Introductory Questions

1. Name, Major, Year: My name is Sarah Park. I'm a junior, double majoring in Communication Design and Marketing.
2. Background: I am a Communication Design and Marketing student, and I am very interested in how information is perceived and communicated to viewers through design. We are constantly using and interacting with websites and information on the internet, and we come across websites that are very easy to navigate as well as others that feel awkward or uncomfortable to use. I would like to take this course to learn more about designing for digital and interactive spaces and to better understand why certain designs feel intuitive and comfortable to navigate while others do not.
3. Experience with HTML/CSS/JS: I tried learning a little bit of HTML and CSS a few years ago through a short online course but I am not very familar with it yet. I only know the basics, but I’m excited to learn more and become more comfortable with HTML through this course.
4. What I hope to learn in this course: I have never fully made a working website before from scratch, so learning how to create a well-designed and functional website is one of my goals. I would also like to become more comfortable writing HTML and CSS through this course.
5. Designing for Screen vs Paper: One thing to consider when designing for screens is the variety of device sizes. While a printed piece has a fixed physical size, a website needs to adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
6. Website with effective design: www.moma.org - I think MoMA has a very clear visual hierarchy with a strong brand identity, while holding and organizing a huge amount of content from the museum archive. The clean typograhy and clear organization of the artworks makes the website very effective.
7. Website with effective communication: www.arbnb.com - I think Airbnb designed a very effectively communicating website because the interface is very simple but also highlights what the user can do at the moment and also guides through the process of getting a place to stay, which could become stressful if the steps aren't clear enough. It also hdes away details unless asked by the user, so that all the infromation doesn't ovrewhelm the users.
8. Website that works well: www.google.com - While, this might be a generic answer, I think Google is one of the most well-working websites. I think its almost too simple but that is why it works. The big search bar in the middle naturally leads the user to click on the button and one simple question or words usually leads to an answer for the user. Overall, it's simple and focused on its main purpose and is designed with very straightforward interface.