Things have gone pretty well over the last week, working on my re-design of CHNM’s French Revolution website, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” In my work this week, compared with the design project, I really appreciate having the content finished and basically organized. Trying to redesign CHNM’s home page was challenging in large part because, as Lee Ann and Paula highlighted, a new organization of the material is essential. (more…)

As part of my brainstorming to come up with design ideas this morning, I was surfing around the ol’ Internet and came across a wonderful little site. It was highlighted on Stylegala as a new entry, and I thought it was really cool. Since our class is always talking about and questioning what makes good design, I thought I would flag it for everyone. The site is a promotional site for the book designer Jason Beaird has recently published: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. What is most fun about the site is that when you hover and/or click on the menu items, such as “Layout,” you get a visual description of how Jason applied certain design principles on his page. This creative use of imagery is a good explanation of how to use different elements and how to apply different techniques.

For anyone interested, I have added to the design portion of my portfolio page one example of a new redesign of my design project. As I write there, there are still many things left to change…colors, size of images, add text, and certainly to code it. I’ve found through this design process that I do like to do Photoshop mock-ups. If I had taken a snapshot of each version, there would be many, many more to post here. Now, however, it is time to move on to the final…

After reading more from James Paul Gee in his article “Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines” (PDF) I was no more encouraged than I was before about using video games of any kind to teach our children. His argument strikes me as being provocative for the sake of creating controversy and debate on the topic more so than to make a clear and compelling case for adopting gaming technologies for use in educational programs. (more…)

After last night’s class, I have to say I was rather discouraged. And my site wasn’t even critiqued. I think many of the comments were useful, but some seemed gratuitous and not necessarily designed to help the person receiving criticism. Some things are a matter of opinion. Some things are a matter of design sense. If you take the concept of the CSS Zen Garden as an example, you understand that there is no One Correct Design. (more…)

I’ve recently discovered a great little podcast that has helped me a bunch lately as I try to improve my Photoshop skills. Thought I would share it with the class. They are great, short little bits that definitely provide some helpful hints for how to achieve certain effects in PS. Fair warning, though: they can be addictive! Have fun.

I think I’m going to need every last minute on this one this week. I’ve decided to tackle a fun, free-thinking redesign of the CHNM homepage. I’m trying to think completely differently and do something new. So far, I’ve been through at least 10 different designs–and that’s after I created the first sketch with my idea. (more…)

A key theme I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’ve been reading my posts is that I am a rather impatient person. So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to rant a bit. The Internet visits for this week were frustrating for me and a bit of a let down. Admittedly, it could be my mood…

Nonetheless, the Lost Museum seemed really cool at first, but as I started to wander through, I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. (more…)

Whenever I sit down to read the books and articles for class, I get really antsy. I want to go design something. I think part of the reason I prefer web design to being a historian is because I simply don’t have the patience to read as much as a historian should read. I like to be doing something. I like the process, sense of progress, near-immediate gratification, and the accomplishment of creation that web design offers. (Which is why I like the researching and writing aspect of being a historian, even though it’s a longer process.) So, sitting down to read this week, I kept flitting back and forth to tweak something on the project I was working on, to jot down questions that popped into mind, and to make notes for things to remember in later designs. (more…)

I probably should have read the reading selections in order, but alas I did not. Joe Clark’s article “How Do Disabled People Use Computers” was very informative and helped to put in context the later readings. I really liked his direct, honest approach, especially in raising questions about the terms we use to speak about disabled people (ie. “differently abled” which he says “seems to apply more to zoology, where, say racoons can climb trees but dogs can’t”). Refreshing as this was, his description of types of disabilities was informative and helps in thinking about designing websites for this diverse group of people.

It is true that I have given little thought to taking these disabilities into account when designing sites in the past. That said, I have always operated on the assumption that if you design a site cleanly and clearly, you are halfway there. This is somewhat true. Many of the 25 points in “Dive Into Accessibility” are things that I already do, or at least try very hard to do. For example, choosing a doctype, declaring the language, making the page title meaningful, presenting the main content of a page first, ensuring that colors contrast sufficiently, using title attributes on links, using alt tags on images, using real links (not javascript links), and then others of the points that relate to designing with tables which are for the most part moot, except for using table headings and captions and using them appropriately. These are all things I strive to do as part of my regular design process. Admittedly, my own website and projects I’ve done for class, I have been focused on other elements of design and have sometimes let these important elements fall by the wayside.

That said, it is especially helpful to hear a screen reader (at WebAIM). Wow. I had an incredibly hard time understanding that, and I imagine it isn’t easy and is quite frustrating for anyone needing to learn to do this after losing sight later in life. Also very helpful was the note, made in a couple of these articles, that screen readers will read filenames unless you specify a title or alt attribute. Again, I try to put these in my sites, but now that I understand how exactly they are used (other than the nifty visual tool tip that some see), I will certainly make an effort to ensure these tags are used and used properly.

One final note is that I did not really understand how learning disabled people use the Web. I went to a high school that had a special program for kids with learning disabilities, and I always thought that they read slower because they processed information differently. I didn’t think that it was that they couldn’t read at all. Dyslexia, I always understood, is a disability that one can learn to overcome or compensate for. I know there are others. Some people learn better by hearing than by reading, so couldn’t they get a screen reader? Until I understand more about how this group of people uses the Web, I cannot accommodate them. The suggestion that all websites should be illustrated, as Clark mentions, is indeed a “cure worse than the disease.”

I continue my discussion about learning disabilities and accessibility on Mark Stevens’ Learn More History AND Technology, and I raise some questions about our audience on Maureen Guignon’s CLIOblog. In the end, I think that there are sufficiently accessible websites and there are websites designed to be accessible. Which one you require is a matter of your expected and intended audience, and as Mark says, “It does not take a terrific amount of intellectual ability to figure out that reasonable accommodations should be made in order that “disabled” people may access web pages.” Here here.