Note 4 for E-Commerce
Goals:
Identify the elements of Good Web Design.
CBS Sunday Morning did a great piece branding icons and online comedy movies funnyordie.com
Toyomotors and Phoenix Magnetics screen design.
Identify how to test for Web usability and make your site more usable.
Watch & Read:
What happens when you have a bad web page design!
My Web design Advice is to Keep it Simple and Special (KISS)
Joyce did a good job documenting the design process plus she found a great newletter called Design like an expert
Meaning of Color is important and you need to setup a Color Scheme for your site
Top 10 mistakes of Shopping Cart design (Usability)
1. Understand your site's message and brand. Choose colors that reinforce your message. For instance, if designing a site for a financial institution hoping to convey stability, choose cool, muted colors such as blue, gray, and green. In this case, using warm, vibrant hues would undermine the site's brand.
2. Understand your audience. Cultural differences can lead to unexpected responses to color. Additionally, demographic segments and age groups respond to colors differently. Younger audiences generally respond to more saturated hues that are less effective with older segments.
3. Use a small number of colors in your palette. Four or five colors, in addition to white and black, should be sufficient. Too many colors create discord and distract the user.
4. Use contrast for readability. Colors similar in value do not provide enough contrast and hinder legibility. Black text on white backgrounds provides the highest degree of contrast.
5. Use grayscale to test contrast. When dealing with hues other than black, white, and gray, it's sometimes difficult to determine the relative value of each color. To ensure that your color palette provides enough contrast, create a wireframe mockup and convert it to grayscale.
6. Be aware of timeliness when choosing colors. Color trends can quickly saturate the marketplace, and consumers rapidly become numb to fashionable hues. On the other hand, you can use popular color palettes from decades past to evoke feelings of nostalgia.
7. Consider functional colors when choosing a palette. Don't forget to establish functional colors for elements that communicate contextual information, such as headings and links.
8. Prepare for color differences on the Web. Every Web developer knows that even Web-safe colors appear differently across platforms. Be sure to correct for gamma differences and test your color palette on multiple platforms.
Web Design Checklists
FTP Access to your E-commerce Space
Note: The host address is
e-commerce.pvc.maricopa.eduYour Webspace is located at http://e-commerce.pvc.maricopa.edu/cis235
Review the following
Web Usability websites: (The art and science of making a Websites easy to use!)
The Best way to find out if your site is usable is to have a focus group (comprised of customers) look for your product and the information you want them to find. US Government and Useit.com have great tutorials on usability and accessibility
Web Usability Companies you can hire are 37signals, Clicktracks, and Jakob Nielsen's Useit.com
Homework:
You should Read Chapters Book III (Chap 2-3 & 5)
I want you to post a proposal for your website: The proposal needs to have a flow chart, sample page and intro page layout (See CIS 233 for ideas for your proposal)
Post your review of the Study Log & Phoenix Magnetics and make suggestions for improvements!
Post your definition of Usability and the major points that make a website Usable vs unUsable
Reminder: Post your articles on Blackboard under the Weekly Articles on the Discussion Board Section.
Final Step:
Review in your mind everything we covered in class and remember to cover it again before you go to bed so your mind to process this information while you sleep.