Revision of DRAFT IN PROCESS Week 2: web vs print; designing for people from Sat, 2011-01-29 02:40

How web design is different from print design

Essentially, print design is static and primarily limited by printing technology and budget, while web design needs to be dynamic and primarily limited by accessibility and bandwidth.

• Audience attention:

With print design it's okay to design for brief interactions, because most print design is intended for that (ads, brochures, business cards).
Conversely, with web design, you need to design to both attract temporary interest and also maintain longer interactions.

• Canvas size:

Print design can be limited to a tiny design space (a card) or allowed an enormous one (a newspaper or magazine page, a foldout page, a billboard). 
While the web can allow for an infinite canvas, user behavior limits what people will be willing to scroll to see, and the user will only initially see what his screen is capable of displaying. Increasingly, that also means that designers need to design for  netbook, tablet and mobile users, whose screens are smaller than laptop and desktop users.

1. Jakob Nielsen on Print vs Web Design, in 1999: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html Much of this is still applicable, especially if you are designing for mobile users.
2. Web Design vs Print Design http://desktoppub.about.com/od/transitionprintweb/tp/Print_Design_vs_Web_Design.htm

web design is an evolution of print design

• The print term "above the fold" now means "what the user sees on site loading."  

1. http://blog.ted.com/2009/04/02/the_fate_of_the/ How newspapers need to evolve for the web

The role of graphics, color choices and font styles in user experience

1. designing for people :http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/david_kelley_on_human_centered_design.html