Website Design Philosophy: Week 4
For my professional website, I would like to implement a design that revolves around usability and consistency across my various pages. My first thought is to create a three-panel display with various focus points to differentiate them. The top of the website should be the banner, always clickable to transport the user back to the homepage, acting as a constant wherever the user is. I wish to have a left-side page index as a column running down alongside the content of the page. This is important so that the user can quickly see where they are and what else they may want to view. The final panel will be the content, and this section can have various focal points within it, as long as they are not overshadowing the other main elements of the page.
As for how to differentiate these three panels, the use of color and spacing is critical to directing the user’s focus across them. As mentioned before, the banner should be big and bold, inviting the user to click it as an intuitive home link. The site index should utilize contrast, perhaps presenting the name of the page in a bright color whereas the others are presented in black. The main design philosophy of the content pane should be to match the site index without overshadowing it. One idea is to use a less saturated version of the color scheme inside this panel, aesthetically unifying the page while communicating that the content panel is a separate piece of the page.
The idea behind this design is that the user should be able to navigate the site intuitively even if the page were black text on a white background. Careful use of space is also necessary to divide and focus the user’s attention on the different aspects of the page.
The main challenge of this design is to avoid making the site boring, as attempting a site in this style can sometimes make it seem old fashioned or barebones. My plan for the aesthetic design of the website is to be big and bold without being flashy. I would like for the focal points of the website to be large, such as the home banner, the site index, and the title of the content being presented. Use of images and other media on certain pages can also help embolden the site.
The use of color is also something I want to be particular about for my website. I want to create a “color-splash” pattern for defining elements of the page. Depending on how I can manage the scheme, I want to use a non-white color to represent negative space on the page, and then use a bright color like yellow as an accent, representing the focal points of the panels, like titles, headers, and the current page in the index.
The point of all this is to consider that the audience of my website wants to, first and foremost, view my work. I want the website to allow them to do that as easily as possible. I want the audience, however, to have a positive impression of the site and my work, so I do not want to bore them or drive them away with a bland site.