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16 Sep 2005 - 23:50
One of my favorite books is Robin Williams' The Non Designers Design Book. She has some wonderful riffs on The Locals and their desktop publishing atrocities. Her Core Principle: never, ever use the Text Center command. Here's Williams' advice on good web site design. (We've got some changes to make....) update 7-18-2006: Williams' columns have vanished And here are her columns for Eyewire Magazine. update 7-18-2006: ditto - vanished Last but not least, she's fabulous on the subject of how to mix typefaces.
I bet Robin Williams would have a Few Choice Words to offer on the subject of American textbook design.
What is a meaningless & useless graphic, you ask? Take page 206, Prentice Hall Pre-Algebra. Section 5-7: Multiplying and Dividing Rational Numbers The text opens with a word problem involving glaciers: About 3/4 of the world's fresh water is found in glaciers. Antarctica has 9/10 of the world's glaciers. What fraction of the world's fresh water is in Antarctica? Good question! Meanwhile, in the margin, we have a picture of penguins diving off a snow cliff that looks like this:
I don't know about you, but I find the image of penguins diving off a snow cliff FAR more riveting than the question of what fraction of the world's fresh water is in Antarctica. Which tells me this graphic is not just off-topic and useless, it is actively distracting. A penguin-diving graphic does not help me learn math. No. A penguin-diving graphic distracts me from learning math. A penguin-diving graphic leaps off the page, grabs my rapidly ageing Attention Faculty with both hands, and shrieks, FORGET ABOUT MULTIPLYING A FRACTION BY A FRACTION! PENGUINS ARE DIVING HERE!
blinking and animations
Williams also dedicates an entire category to blinking and animations. If there is one principle upon which the entire universe of Design Useability Experts agrees, it is the horror of blinking and animations:
Anything that blinks, especially text
Multiple things that blink
Rainbow rules (lines)
Rainbow rules that blink or animate
"Under construction" signs, especially of little men working
Animated "under construction" signs
Animated pictures for e-mail
Animations that never stop
Multiple animations that never stop
Tom Friedman should be down on his hands and knees THANKING GOD his daughter doesn't have to learn math from an online animated textbook.
Glencoe page splatter
Doug Sundseth on ransom note typography
Tom Friedman piles on
distance tutors & mathematicallycorrect review Glencoe
page splatter and the frontal lobes
page splatter redux
pagesplatter
Back to main page.
Please consider registering as a regular user.
Look here for syntax help.
"I hope you're impressed that I managed to sneak an image of penguins diving off a snow cliff onto a math ed web site without being either meaningless or useless." You make me smile, Catherine. I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoy your liveliness and wit. -- CharlesH - 17 Sep 2005
I love that picture of penguins. It made me entirely forget about whatever that nonsense was that you were saying about math. -- CarolynJohnston - 18 Sep 2005
Golly! Thank you! You made my day. -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Sep 2005
I love that picture of penguins. It made me entirely forget about whatever that nonsense was that you were saying about math. LOLOLOL -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Sep 2005
Another great usability site is Jakob Nielsen's. -- KtmGuest - 21 Nov 2005
I'm way ahead of you there! Jakob Nielsen is my guru! btw, do you know whether Nielsen has written something about continuing posts on another page? I've been telling Carolyn that he advises against it, but I'm wondering whether I've misremembered— -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Nov 2005
I think the reason it is discourage is because few people click through to read the whole article if you've already given most of it. Whereas, if you have to click through to read any of it, you'll probably get more click-throughs even if the reader doesn't make it all the way through. -- KDeRosa - 21 Nov 2005
page splatter, part 2
from Doug Sundseth:
The fonts and colors thing is usually referred to in the page-layout business as "ransom-note typography". As you might guess, it's considered a mortal sin among professionals. [snip] In the past it was usually a sign that the designer had just gotten a DTP (desktop-publishing) package for the first time and could now change fonts trivially. Many seemed to believe that the possibility of using dozens of fonts created a requirement to use dozens of fonts. It's a sin because it makes the page hard to read and understand. Good page design should lead your eye to the most important items without your noticing. This isn't just true of textbooks.
