Background

This course is for people who find themselves with web design responsibilities but who have had no formal design training.

The course will highlight the essential building blocks of good design, what works and what doesn’t on screen and how to make the best use of type, colour and space.

You will also cover usability issues, explore cross-platform issues and highlight how to solve common web design problems

This course is designed to help you develop new skills and improve your confidence when making design decisions.

Who should attend

No background in graphic design is expected, though experience in straightforward layout (e.g. word processed documents) could be useful. The course is aimed at:

• Print medium specialists interested in web design
• Staff responsible for designing, producing or maintaining web materials
• IT specialists wishing to develop their visual presentation skills
• Mmanagers specifying Internet and Intranet projects

Course Outline

WHAT IS DESIGN?
Examples of good and bad design
Questions to ask before you
design anything
Defining your audience
Maintaining a consistent
brand identity
Good navigation

KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS
A guide to: relevance, contrast,
proportion, consistency, restraint
and detail
The essential building blocks of
web design

SHORTCUTS TO GOOD DESIGN
Maintaining a swipe file
Good information architecture
Laying out a web page
Using web applications such as
Macromedia Dreamweaver
Organisational tools
Using white space
Rules, borders, boxes and
drop shadows
Maintaining online and offline
consistency


THE POWER OF TYPE
Constraints of type on the web
Text legibility
Text hyperlinks
Special type effects
Less is more
Working with colour
Choosing colours
Developing a colour theme
Using Hexidecimal colour
Understanding RGB
Websafe colours

EFFECTIVE USE OF IMAGES
Using images for maximum impact
Optimising images
Using images as navigation aides

SOLVING COMMON DESIGN PROBLEMS
Minimising text
How fonts work on the web
Browser and plug-in compatibility
Cross platform issues

Questions and answers