosh

Palettes: Exact, Adaptive, Web 216

Exact Palette
Image	Palette
Adaptive Palette
Image	Palette
Web 216 Palette
Image	Palette

Adaptive Palette: Shift and Dither

Color Shift

Image (16 colors; Color Shift)	Zoom

Dither

Image (16 colors; Dither)	Zoom

GIF Images and Bit Depth: Color Shift

Properties	Image	Palette (adaptive)
8 bit 256 colors 46.3 kb
7 bit 128 colors 36.2 kb
6 bit 64 colors 28.9 kb
5 bit 32 colors 21.9 kb
4 bit 16 colors 16.5 kb
3 bit 8 colors 10.9 kb
2 bit 4 colors 7.31 kb
1 bit 2 colors 2.84 kb

GIF Images and Bit Depth: Dither

Properties	Image	Palette (adaptive)
8 bit 256 colors 64.9 kb
7 bit 128 colors 52.3 kb
6 bit 64 colors 43.4 kb
5 bit 32 colors 34.7 kb
4 bit 16 colors 26.7 kb
3 bit 8 colors 18.6 kb
2 bit 4 colors 14.2 kb
1 bit 2 colors 5.86 kb

Compression for Indexed GIF

GIF LZW compression operates on horizontal blocks of the same color. Here are two images that are identical except for a 90 degree rotation. The vertical stripe GIF image is nearly twice as large as the horizontal stripe GIF image. The PNG images are the same size.

Format	Horizontal Stripes	Vertical Stripes
GIF	471 bytes	911 bytes
PNG	232 bytes	221 bytes

Compression and Dithering

A purple shade was created by alternating red and blue pixels.
32× magnification:

200×200px Image, Dithered and Solid

Image Format	Dithered Grid	Solid
PNG	225 bytes	209 bytes
GIF	601 bytes	303 bytes

Transparency

With PNG images, a color in the palette can be designated as "transparent". This lets any background colors or background images show through the transparent portions.

Star Image

Background Image
(satin.png)

Format	Background Color (gray)	Background Image satin.png
GIF No transparency
GIF White is transparent
GIF Blue is transparent
PNG No transparency
PNG White is transparent
PNG Blue is transparent

GIF Animation

• GIF supports animation
• giphy.com

PNG

Property	PNG Portable Network Graphic
Color System	8 bit indexed (256 colors) RGB (24 bit; millions of colors)
Compression	Lossless Compression
Other Features	.png file extension Transparency Animation through non-standard extension
Typical Uses	Any
Property	PNG Portable Network Graphic
Photograph 250 × 188 px	25.8 kb (indexed, 8-bit)	81.9 kb (RGB, 24-bit)
Illustration 148 × 179 px	1.02 kb (indexed, 8-bit)	1.89 kb (RGB, 24-bit)

Compression for Indexed PNG

PNG images use a different compression algorithm than GIF. Note that for PNG, the vertical and horizontal striped images are the same size.

Format	Horizontal Stripes	Vertical Stripes
PNG	232 bytes	221 bytes
GIF	471 bytes	911 bytes

Compression and Dithering

A purple shade was created by alternating red and blue pixels.
32× magnification:

200×200px Image, Dithered and Solid

Image Format	Dithered Grid	Solid
PNG	225 bytes	209 bytes
GIF	601 bytes	303 bytes

Transparency

With PNG images, a color in the palette can be designated as "transparent". This lets any background colors or background images show through the transparent portions.

Star Image

Background Image
(satin.png)

Format	Background Color (gray)	Background Image satin.png
GIF No transparency
GIF White is transparent
GIF Blue is transparent
PNG No transparency
PNG White is transparent
PNG Blue is transparent

SVG

Property	SVG Scalable Vector Graphics
Type	Vector
Color System	RGB
Compression	Lossless Compression
Other Features	.svg file extension Transparency XML format Uses CSS properties!
Typical Uses	Illustrations (logos, icons) Vector Art
Illustration 300x300px	575 bytes compressed; 1.7 kb uncompressed

Basic SVG Shapes

Basic Shapes in SVG 1.1

SVG:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
<svg width="300" height="200" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1">
  <rect x="100" y="100" height="30" width="70" rx="10" ry="10"
    style="fill:green; stroke: black;"/>
  <circle cx="50" cy="20" r="15" style="fill:red; stroke: black;"/>
  <ellipse cx="60" cy="75" rx="15" ry="40" fill="yellow" stroke="black"/>
  <line x1="10" y1="3" x2="30" y2="70" stroke-width="5" stroke="magenta"/>
  <polyline fill="none" points="160,15,170,25,180,15,190,25,200,15,210,25,220,15"
    stroke="blue" stroke-width="3"/>
  <polygon points="100,80,150,40,200,60" fill="orange" stroke="black"/>
  <path d="M0 0 C 10 20, 30 20, 40 0" style="stroke: black; stroke-width: 3px; fill: transparent"  transform="translate(-20,-30)"/>
</svg>    

United States Flag

Harvard Division of Continuing Education Shield

Massachusetts Map

Election results by town.

