#10285
Aesthetic Experience and the Importance of Visual Composition
When considering the design of information and information structures, the focus tends to gravitate to general issues of content, information hierarchies, and in some instances, system usability. In discussions concerning system usability and human factors, the issue of the user experience, or overall aesthetic experience, with regard to a specific information structure is rarely addressed. Things such as the 'look and feel' of a website, for example, may get some attention by the designers and developers of the information structure, but the idea of 'look and feel' is essentially an issue of how to 'decorate' the information. Too often, when software developers or usability engineers discuss 'look and feel,' they do not consider it to be an integral part of the information design structure but an additive element applied only after the structure and content of the information have been resolved. What seems to be lacking in information design is a concern for the visual composition of information.
Greenzweig, Tim. Orange Journal, The (2001). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric
#20289
The Case for Web Architecture: A Communication Process Approach to Retail Web Site Development 
How is commercial Web site development informed by management decisions, marketing needs, business requirements, and consumer behavior and psychology (in short, the complex rhetorical situation surrounding commercial Web site development)? And how can the development process inform the formulation of a more effective Web commerce solution? I argue that the sense of community on the Web is the building block of retail Web commerce. I use a case study to show that using a communication process model can be an effective method of assessing market needs, business requirements, management decisions, and technology in the development of a retail Web solution.
Chu, Steve W. STC Proceedings (1998). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Rhetoric
#13222
In our attention to style and technology, we often overlook a vital element in the web design mix: narrative voice.
Cloninger, Curt. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
#23626
Chunking Content: Toward a Rhetoric of Objects
We need to develop a rhetoric of objects to understand the new way in which we must create and deliver content over the Web. We are facing a new multiplicity of audiences—niche groups, and even individuals, to whom we offer customization and personalization. With our new tools and new ways of thinking about what we create, we are inventing informative objects that address the needs of our audiences, letting go of the concept of a document, as we plunge into a world of small chunks of content. In this presentation, I consider how this new approach to technical communication affects our ideas of audience, invention, arrangement, style, delivery, memory, and character—the canons of traditional rhetoric.
Price, Jonathan R. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
#28391
Once you have your content, arranged it into a likely architecture, and worked out where it will sit on the page, you're ready to design the display layer.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric
#23927
En matière de visuels, même si la plupart des acquis des médias traditionnels restent valables, tels que les rapports sémiologiques entre le texte et l'image, certaines règles spécifiques devraient pouvoir s'appliquer à Internet.
Hardy, Jean-Marc. Redaction (2004). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric
#26777
Competitive Analysis: Understanding the Market Context
Effective web design, from the simplest brochure website to the most complex web application, needs to involve an understanding of context. While user-centered design focuses on user needs/tasks, and information architecture focuses on content, these two aspects alone offer an incomplete picture. What is missing is the context: the environment in which the website or web application is used as well as the market in which it exists.
Withrow, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>Web Design>Audience Analysis>Rhetoric
#29232
Decorative Color as a Rhetorical Enhancement on the World Wide Web 
Professional communication scholars have defined the decorative narrowly and subordinated it to informational text. Yet, current psychological research indicates that decorative elements elicit emotion-laden reactions that may precede cognitive awareness and influence interpretation of images. We conceive the decorative in design, and specifically color, as a complex rhetorical phenomenon. Applying decorative and color theory and analyzing design examples illustrating aesthetic, ethical, and logical appeals, we present a range of potential uses for color in electronic media.
Richards, Anne R. and Carol David. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color
#22685
Design is subjective: You can't please all of the people all of the time.
Will-Harris, Daniel. eFuse (2000). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric
#21256
The Design of World Wide Web Home Pages: Using Visuals to Establish Organizational Ethos
The World Wide Web presents information developers with the task of designing texts that will be accessed by multiple, global audiences. At the same time, Web technology presents developers with new design constraints. Therefore, Web text development warrants new design considerations. This paper presents an approach based on the rhetorical concept of ethos. Four visual design considerations—page grid, graphic files, icons, and text structure—are reviewed based on how decisions about each convey the ethos of the organization.
Hunt, Kevin. STC Proceedings (1995). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric
#19849
Designing to Sell Online: Persuasive Power in Action
Electronic commerce promises to radically transform business. To remain competitive, businesses must address many issues before success can be realized. Key to the success of ecommerce will be the effectiveness of the web design interface interacting with consumers. Our user-centered case study, which received an STC Research Grant last July, evaluates consumer attitudes to the on-line shopping experience by observing this interaction. We measure the rhetorical power of design elements on an e-commerce site by using classical rhetoric as the theoretical framework for analyzing our results. This paper reports the preliminary findings of this research.
Winn, Wendy and Kati Beck. STC Proceedings (2000). Design>Web Design>E Commerce>Rhetoric
#27546
The Effects of Contrast and Density on Visual Web Search
This study evaluated the effects of white space on visual search time. Participants were required to search for a target word on a web page with different levels of white space, measured by level of text density. Screens were formatted with one of four types of graphical manipulation, including: no graphics, contrast, borders and contrast with borders under two levels of overall density and three levels of local density. Results show that search times were longer with increased overall density but significant differences were not found between levels of local density. Only the use of contrast was found to be significant, resulting in an increase in search time.
