Re: Insight from Web Experts?

Some of this is valuable advice about visual layout, which is after all
important to many people. The rest I have snipped...

Still, I have read worse. I have also read much better. In a journal produced
by part of the American armed forces I saw the best article I have found to
date on accessibility. I hope it is online somewhere.

Charles McCN

On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, Charles F. Munat wrote:

  I received this newsletter a day or so ago. This is the sort of thing that
  just makes me sad. A new generation of web site designers filled with the
  same bad advice I got when I was starting out three years ago...
  
  Charles F. Munat
  
  
  W  E  B    S  I  T  E    J  O  U  R  N  A  L
  
  [Jennifer Burrows editor@websitejournal.com ]
  
  Vol.2, No.31
  
  http://WebSiteJournal.netscape.com
  "Delivering Insight from Web Experts to Web Site Owners"
  
  August 4, 1999
  
  THE ART OF GOOD WEB DESIGN
[intro snipped]  
  What we need is some breathing room, a bit of zen-style
  emptiness, in short a little more space. The print industry
  refers to places on a given page lacking either text or images
  as "white space" because in print the background is almost
  invariably white. Good judicious use of white space is one of
  key elements of print design. On the web empty space doesn't
  necessarily need to be white but it is still an important aspect
  of good design and should be visible. Or not visible. Depending
  on how you want to (not) look at it.
  
  White space is important because it allows the eye to be guided
  along a page in a fluid seamless manner. Without white space the
  viewer is confronted with an enslaught of options all appearing
  equal and overwhelming. Too many images, too much color, too
  many fonts or just simply too much text will confuse and
  aggravate your visitors, more
  readily enticing them to close the browser window rather than to
  click further into your site.

[snip]  

  ...Tables were
  not intended to be used as a layout tool but with the release of
  HTML 3.2 in 1996 designers far and wide jumped at the chance to
  layout their text more precisely when finally given a tool to
  abuse. While this kind of layout need is exactly
  what Cascading Style Sheets are meant to fill...
[snip]

Received on Friday, 6 August 1999 18:47:41 UTC