Icons

SVG - Increasing Importance in the Future

• Vector (size and resolution advantages)
• HTML5 canvas element
• CSS control
  • CSS stylesheets
  • SVG style attributes same/similar to CSS properties

SVG and D3 JS Library

D3.js
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.

WebP

• WebP

358 kb WebP vs 538 kb JPEG

1920 x 1280 px

Comparison of Image Formats

Graphics Formats for the Web

Property	GIF Graphics Interchange Format	JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group	PNG Portable Network Graphic		SVG Scalable Vector Graphics	WebP
Color System	8 bit indexed (256 colors)	RGB (24 bit; millions of colors)	8 bit indexed (256 colors) RGB (24 bit; millions of colors)		RGB	RGB
Compression	Lossless Compression (LZW; horizontal repeating units)	"Lossy" Compression (compression optimized for gradual color changes)	Lossless Compression		Lossless Compression	Lossless and Lossy
Other Features	.gif file extension Transparency Animation	.jpg and .jpeg file extensions No Transparency No Animation	.png file extension Transparency		.svg file extension Vector-based Transparency XML format	25% smaller than equivalent PNGs and JPEGs. Supports transparency
Typical Uses	Illustrations (logos, icons) Animated banners and icons Images with small dimension	Photographs	Any		Illustrations Graphs, Charts, Maps - 'plain' and 'interactive'	Any
Property	GIF Graphics Interchange Format	JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group	PNG Portable Network Graphic		SVG Scalable Vector Graphics	WebP
Photograph 250 × 188 px	29.3 kb	16.8 kb	25.8 kb (indexed, 8-bit)	81.9 kb (RGB, 24-bit)	N/A	9.6 kb
Illustration 148 × 179 px	1.47 kb	6.12 kb	1.02 kb (indexed, 8-bit)	1.89 kb (RGB, 24-bit)	0.575 kb (compressed, 1.7 kb uncompressed; RGB, 24-bit)	0.724 kb

Cartoon Art

GIF	PNG	JPEG	SVG	WebP
GIF 1,511 bytes	PNG; 8 bit 1,031 bytes	JPEG (Quality 100) 14,660 bytes	SVG 575 bytes (compresssed)	WebP 725 bytes
	PNG; 24 bit 1,944 bytes	JPEG (Quality 6) 1,530 bytes

Original image from the works of David P. Heitmeyer

Working with Images

Graphics Tools

• Pixlr (Web, Desktop, Mobile)
• Adobe
  
  • Installing Adobe Creative Cloud software, including Acrobat, Photoshop, etc.
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
• Gimp (Open Source)
• Corel
  • PaintShop
  • CorelDRAW
• Gravit
• Acorn
• Affinity Photo (Mac Only)
• Sketch

Start with Original PSD/AI/etc. or High Resolution 24-bit PNG

• If you contract out: get the original/source files!
  Keep track of them!
  Make sure others know!
• Always start with the original file format (e.g. PSD, AI, etc.) or high-resolution 24-bit PNG.
• Size images accordingly!
  • Don't shrink full-resolution images by using "height" and "width" CSS
  • Don't enlarge images from smaller ones -- you can only go one way (larger to smaller)

User Experience and Design

Topics

1. Graphics and Images
2. JPEG
3. GIF
4. PNG
5. SVG
6. WebP
7. Comparison of Image Formats
8. Working with Images
9. Overview: User Experience
10. Strategy
11. Scope
12. Structure
13. Skeleton
14. Surface
15. Creating Links

