Gestault

week 4 makup:

when designing a webpage a similar look and feel for the site from page to page is a no duh, but how much farther can we take this principle? for example similar navigation? similar text size and similar font faces can help establish a cohesive identity but why stop there? Other applicable factors are different sizes for different pieces of navigation, what's bigger seems to belong together, main links bigger and grouped make them stand out. keep it simple and understandable and obey basic principles and the gestault theories can be really useful to guide users without them even realizing it.

affordances and constraints help people do the right thing whether they want to or not. if it is possible prevent a user from doing something wrong by making it impossible to do. don't allow an improper command for example, automatically tab over in phone number box's to allow someone to continue typing, they may still click in the box but at least it doesn't prevent those who don't from not continuing with the phone number. some better examples are given by donald norman in DOET and this reading but for now that is something that would be very nice as a convention. a real example of affordance is the fact that i am bound to the earth, this is a relationship between me and the object earth, only with great difficulty and the proper career path can i break free of this constraint and in my lifetime it really is a constraint. i cannot move my cursor out of the screen and i cannot exit the atmosphere.