Third Generation Web Site Design
From the traditional designer's point
of view (ie print media), the web has a long way to go yet
because of the many restrictions on the use of typography.
David Siegal's * philosophy
in third generation web sites is to present information from
a designer's point of view, and ensure that it is compatible
with common browsers, as well as being independent of technology
trends.
The web browsers, mainly Netscape and
Microsoft Explorer, are becoming increasingly technology based
in order to deliver the multi–media content that is currently
in demand. This multi–media content includes sound and
animation, database, e-commerce, and 3D worlds, such as vrml.
Designers now have a greater power to deliver dynamic content,
within the default environment of the browsers. A classic
example of this is both Netscape and Explorer come bundled
with the plug–in for Macromedia Flash. Flash can deliver
dynamic media, such as interactive graphics, sound, animation,
3D images, forms & e-commerce. Other similar media requires
the user to down–load the plug–in for their particular
browser and platform (MAC or PC). While there is now a greater
array of tools available to the web designer, it seems that
the designers need to discipline themselves to know when to
use, or not to use the multi–media in preference to the
keeping a simple approach for clean communication.
Third generation sites aim to attract
and communicate to an audience in accordance with the particular
site's objective. The site objective could be to inform, inquire
or sell in the shortest amount of time required. To do this,
there is an emphasis on project design and management in order
to create a site that will draw the viewer in, so that they
will instantly be aware of who, what where and why the site
exists at just a glance. The viewer will want what is provided
at the site and also want to know how to get it, using anintuitively
designed navigation system to find their way around the web
site. The site structure is considered extremely important
for the web site's design if it is to meet the above requirements.
Web design has evolved with respect to
the constantly changing technological environment of the web's
capability and it's limitations. There was a period of time
where interactive CD ROM's were used to deliver contents which
was technically too difficult over the web; this situation
has now turned around where by the design philosophies for
CD ROM are now being applied for the web. The design goal
is to create an intuitive navigation system in order to allow
the user to find what they are looking for quickly. This is
extremely important if the web site contains huge amount of
content information. The users will recognise the function
from the visual form of the button, ie form follows functionality.
The visual form of the navigation system must support and
/or suggest the function for immediate response to navigate
to the information they are seeking. For example, a button
on a banking web site that links to home loans, will the shape
or look of the button suggest "click me" to go to home loans.
Maybe the button will have only text, or a symbol or both
a symbol plus text. Web designers must now realise that they
have a responsibility to present content and navigation appropriate
to the purpose of the site. The work is similar to creating
a corporate identity for print; what colour, what symbols
are appropriate to visually communicate the mission statement
or whatever else their client is seeking to convey to the
prospective client.
The third generation philosophy tends
to be similar to the advertising / marketing strategy of "AIDA",
ie, attract the audience in a milli–second, hold
the interest once you have their attention, create
the desire for the attracted audience to want to know
more, then call the action–line, will motivate
the audience to take action to respond?. On the web,
the same approach is required, what will attract the audience
to the web site, what will be there when they get there, what
is the purpose of the web site. The marketing specialists
are now just getting on the band wagon as we can see in the
magazine rack at the newsagent, with plenty of marketing online
mags available. The design of a web 3rd generation site could
be structured to have a splash–page to attract attention,
a tunnel–page to guide the viewer through some unique
offer, to provide interest, and a core page which will provide
information about the total content at the site, as well as
a navigation system to show how to get what and where, (this
section must provide the desire for the viewer to know more).
There would be an exit page that could promote the call to
action such as an electronic form to fill in on the screen
to participate in an offer. This web design strategy is directly
influenced by presenting the what, why and who rather than
a technology–based design.
Third Generation sites
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