One of my favorite books is Robin Williams' The Non Designers Design Book. She has some wonderful riffs on The Locals and their desktop publishing atrocities. Her Core Principle: never, ever use the Text Center command. Here's Williams' advice on good web site design. (We've got some changes to make....) update 7-18-2006: Williams' columns have vanished And here are her columns for Eyewire Magazine. update 7-18-2006: ditto - vanished Last but not least, she's fabulous on the subject of how to mix typefaces.
ah-hah!
Yes, indeed, Robin Williams does have a few choice words to offer on the subject of American textbook design. By extension, at least. Under the heading, bad web site design we find this:- Meaningless or useless graphics
What is a meaningless & useless graphic, you ask? Take page 206, Prentice Hall Pre-Algebra. Section 5-7: Multiplying and Dividing Rational Numbers The text opens with a word problem involving glaciers: About 3/4 of the world's fresh water is found in glaciers. Antarctica has 9/10 of the world's glaciers. What fraction of the world's fresh water is in Antarctica? Good question! Meanwhile, in the margin, we have a picture of penguins diving off a snow cliff that looks like this:
I don't know about you, but I find the image of penguins diving off a snow cliff FAR more riveting than the question of what fraction of the world's fresh water is in Antarctica. Which tells me this graphic is not just off-topic and useless, it is actively distracting. A penguin-diving graphic does not help me learn math. No. A penguin-diving graphic distracts me from learning math. A penguin-diving graphic leaps off the page, grabs my rapidly ageing Attention Faculty with both hands, and shrieks, FORGET ABOUT MULTIPLYING A FRACTION BY A FRACTION! PENGUINS ARE DIVING HERE!
blinking and animations
Williams also dedicates an entire category to blinking and animations. If there is one principle upon which the entire universe of Design Useability Experts agrees, it is the horror of blinking and animations:
Anything that blinks, especially textMultiple things that blink
Rainbow rules (lines)
Rainbow rules that blink or animate
"Under construction" signs, especially of little men working
Animated "under construction" signs
Animated pictures for e-mail
Animations that never stop
Multiple animations that never stop
Tom Friedman should be down on his hands and knees THANKING GOD his daughter doesn't have to learn math from an online animated textbook.
p.s.
I hope you're impressed that I managed to sneak an image of penguins diving off a snow cliff onto a math ed web site without being either meaningless or useless.Glencoe page splatter
Doug Sundseth on ransom note typography
Tom Friedman piles on
distance tutors & mathematicallycorrect review Glencoe
page splatter and the frontal lobes
page splatter redux
pagesplatter
Back to main page.
Comments
After entering a comment, users can login anonymously as KtmGuest (password: guest) when prompted.Please consider registering as a regular user.
Look here for syntax help.
"I hope you're impressed that I managed to sneak an image of penguins diving off a snow cliff onto a math ed web site without being either meaningless or useless." You make me smile, Catherine. I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoy your liveliness and wit. -- CharlesH - 17 Sep 2005
I love that picture of penguins. It made me entirely forget about whatever that nonsense was that you were saying about math. -- CarolynJohnston - 18 Sep 2005
Golly! Thank you! You made my day. -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Sep 2005
I love that picture of penguins. It made me entirely forget about whatever that nonsense was that you were saying about math. LOLOLOL -- CatherineJohnson - 19 Sep 2005
Another great usability site is Jakob Nielsen's. -- KtmGuest - 21 Nov 2005
I'm way ahead of you there! Jakob Nielsen is my guru! btw, do you know whether Nielsen has written something about continuing posts on another page? I've been telling Carolyn that he advises against it, but I'm wondering whether I've misremembered— -- CatherineJohnson - 21 Nov 2005
I think the reason it is discourage is because few people click through to read the whole article if you've already given most of it. Whereas, if you have to click through to read any of it, you'll probably get more click-throughs even if the reader doesn't make it all the way through. -- KDeRosa - 21 Nov 2005
| WebLogForm | |
|---|---|
| Title: | page splatter, part 2 |
| TopicType: | WebLog |
| SubjectArea: | AboutBooks |
| LogDate: | 200509161949 |