Week 2 Exercise

- What is Browser-Safe Color Palette/Web-safe Colors? -

From the helpful sites I’ve read, web-safe colors basically refer to a fixed palette of 216 colours(used for web design) apparently introduced by Netscape that are used on platforms with a graphics mode of 256 colours. Why just 216 colours with 40 missing is cause the 40 missing colors are variable between the Mac and PC platforms. Hence by taking them out, it simple makes the palette usable for cross platform purposes.

This palette also caters more to illustrations or images which consists a lot of a one colour over photographs which tend to have a variety.

Here are some examples of the colors arranged by Hue and Value.

-Is it still relevant in today’s context? Why?-

Yes and no.

Yes cause 256 colors or 8-bit is still being used on devices such as PDAs and handphones which run on 1-bit or 8-bit. This means the palette would be rather useful still to web designers whom are designing websites to be viewed via such devices and even game designers if I’m not wrong.

No well cause since current computers can now view 16-bit and 32-bit colors, there is no more restraint thus the palette is almost dead useless.

Although some designers whom might want an easier way out can use this and restrict their colors to 216 colors.

- What are the common fonts face found on PC & Mac?-

Apologies that the image is blur but the common ones according to the list are (in order from list),

• Arial
• Arial Black
• Comic Sans MS
• Courier
• Georgia
• Impact
• Lucida Console
• Lucida Sans Unicode
• Palantino Linotype
• Tahoma
• Times New Roman
• Trebuchet
• Verdana
• Symbol
• Webdings
• Wingdings
• MS Sans Serif
• MS Serif

-What is page loading time and how does it  influence our design?-

Page loading time refers to the interval of time when the browser searches for and receives information from the website being loaded.

As to how it influences design…very much I suppose. And this statement from (http://webjackalope.com/fast-page-load-time/) kinds of sums it up. The statement is “Fast page load times are crucial for keeping users happy.” which is totally true in my opinion. But going back to the topic on the design, well to optimize loading time to keep users happy, it is a must that one’s site be well designed but have a caps limit to the size.

With a limit to the size means the site should be good looking yet optimizing the limit of space given, thus careful thought must be given while designing. For example, some tips from the professionals are, optimizing image sizes as well as keeping images small or even placing them as thumbnails ,especially for product sites, if they are for show and nothing more. It is even suggested that a common image folder be used and to make use of tables wisely.

And as the old rule of thumb applies, nothing more than 15 seconds of loading time on a 56k. This means on a modem it should take no more than 2-3 seconds approximately.

-Web Design Process-

I found the articles rather interesting. First of all what struck me is how each company took different approaches to designing their websites or the clients’ websites. They are all similar in someway but it seems each company takes a variable number of steps before getting to the publishing of the sites. Some just make it in very short time while others seem to take really really long to design their sites.

But of course as it was said, they all took similar steps into making their sites which starts of with research and discovery or in other words the brainstorming sessions. However one company took this step as a pre-brainstorming which is to say, this was indeed a small session of brainstorming but the major one took place after consulting their client which is rather interesting cause it seems to give that image of a student double checking his work thoroughly before handing it in. An almost perfectionist kind of image if it’s the right term to use.

I feel though that of all the articles linked to the main article (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/03/19/web-design-and-worflow-process-comparison/), this article especially (http://stopdesign.com/archive/2003/06/02/design-process.html) second in the list proved to be the most detailed in their process of web design. Why I say that cause I personally feel that they go through the trouble of discovery and exploration, consultation and even more brainstorming after that before even coming out with thumbnails where as the rest just consult and have a single brainstorming and the thumbnails are out.

Not only that, out of all of them, stopdesign.com is also the only one which even put emphasis on typography and imagery research and development in their design process. This two factors I feel are equally as important to the whole general design and feel of the site.

In conclusion, I feel that web design is something that really takes a lot of effort. Yeah we can always make it simple and good but can this “simple and good” please the users. With so many factors put into consideration, besides the planning and designing part of the website, it will take someone who understands his audience well to design something good. Then from there on content-wise could just as well be important as everything else.

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