Session 07 - Images / User Experience and Design, slide1
Graphics and Images, slide2
Graphics: Purpose, slide3
Graphics Formats for the Web, slide4
file or file or file -- Does it matter? , slide5
Graphics: Vector and Bitmap, slide6
Colors, slide7
Color Depth, slide8
Indexed Color Systems, slide9
Bitmap images: Size and Quality, slide10
Graphics Formats for the Web, slide11
JPEG, slide12
JPEG Compression, slide13
JPEG Compression Artifacts, slide14
GIF, slide15
Palettes, slide16
Palettes: Exact, Adaptive, Web 216, slide17
Adaptive Palette: Shift and Dither, slide18
GIF Images and Bit Depth: Color Shift, slide19
GIF Images and Bit Depth: Dither, slide20
Compression for Indexed GIF, slide21
Compression and Dithering, slide22
Transparency, slide23
GIF Animation, slide24
PNG, slide25
Compression for Indexed PNG, slide26
Compression and Dithering, slide27
Transparency, slide28
SVG, slide29
Basic SVG Shapes, slide30
United States Flag, slide31
Harvard Division of Continuing Education Shield, slide32
Massachusetts Map, slide33
Icons, slide34
SVG - Increasing Importance in the Future, slide35
SVG and D3 JS Library, slide36
WebP, slide37
Comparison of Image Formats, slide38
Cartoon Art, slide39
Working with Images, slide40
Start with Original PSD/AI/etc. or High Resolution 24-bit PNG, slide41
User Experience and Design, slide42
Overview: User Experience, slide43
Elements of User Experience, slide44
Elements of User Experience, slide45
Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams, slide46
Planning and Designing a Site: Resources, slide47
Strategy, slide48
Who are our Users?, slide49
What Audiences can be identified?, slide50
Audience(s), slide51
Audiences for an Academic Department, slide52
Audiences for a Fitness Club, slide53
Scope, slide54
Content, slide55
Think About the User, slide56
Structure, slide57
Structuring Content, slide58
Organize, slide59
Structural Models, slide60
Hierarchical, slide61
Biological, slide62
Open Directory Project, Yahoo! Categories, slide63
Too deep or too shallow?, slide64
Sequential, slide65
Organic, slide66
Site Architecture, slide67
Label, slide68
Labels - Are there conventions?, slide69
Skeleton, slide70
Page Components, slide71
Wireframes and Sketches - "Low" to "High" Fidelity, slide72
Navigation Systems, slide73
Harvard College, slide74
Breadcrumb Navigation, slide75
Clamshell navigation, slide76
Dropdown/Popout Menus, slide77
Multiple Navigation Modes, slide78
Surface, slide79
F-Pattern, slide80
Non-Designer's Design Book, slide81
Non-Designer's Design Book, slide82
Colors, slide83
Home Page -- Don't Make Me Think (Steven Krug), slide84
Don't make me think, slide85
Creating Links, slide86
The Scent of Links, slide87
Deep Linking, slide88
Old Example from Logan Airport (BOS) - Old Site, slide89
Old Example from Mass RMV, slide90
"Click Here", slide91
"Click Here", slide92
"Click Here" to prompt an action, slide93
"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better, slide94

Presentation contains 94 slides

Overview: User Experience

Elements of User Experience

• The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
• Planes Poster - Detailed
• The Elements of User Experience -- Harvard Library Online Resource

Elements of User Experience

• The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
• Simple Planes Poster

Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams

Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams by Jesse James Garrett

Planning and Designing a Site: Resources

• 
  Williams, Robin. The Non-designer's Design Book : Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice. Fourth ed. 2015.
  • Harvard Library: The non-designer's design book by Robin Williams
• 
  Krug, Steve. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Third ed. 2014.
  • Harvard Library - Online Resource

And some others

• 
  Garrett, Jesse James. The Elements of User Experience : User-centered Design for the Web and beyond. 2nd ed. Voices That Matter. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2011.
  • Harvard Library - Online Resource
• 
  Lynch, Patrick J, and Horton, Sarah. Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
• 
  Rosenfeld, Louis, Morville, Peter, and Arango, Jorge. Information Architecture: For the Web and beyond. Fourth ed. 2015.
  • Harvard Library - Online Resource

Strategy

Clear and explicit understanding of

• What does the company/organization want from the site? What is "success"?
• What do the users want from the site?

Who are our Users?

• Most sites get a variety of users
• Some audiences will be "primary", others "secondary"
• What are the target audience(s) and what are their information needs?

Most sites will have multiple audiences.

What Audiences can be identified?

University of Colorado

Dell

FDIC

Audience(s)

• Who are they?
• What are their goals?
  • their information needs
  • tasks/actions they are performing

Know Your Audience

• Be clear on who you are building for. Understand their needs.
• User testing, market research, focus groups.
• Feedback from users. Pay attention to what your users do, not just what they say.
• Keep in mind that as number of target audiences increase, difficulty of web design increases.

Audiences for an Academic Department

• Undergraduate Students
  • Concentrators (Majors)
  • Potential concentrators
  • Non-concentrators
• Graduate Students
• Potential Graduate Students
• Faculty
  • Current
  • Potential
• Researchers
• Public

Audiences for a Fitness Club

• Members
  • Variety of members - personal training, injury recovery, recreational, etc.
  • Swim Lessons and Swim Team
• Potential Members
  • For a variety of reasons

Additional Goal:

• Promote Training Program and Philosophy

Scope

Define content or functionality requirements.

What's "in" and what's "out" -- or at least what's "later".

Start broad, then narrow and refine.

Content

Questions to ask about content:

• Does it fit purpose of site?
• Does it suit the audience?
• Would your users find this useful?

