Sarah's Digital Media

An acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is a language for creating color, sound, graphics, and font on web pages.  It is the building blocks for web pages.  Without HTML, webpages would not exist.  HTML, which is essentially just text files, is constantly evolving as a language. An HTML document contains three sections: declarations, head, and body.  The declaration sits at the top of the page and contains a 'doctype' declaration.  This helps the browser interpret the page accurately by showing if it is HTML5 (the latest version) or an older version of HTML.  Sometimes people also add a second declaration that communicates to the browser what character set the server is using for storing and transmitting one's web pages information.  The Head of the document controls what the body does.  The user doesn't view the head as it sits at the top of the page between the head tags.  The Body contains most of the information that the user see...

Usability       Usability measures how well a person can experience an interface.  This includes organization and having the necessary help menus.  Usability is essential to a persons experience simply because if a website or system is unusable, then the consumers will be unable to use it, which makes the website or system rather pointless, ineffective, and useless. Learnability Learnability determines how quickly a user can perform simple things on the interface during their first experience with it.  This ®refers to when the design is predictable and consistent throughout the website.   Efficiency  Efficiency encompasses how rapidly a user performs tasks on an interface after they have learned.  While this may sound ridiculously similar to learnability, it differs in that learnability refers to a user's original interactions with the interface while efficiency is about the effort required throughout multiple visits to the interfa...

User-Centered Design is creating for the specific benefit of users based on their needs.  It is essential to design because if a user finds the design difficult to understand/learn/use, then they will choose to not avoid using it if possible.  User-Centered Design ensures that not only is the design usable and understandable, but also that it relates to you.  This is prevalent on social media apps (such as how Facebook advertisements almost always are something you've been wanting or how Pinterest's feed adds in pins you might also enjoy) and music listening apps (for example, Spotify suggests music based on what you have been listening to). The Four Types of User Interfaces are: Graphical User Interfaces This interface is the visual aspect of a consumer interacting through graphic icons and visual aids - not just text.  This includes windows, icons, menus, etc. Voice Interfaces This interface is controlled by a person's v...

The following are examples of three of the most common navigation styles. vertical dropdown menu (the book shows it as the top two images but everything on the internet says that vertical dropdown menus look more similar to the below image) horizontal dropdown menu accordion menu

This is the grid system of one of my favorite websites, Zoe Sugg's Blog . I like this website because not only is it clear and easy to use but also it is an adorable website.  

A page consisting of simply one huge column of uniform and equally spaced text fails to interest and entertain the viewer as successfully as a page with visual hierarchy does.  Visual hierarchy is essentially the order that the viewer processes the content on a page.  It sets apart words, phrases, and paragraphs so that the content can be easily processed by its viewers.  Alignment, color, images, headers, etc. add emphasis to visual hierarchy, making the important information more clear and obvious while the less essential information becomes smaller and less impactful. USA Today's website contains interesting visual hierarchy.  This makes it a joy to use because not only is it aesthetically pleasing but also the content flows easily and clearly.

Unity   Overall Unity (defined as when the viewer can"grasp the essence of the 'big picture' without being distracted by the individual elements of design") Proximity ("objects that are more likely to be perceived as related when they are positioned close together") Alignment Similarity Repetition Emphasis Contrast  Color Depth Proportion Perceptual Forces  Symmetrical Balance Asymmetrical Balance Continuation Figure Ground Psychological Closure