1. lecture summary
We have said almost everything that needs to be said about how you can handle text on web pages. Our discussion of the design of web sites has, however, only really touched on colour and font style. This lecture, and the following one on images, will show you how you can make your pages much more attractive, stylish and creative.
Though tables (see column 2) are the main technical subject of week 4 as a whole, bear in mind that the technicalities are mostly taken care of by the rest of the online teaching materials (though the last part of this lecture summarises the important issues). The main topics of interest in this lecture are more related to design:
- how has design evolved over the centuries and why does this matter?
- what design principles apply to the web?
- what makes for a well-designed web site in visual terms?
- what techniques do you need to use to turn your design vision into a real site?
It is not necessary to be an expert graphic designer to be a good web designer: some sites which are brilliantly laid out and visually stunning are a nightmare to use (we will see examples) and some excellent sites barely use graphic design at all. But regardless of this no one can become a web designer even at a basic level without using tables somewhere, and it is tables which allow the many design possibilities we will discuss. Effectively, they are another tool in the box. Like all the others they can be used in many creative ways. |
