The Virtual Past

For this week (or rather next week…following Spring Break) the readings moved away from the theoretical to the practical with readings from Digital History on “Designing for the History Web”, and the importance of standardization.

Thematically, I think the underlying key words for this post is “usability and creativity.” How does one design a website with structure, but also aesthetic elements that are pleasing and professional? Especially when your willingness to learn is tempered by limits in time?

For this semester, (as mentioned in an earlier post) another graduate student and I have been working to redesign the American University History Department Website. Right now, it’s manageable…though filled with lots of white space, and a very unclear design structure.

Consequently, much of what was mentioned in the readings for this book have been pieces of information that Rob and I have subconsciously striven to uphold. For instance…though the site is not distinct in its application of history it still is a piece of the History web world, and so in an effort to make things easier (and the site more manageable in the long term) we have been struggling to learn and implement CSS though after a period that involved the gnashing of teeth, we reluctantly went back to tables–before going back CSS because I was introduced me to wonderful CSS templates through the Center for History and New Media…..

Anyway, that in essence was the hardest part—the basic aesthetic that we wanted to impart had already been written, it was through code manipulation and colors that we have been working to define/brand the site. As a result I find that we are working with those five principles from Robin Williams and John Tollet’s book The Non Designers Web Book: contrast, proximity, alignment, repeat. It is important to us, after looking at the old site, to import a greater sense of order so that someone coming in after us can get a sense an idea of how information has been allocated and communicated. Something as simple as using a neutral base color has made a world of difference…

In essence, each of these pieces: URL’s, images, font, multimedia, thumbnails versus actual size, light versus dark all must be balanced in the overarching effort to create a site that is both useable and creative.

In terms of web standards the list provided is rooted in common sense. Look Professional, Help your Client, Future Content sense and my favorite “Its the right thing to do.” which made me laugh a little. Industry standards aside, I can see how seperating design and structure from content can be a positive thing, opening new avenues for the look and feel of websites…to make things seem sleeker, and more real.

At the same time, and as a final comment, doesn’t that make it a little harder for just anyone to do? More languages, more coding, more graphic design elements…in a world where having your own website is a must, expanding what someone needs to implement that ‘must’ seems to be getting tougher…so what does that mean about the internet being accessible for everyone?

PS: I’m purposely not putting up a screen capture of the new website. We hope to have a prototype for everyone to review by the beginning of April. So stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 10th, 2006 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Weekly Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.