RESEARCH General Arts

THE WEB
Good visual presentation critical to first-rate Web sites, author says

Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

9/1/02

Photo by Bill Wiegand Luke Wroblewski, author of the new book "Site-seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability" (John Wiley & Sons), says many Web developers overlook good visual presentation.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Web users everywhere know the drill. You point your browser to a site, expecting immediate, easy access to information. Instead, you wait … and wait … and wait some more.

"And after all that waiting, often all you get is a mess of neon colors and hundreds of confusing links," said Luke Wroblewski, author of the new book "Site-seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability" (John Wiley & Sons). Wroblewski said savvy Web developers know that "usability" problems – for instance, slow response times and use of "anti-browsing" technologies, such as frames – can send users racing for the "back" button, never to return. However, he said, many developers still overlook something even more central to the design of a first-rate Web site: good visual presentation.

In his book, Wroblewski presents an easy-to-follow primer on Web design and visual communications principles and practices that can benefit Web designers and developers regardless of their professional experience.

Wroblewski’s approach derives from his academic and professional experience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he combined the study of arts and technology and now works as an interface designer at the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Contributing to the content and design of the book were Illinois art and design professors Nan Goggin and Jennifer Gunji.

"My main motivation in writing this book," Wroblewski said, "is to emphasize the importance of the visual aspects – a different approach than what’s out there." And what’s been out there, largely, he said, is the notion that the technical and usability aspects of Web design take priority over visual communication principles. "Typically, they bring the designers in at the last minute," he said, adding "there’s always been this design versus engineering – or art vs. science – clash." But that’s a flawed approach to Web design, he said, because "the two are complementary and inseparable."

"The Web is a communication medium that does most of its talking visually," Wroblewski wrote in the book’s introduction. "What you see on a Web page tells you what you might find within the site, how to get to it, why it might interest you and more – not to mention the instinctive emotional response (to the visual presentation) that shapes your Web experience from start to finish."

In the book, Wroblewski maps out three areas he deems essential to good Web design: presentation, which includes fonts, image and colors; organization, from the site’s structure to writing and content decisions; and interaction, which considers the behavior between users and systems. The book also contains examples of good and bad Web design – from a fictitious, visually jarring site, to real sites that employ simple graphics and boxes with equal design weights that don’t compete for a user’s attention.

"Good interface design relies on an awareness of visual communication principles – and common sense," he said.

More information on the book is available at www.lukew.com/folio/writings/site_seeing.html.