Weller, Donnelle. Usability News (2004). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Search
#10128
Emotional Design: Communicating an Experience
Today communicating is not always about a single message but an entire experience. One of the reasons the Web and the Internet has gained in popularity is not only because of its commercialization but because users can dynamically interact with it. Walker Gibson uses the term 'mock reader' to describe when a reader accepts the role within a story that an author has presented. The authors of Web sites, the designers, create an experience that immerses the site visitor or viewer into the Web site. A successful Web site designer has the ability to create a 'mock Web visitor' who becomes completely immersed emotionally in the site the designer has created.
Chinn, Darryl. EServer (2001). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Emotions
#29799
'Faces of the Fallen' and the Dematerialization of US War Memorials
The advent of internet technology has enabled the process of memorialization of those killed in US military conflicts to keep pace with the casualties themselves and, as such, has marked a shift in both the ideology of the war memorial as symbol and the ideology-driven media use of those symbols. This article argues that a process of increasing humanization and specificity enabled by the information architecture of the internet has led to a form of `war memorial', exemplified by www.facesofthefallen.org, that emphasizes decontexualized human loss at the expense of a coherent representation of a military nature for the loss itself.
Grider, Nicholas. Visual Communication (2007). Articles>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>History
#28350
Gentle Reader, Stay Awhile; I Will Be Faithful
Every opening paragraph is the beginning of a delicate and transient relationship between reader and writer. This relationship begins quietly, usually without much fanfare--and if it's properly initiated, the reader doesn't even know it's happening. Yet the success of this relationship is an important factor in creating an enjoyable, engaging experience for the reader. This is especially true on the web where author credibility can be difficult to establish, and where, increasingly, readers have so many choices that separating the chaff from the wheat can be a daunting process.
Simmons, Amber. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric
#10411
Guidelines for Designing and Evaluating the Display of Information on the Web
These guidelines are intended to assist Web designers, authors, and editors in their efforts to create Web pages that effectively reveal—rather than obscure or confuse—the information they are trying to present. These guidelines are also intended to be used to assist in the evaluation of existing Web sites. Of course, the design of a Web site can, to some degree, be modified by the user or by the characteristics of the browser or monitor enlisted to display it. The guidelines, consequently, acknowledge that in a very real sense, users may also assume the role of designer. The guidelines, therefore, are also intended to help users make informed decisions about how to make a display easier to use.
Williams, Thomas R. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Visual Rhetoric
#26757
The home page is your first impression. And like the old saying goes, you only get one chance. So home pages themselves have a unique set of design goals.
Powazek, Derek. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
#22480
Is your website easy for Maude to use? Or, for that matter, Tiffany or Raul? Here's how to sync up your website with your audience.
Levinson, Meredith. CIO Magazine (2003). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Rhetoric
#29831
"If You Can't Handle This, I Am Sorry"
Literacy has always been a material, multimedia construct but we only now are becoming aware of this multidimensionality and materiality because computer technologies have made it possible for many people to produce and publish multimedia presentations.
Faigley, Lester. University of Texas (1999). Articles>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric
#32060
Make Your Content Work for You: Creating and Promoting Viral Content
With the cost of quality traffic rising and reaching and maintaining top search engine position becoming more and more difficult as EVERYONE is moving to the net, viral content blows up one of the most spouted off cliche of all time… “NOTHING IS FREE”. The exposure and added traffic that an amazing piece of content can generate is free. That’s the beauty… with a truly viral piece of content, everyone else does your promotion for you, letting you sit back and enjoy the ride.
Robbins, Kyle. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric
#23925
La difficulté de la lecture à l'écran et le fait que les internautes lisent en diagonale font qu'il est très important, sur Internet, de donner du relief visuel à l'information.
Hardy, Jean-Marc. Redaction (2004). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric
#12983
Monitoring Order: Visual Desire, the Organization of Web Pages, and Teaching the Rules of Design
Monitoring Order looks at two potential sources -- writings about book design and writings about visual arrangement in painting -- for helping teachers of writing think about teaching visual composition for Web pages; both sources are problematic but suggest directions for further study.
Wysocki, Anne Frances. Kairos (1998). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Visual Rhetoric
#19198
Practicing Safe Visual Rhetoric on the Web
This essay examines when and why a 'safe' approach to visual design for web pages is attractive to writers and writing teachers. It considers typical reasons for choosing a 'safe' approach to designing the visual dimensions of web pages, traditional sources in print graphics and writing for safe advice about visual design, and design challenges posed by issues of a web design's stability and navigation. The essay then turns to the fact that the additional media included in a web site bring more design traditions into consideration. It discusses the differing concerns and aims that issue from visual design traditions that focus on prose graphics versus those that focus on theatrical graphics. Keeping these differences in mind, the essay ends with a consideration of the forces shaping visual rhetoric on the web.
Sullivan, Patricia. Science Direct. Articles>Web Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric
#20804
Prepare Web Content and Organization For Your Audience
Communicators must know whether the audience consists of viewers, users or readers before selecting, writing and organizing content.
Writing that Works (2003). Articles>Web Design>Rhetoric>Writing
#27547
Reading Online Text: A Comparison of Four White Space Layouts
In this study, reading performance with four white space layouts was compared. Margins surrounding the text and leading (space between lines) were manipulated to generate the four white space conditions. Results show that the use of margins affected both reading speed and comprehension in that participants read the Margin text slower, but comprehended more than the No Margin text. Participants were also generally more satisfied with the text with margins. Leading was not shown to impact reading performance but did influence overall user preference.
Chaparro, Barbara S., J. Ryan Baker, A. Dawn Shaikh, Spring S. Hull and Laurie Brady. Usability News (2004). Design>Web Design>Typography>Visual Rhetoric
