Finding your style

As discussed in DesignMatters, understanding your subject area can help make your site more useful.

Also, as a non-expert, copying styles and designs can be a helpful way to learn about design. Look at something you like and think of how to take the best of what you like. Read: [Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal] but one should be watchful of making rip-offs see: http://www.pirated-sites.com/

Suggestions:

1. Identify leaders in your project area. Are they visual similiarities among them?
2. Consider your participants. What kinds of expectations would they have?
3. Look into your subject area, and think of other peripheral ideas that might help build the feeling of your project.
4. Look into lateral but related products or publications for ideas on look and feel.

How to

First we have to start by looking closer than we normally do. This article from a graphic design magazine in the US outlines some recent trends in corporate logo design. http://www.gdusa.com/feature/4_03/trends.php They note design trends like droplets, photo icons, and wire drawings that we might be unaware of if we don't look closer.

If you were working on a project for children, you might look to children's toy companies like [Lego]. You may also be able to identify trade literature related to your suject area that can help you get an idea of what is going on. [Big Blue's Trend Update] is a newsletter of what is going on in products for children. If you look around to projects related to yours, you may be able to start seeing some trends in that area. Compare the Big Blue site to [Beam's Site], a small company in the UK making innovative maths-learning products. Bright colours combined with lighter shade, wonky rectangles with borders, chunky text. You could use this as a direction to go in.

Taking Notes

I'd like to try a little experiment in the group. We're going to do a little looking.

1. Edit the text on this page, and List your subject area & name below
2. Go to the new linked page
3. Start searching and listing:

• The name of the site
• The URL
• Notes on the design

After you identify your subject area, we will spend a little time searching for some exemplary sites in our subject areas, and identify trends. We will also identify some "what not to wear" tips for our area.

Our Notes

Now we'll try to look and takes notes on what we see. List your subject area here:

• PolicyThinkTanks, This is the example I have drawn up. - Heather
• EducationAndWikis, - sinbad
• DyslexiaPrimarySchool - mary
• WebQuests - pat?
• AutismABA - jane?
• TeachingTechnology - muireann