Designing Your Site: Communication & Content

Principle 6:
Communication & Content 

Principle 6: Communication and Content
Visual language: 

• Clear & consistent layout structure, 
• Economy & simplicity 
• Efficacious
• Well written & easy to understand

Everyone who visits your website is looking for some kind of information or content, and thus it is very important for you to communicate with them clearly and in an engaging manner. Your information must be compelling, easy to read and easy to process. Communication is not just about providing written information but also about offering images, infographics and another form of media such as videos and audio pieces. Web design takes into consideration a concept called ‘Visible language’. According to this concept, visible language is the content people see on the screen and involves three fundamental principles. They are given as follows:

• Organized with a clear, consistent layout structure – The first principle of visible language or effective communication is to provide the visitors of your website a clear and highly consistent layout or structure. Some important parts of the organization of concept include the layout involving the division of content, consistency, navigation, as well as visual appeal. In order to make your website communicate effectively, you need to organize and place your blocks of information in an easy to process manner.
• Economy & Simplicity – This principle involves achieving more by utilizing less. This means that you must try to deliver the most information by providing fewer visual elements. The design or layout must be free of clutter, should be simple and must have a high degree of clarity. It must throw emphasis on what is important and create distinctiveness between different elements.
• Communicate effectively – The user interface of the web design must be such that users are able to understand everything in the most convenient way. There must be a balance between readability, legibility, color, texture, and views.

Besides this, the content given on the website must be appropriate, well written, and easy to understand. It is important that you adjust the style of writing according to the preference of the target audience and avoid promotional writing. The writing must pull visitors and must leave them intrigued and wanting for more. It must clearly spell out what you do and what you aim to achieve.

What about your site:
Does your site communicate what you want it to in a consistent, visually organized manner, which is free of clutter and has just the right number of elements and choices to make it highly usable.  As well, is the content written in a manner which will fulfill your goals for the site.

1 = No to the above statement
10 = absolutely to the above statement.

How might you improve your site's communication and content presentation? Add this to your ePortfolio "to do" list.

Examples

NO
http://art.yale.edu/
Feels haphazard, with confusing background imagery taking away from any content... which is difficult to spot in the mayhem of the design (or lack thereof).  Not clear; not consistent; not economical; not simple; not efficacious; not easy to follow and understand; not; not; not.
And speaking of "not".  The same goes for: http://www.007museum.com/

​​YES

• http://ezorzi.com/
• https://www.beatsbydre.com/ca/
• http://www.emilianobarri.com/
• https://www.squarespace.com/
• https://www.wunderlist.com/