I have enjoyed the course overall, and I feel I’ve learned a lot about the design process. Web, e-learning, or otherwise, I think I can take some of these things with me in my career.

The thing I’ve appreciated the most is the blog – it’s given me the opportunity to explore design resources on the web and think critically about them, not just glance at them and say “cool” then move on.

The readings have also been tremendously helpful to me, since I’ve been doing some sort of design work for quite a while, but without any formal instruction. The readings have helped me solidify my thoughts about how a web site should look, function, and feel, rather than relying solely on my own intuition.

I also liked the progression of the assignments. Being asked to come up with the site architecture in an early assignment, and then apply a visual treatment in a later assignment, really helped me to understand how to separate these two tasks. I didn’t feel overwhelmed or “frozen” when I went to design the site, since I’d already done the legwork in a previous step. I guess I never knew that I was trying to do both things at once, and now I’ll consciously consider each as a separate step in the process.

Lastly, the Kuler color site was incredibly helpful, and it’s a resource I’m sure I’ll return to again and again. Lacking anything more than a “feeling” about what color looks good with another, this introduction to color theory gives me a space to experiment, as well multiple starting points for palettes of my own.

Here’s a link to a review of some neat JavaScript tricks to add a gallery to your web page that works like a Flash slideshow, without the pesky Flash.

http://blueprintds.com/2009/01/20/top-14-jquery-photo-slideshow-gallery-plugins/

I’ve been recruited to make a website for a photographer friend of mine, and was looking for an elegant way to add a slideshow of his work to the site, when I stumbled upon this post.  So far, I’ve been able to download the files I need and tweak the code to add my own pictures and thumbnails.

So far, a definite thumbs up from me, and an easy way to add some “flash,” without actually having to use Flash!

I remember visiting this site years ago, when I first started getting interested in web design. I searched for it tonight, on the off-chance it still existed. I’m happy to report that it does, and the web pages they feature suck just as badly as ever.

While it’s fun to look at some of these sites because they are SO bad, it’s also a great reality check when working on a design of your own. It offers great examples of what to avoid, and it’s interesting to see that the same mistakes (year after year) keep getting made by hapless designers out there.

Check the sidebar for some sound design advice, and checklists of what we should all try to avoid when putting together any design, whether it be web, e-learning, print, or otherwise.

This is one site where I hope my work is never featured.

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

I find it challenging to develop e-learning that also incorporates great design techniques, given the constraints of the medium and the learning (and time) requirements of each course.  I subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog, and while it’s a marketing tool for e-learning development software (Articulate), it actually has great advice that can apply to any project or site, whether using that particular tool or not.

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Here, Tom talks about a few common mistakes designers make. I particularly like this post because he’s giving a name to all the mistakes I see (and often make myself), instead of what I do, which is to say “I recognize there’s a problem with the page/site/course, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

It’s worth a look – I usually have  several  “A-ha” moments while reading this blog.

I always have a problem in the beginning stages of the process of deciding how a page should look. I get overwhelmed by the entire project, instead of just focusing on putting it together – tackling one small park at a time until the whole thing is done.

The link below leads to a great post on the author’s design process – he calls it the layout and the polish. I think he does a great job of breaking this enormous task into less threatening chunks. It’s something I need to emulate when I’m designing a project.

Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish

I’m particulary amazed to see how small changes make such a big difference in the before and after. I’ll be referring back to this tutorial often.

Our second discussion topic in class is to design a website – navigation, organization, categories – and to imagine how a user will move through the site. This is a challenge! In my meanderings around the web, I stumbled upon an anecdote to the stress this is causing … an opportunity to step back and forget about all that organization “stuff.”

These are websites whose goal is to convey everything the creator needs to say … in just one page. This brings the focus squarely on the grid, images, graphics, fonts … the things we used to think of as “design” before it meant so much more – architecture, navigation, etc. (on the web).

Whether this is effective or not, I don’t know.  I’d say it definitely works better for some sites than others – it seems most effective for designers whose goal is to showcase their work and grab the user’s attention quickly … and give them just enough info to be intrigued.

In any case, it’s a nice distraction, and may be a way to get the creative juices flowing if you’re stuck … check the sites out at the link below.

88 Single Page Website Designs for Inspiration

For me, it’s back to work on my site design!

I have my blog set up, and I’m ready to get posting!