This week in Comm. 350, we discussed the basics of the C.R.A.P. principles in order to make our personal website much more eye popping and easier to read for the viewer/audience. In our personal websites I believe I need some help on each of these elements in order to make my website "flow" better and easy for the viewer to follow. The basics of the C.R.A.P. principles include the following:
1) Contrast—the basics behind this principle is to avoid elements on this page that are too similar. Elements such as (type, color, size, shape, and space) are all too similar, then it would be a good idea to vary them a bit. You don’t want the reader to think everything on your website is identical, so varying things such as content, heading, body, and comments would make it easier for your viewer to follow. This doesn’t mean you have to make everything completely different from one another, but having some variation can often make your design and content flow much better.
2) Repetition—You want to repeat your visual elements of the design throughout the piece. By repeating color, shape, texture, sizes and other elements throughout different parts of the page will help organize and strengthen the unity and quality. Examples include: having the same size of text regarding quotes, block quotes, background color, etc. Will strengthen your piece much more.
3) Alignment—Nothing should be placed on your page arbitrarily. Each element of design should have some sort of connection visually with the other elements on the page. For example, making things centered, lined up straight, aligned left or right, and making things not left out of place will make it visually easy for the reader to view. Titles, italics, and bolded text on your page should all make sense to the reader. Making the alignment straight regarding your text is key in having the reader interested in your page.
4) Proximity—Similar items relating to one another should be grouped together. When several items are too close to each other it makes it very difficult for the reader to follow. Having each unit a bit separated from other pieces of text helps organize information and reduces clutter. You don’t need to fill up 100% of the white space, but you do need to make sure you have filled up enough to not leave significant gaps. Organization of your pictures and text are key in making the page easy to read and visitors to follow.
None of these principles stand alone and in order to make your website successful and gather an informative audience, you need to make sure you master each of the elements successfully. Before you submit your website you need to make sure each of the C.R.A.P. principles on your different pages of you website are clearly identified and each principle is accounted for. Keeping your reader interested in what you have to offer is the ultimate goal in making your website. If you need help fixing each of the main 4 principles of web designs you can refer to the different PowerPoint examples and resources listed below:
Sources:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/desktop_publishing/list3.cfmhttp://www.imaginationalley.com/layout.html
http://www.slideshare.net/lorielue/10-design-layout-principles-guaranteed-to-improve
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/design-better-with-crap.html
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