OUGD504 - Studio Brief 2 - The Graphic Designers Electronic Media Manual

The Graphic Designers Electronic Media Manual by Jason Tselentis

The Twelve Fundamentals 

Know the Material 

Reading the content that is produced for the website and researching around the subject leads to a better understanding of the project.

Know the Audience 

Understanding the audience, their backgrounds and how they will engage with the content is important.

Understand the Scope

Understanding where the content / material is coming from, who is incharge of different areas within the project, who to contact, timescales etc is important.

Understand the Final Production

The five checkpoints as well as visual design include implementation, testing, documentation, launch and maintenance.
- Implementation which is where developers program the site
- Testing looks at how the site operates in browsers and how users find it 
- Documentation analyses the information collected to help with the launch and maintenance of the site

The Fold

Originally this referenced where a feature story or photography sat when the newspaper was folded. This has been transferred to the web, with content in the users immediate viewable area, considered the most important information to them 

Adaptability 

Designs often have to adapt across web browsers, operating systems and screen sizes, which all have their own challenges and limitations.

Rough it Out 

Sketching out ideas allows for easy placement of content and allows the designer to see the bigger picture rather than being tied up in the specifics e.g. colour, type etc which often happens when going straight to the computer.

Its all Type and Image 

Print designers usually set type at around 8 - 9 points, sometimes 12 points, for book text whilst headlines and subheads are 12 points or larger. In web design long bodies of text are usually around 14 - 16 points and headlines and subheads up to 26 points.

Use a grid 

Grids that are used for digital purposes can be fixed and variable. Columns delineate vertical zones and flowlines delineate horizontal zones. Baseline grids can also be used to align content from one area to the next.

Contrast, Contrast, Contrast 

Contrast is when there are clear differences between items e.g. foreground and background, headline and body text. Typography needs to be darker than the background colour and a main image should be larger than other imagery.

Interface Unity 

Each aspect of the interface should look the same and as part of the same thing. Having the same fonts , colour pallette, grid structure and logo etc help towards this.

Interface Variety 

Having a interface unity however does not mean that everything has to be placed or sized in the same way. Having lots of content means that their needs to be hierarchy within the design so that the user knows which are the most important elements and how to find different types of information.