Approaching a Project

• What content already exists in web or other media types (brochures, pamphlets, statements, etc.).
  • Adapt (or re-adapt) it for the web
• What content would be good to develop for the site?
  • Create it for the web
• Define incremental goals to avoid "scope creep"
  • Initial Phase
  • Additional Phases

Think About the User

Structure

Structuring Content

Organize, Label, (Navigate)

• Organize and Categorize
• Label
• Navigate

Organize

• Strategy-driven: Top-down
• Content-driven: Bottom-up

Plan for Growth

How to?

• Sticky-notes or index cards
• whiteboard or wall

Structural Models

• Hierarchical
  
• Sequential
  
• Organic
  

Hierarchical

Library of Congress Classification

"Q" - Science
"QC" - Physics

Biological

• Kingdom
  • Phylum
    • Class
      • Order
        • Family
          • Genus
            • Species

Catalog of Life

Open Directory Project, Yahoo! Categories

Too deep or too shallow?

Deep

Shallow

Sequential

Organic

Wikipedia.com

Site Architecture

• Topics
• Audience
• Task-Oriented
• Search
• Internal Organization

Label

• Know your audience
• Test your labels (ask your audience)
  • Card Sort - physical or online, e.g. Optimal Sort
  • Ask questions
    • Where can I get a driver for my HP8500N?
    • What would expect to find in the category of Synergetic Integrated Scalable Enterprise Solutions?
    • What IT degree programs are available?

Labels - Are there conventions?

Categories and Labels from News Sites

CNN

Fox News

ABC News

CBS

New York Times

NPR

BBC

NBC

Skeleton

Page Components

• Header
• Navigation
• Content
• Footer

Wireframes and Sketches - "Low" to "High" Fidelity

Sketches

Wireframes

Prototypes

Navigation Systems

• Where am I?
• Where can I go?
  • What is close by?
  • What is further away?
• Where have I been?

Don't Make Me Think: Navigation

• it tells us what's here
• it tells us how to use the site
• it gives us confidence in the people who built it

Harvard College

Breadcrumb Navigation

"Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.", Hansel in Hansel and Gretel

• Breadcrumb Navigation Increasingly Useful, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 10, 2007.

DMOZ

Harvard Summer School

Construction Projects at FAS, Harvard University

Clamshell navigation

Harvard Extension School

Safari

Dropdown/Popout Menus

Harvard University

O'Reilly Books

Amazon.com

"Mega" Dropdown Menus

The White House

Food Network

Multiple Navigation Modes

Surface

F-Pattern

F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content

Non-Designer's Design Book

The non-designer's design book by Robin Williams

Non-Designer's Design Book

The non-designer's design book by Robin Williams

Colors

• Non-Designer's Design Book: Chapter 7, Design with Color

Creating Color Palettes:

• paletton.com
• Adobe Color CC

Home Page -- Don't Make Me Think (Steven Krug)

• What is this?
• What do they have here?
• What can I do here?
• Why should I be here and not somewhere else?

Don't make me think

Don't make me think, revisited : a common sense approach to Web usability by Steve Krug

Three Princples of Usability

• Don't make me think.
• It doesn't matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.
• Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what is left.

Creating Links

• Predictable
• Differentiable

Build confidence by making your links predictable and differentiable.

The Scent of Links

Links within navigation and content must be:

• Predictable
  Am I getting 'closer' to my goal?
• Differentiable
  What is the difference between clicking here or clicking there?

When creating links:

• Be descriptive
  • Link several words or a phrase, not just one or two words
  • Use "title" attribute to elaborate
• Don't lie

Deep Linking

Deep linking:

Register for Harvard Extension School so you can take AAAS E-112, "Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food" .

<p>
  <p>
    <a href="https://www.extension.harvard.edu/registration-admissions">
    Register for Harvard Extension School</a> so you can take
    <a href="https://www.extension.harvard.edu/course-catalog/courses/chocolate-culture-and-the-politics-of-food/25963">
    AAAS E-112, "Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food"
    </a>.
  </p>

Not deep linking:

<p>
<a href="http://www.extension.harvard.edu/">
Register for Harvard Extension School
</a> so you can take
<a href="http://www.extension.harvard.edu/courses">
AAAS E-112, "Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food"
</a>.
</p>

Old Example from Logan Airport (BOS) - Old Site

Example from Boston's Logan Airport site:

Better!

Old Example from Mass RMV

To renew your registration, visit http://www.mass.gov/rmv

New Mass RMV

"Click Here"

Don't Use "click here"

Example from Boston's Logan Airport site:

"Click Here"

Better!

"Click Here" to prompt an action

Sometimes you can "Click Here" to Elicit an Action

"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better

"Learn More" Links: You Can Do Better by Katie Sherwin, Nielsen Norman Group.