This was a long time coming. I must be the SLOWEST comic book artist on the planet. And… AND it’s not even a new strip. I’ve been very busy lately, that’s all I can say.
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Progressive Enhancement vs Graceful Degradation
December 19th, 2011 | by DavidPosted In: VISC_110 Web Design
So, it’s Christmas and you just got that big 42″ Hi Def Tv with the 3D option. So a couple weeks go by and you’re noticing the 3D just isn’t cutting it. The picture isn’t as sharp and the 3d just doesn’t pop like it did when it’s new. So you call up the company that made the tv and you ask that since you’re TV is still under warranty that you’d like to have the 3d repaired. They tell you that they’d be happy to fix the tv free of charge, but you’ll have re-wrap the tv and ship it directly to the manufacturer, paying for the shipping and handling yourself. By the time it’s over you might end up spending a 100 dollars and be out of a TV for 2 or 3 weeks! Well instead of getting the work done you decide the 3D just isn’t worth the hassle. You’re still able to enjoy the movie in glorious HD and besides it was eating up too much money in batteries for those so-so 3D glasses.
The World Wide Web kinda works like this when it comes to the latest and greatest vs. the tried and true. It’s a good practice as a designer to build in functionality so that as time goes on your work can still be presented in it’s best light, even if it’s not the latest technology. A great example of this would be the text shadow option in css. Some day this will be standard on all browsers. For the moment you need to insert something called a “Web kit” that tells a specific browser what to do. A careful designer would be sure to include a back up should the technology not be available on an older set up. By using good html structure a beautifully designed css website can still function when all of it’s bells and whistles are removed. It’s important that this built in structure remain intact in order to anchor the website just in case a browser has failed to update to the latest version. Other wise your website might just end up being a huge paper weight.
This subject is pretty important. With the advent of mobile web devises it’s never been more critical that designers pay attention to how their website looks in different medias. A website might look amazing in firefox on a laptop monitor but it might fall apart in Internet Explorer on somebodies old xp desktop computer. A designer needs to pay careful attention to how his website will react in almost every environment.
Responsive web design can anticipate these size discrepancies, and depending on the size of the media, restructure the appearance of the website with special css commands that adjusts it’s layout to better suite your device. Sometimes a restaurant will want to emphasize a special deal they are having. Or maybe they’ll want relevant information like a phone number to appear in a big bold font when searching on a mobile device. This can have an astronomical effect on the usefulness of the website and can pay for itself by bringing more business to a business.
To compete in today’s economy it’s absolutely essential that a website cater to as many of those mobile customers as possible. The future of the web is in the palm of your hand, literally. Mobile devices in conjunction with tablet devices are redefining the way we see the web.
Typography is a funny thing. Most of us don’t notice it and very few of know what it is. When it’s bad typography we have a funny feeling that something isn’t right, but we can’t quite put our finger on it. Typography, whether we like it or not, is with us almost every day and everywhere we go. If you’re reading this than you are experiencing some form of typography.
What most people don’t realize is that typography is the subtle art that gives grace to design. It’s that essential ingredient that communicates the intent of the writer by the placement of the text. Web designers and bloggers have unconsciously contributed to bad typography for years, without many resources to implement good print design practices.
Sure designers have used JPGs and proprietary software such as Flash to design at a higher level of quality, but it’s often come at the cost of accessibility and download speed. These days designers have more options with the introduction of the @font-face rule. This allows designers to pick from any font and embed it into the website.
This practice has opened up a whole other can of worms. Using the @font-face rule exposes a font to being downloaded illegally, thus creating an illegal distribution of copyrighted materials. Many free fonts are available that allow for this kind of access. Some high end font foundries will “host” the font and protect it from being downloaded illegally. The options for the designer are now limitless, but with bad practices being in place for so long is it possible for good typography to ever proliferate the web?
If you aren’t aware of it yet, I’ve got a new website up promoting my graphic design business at www.dimlightgraphics.com. I spent a few hours researching which color scheme I wanted to use. I didn’t consciously think about the meaning of those colors, I simply chose the colors that resonated the most with me. But let’s talk about those choices for just a moment.
www.precisionintermedia.com talks a little bit about the colors I’ve chosen:
“Psychology of Color: Gray
Gray is most associated with the practical, timeless, middle-of-the-road, solid things in life. Too much gray leads to feeling mostly nothing; but a bit of gray will add that rock solid feeling to your product. Some shades of gray are associated with old age, death, taxes, depression or a lost sense of direction. Silver is an off-shoot of gray and often associated with giving a helping hand, strong character (sterling in-fact!). ”
and…
“Psychology of Color: Orange
The most flamboyant color on the planet! It’s the color tied most this fun times, happy and energetic days, warmth and organic products. It is also associated with ambition. There is nothing even remotely calm associated with this color. Orange is associated with a new dawn in attitude.”
It’s true that I do have “ambition” and that I’m trying convey “practical and timeless” with my design. So in a way my choices were right on the money considering my intentions. I knew I didn’t want to use red because I’m not a pushy person and green, a color that symbolizes greed, wasn’t my first choice either. Blue is a nice color but I wanted something that was strong and blue didn’t seem to convey that to me. Again the timeless aspect of gray was a quality that I was looking for, so I was happy with that choice.
I did have a friend look at my website and his first impression was, “It’s too dark. The website you built for me is brighter and feels good.” I could understand his perspective. I felt if I made the website look like his then it wouldn’t create the right tone for what I wanted to convey. His website was designed to be inviting, open and friendly. The color scheme is blue and white (it can viewed at www.lobaczchiropractic.com). With my website I wanted to convey a serious “you can trust me” tone. “Practical and timeless” seems to fit that pretty well.
Color is not an exact science. My friend’s perspective of “Dim light Graphics” being too dark is a gut reaction and maybe his opinion is absolutely right. But again he could be completely wrong. That’s the thing about color, it’s subjective. Black in our country can represent morning while the very opposite color can convey the same thing in other parts of the world.
Color has a lot of power and can be used very effectively. It is wise to at least spend some time considering color before committing to any permanent color scheme.
There was a time when the capacity of expression within the internet medium dictated the creativity that was allowed to propagate. The complexity of programing html to reflect advertising and graphic design aesthetics proved to be too big of a chore for most html programmers. Most users simply wanted their content, to read the news and forward a funny picture. The dynamics have quickly shifted to a more personal experience aimed at integrating the lives of the user to their ever changing content needs. Our lives have become saturated with the constant pulse of new content. With that content comes advertising and the need to become aesthetically pleasing. Gone are the days of florescent green backgrounds with stark black type. Today’s internet is a much better user experience with websites designed in the tradition of print design. No longer must a designer be restricted by endlessly embedded tables, he is free to use css coding language to create manageable designs that facilitate the ongoing needs of content providers. They say content is king, but in all reality we know our focus is easily manipulated with “eye-candy”. So it’s no surprise that art directing on the web has become so important in recent years. Not all websites needs to be flashy and eye catching to be considered “high art”. Some websites can manipulate subtle elements of design to expertly express art direction. Either way designers now have the choice to limit their pallet or go full tilt with lush and creative designs, and that is a good thing.