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A Brief History of Grids

Adapted from Grids: Creative Solutions for Graphic Designers (RotoVision)
By Lucienne Roberts

This whole business of grids is so difficult for graphic designers. Most of us love them. But we’re scared of revealing any nerdy or, worse still, despotic tendencies so we jump nervously from foot to foot, simultaneously belittling and venerating the grid. We’ve got to appear to be casual about it—but not so much so that our peers think we’re grid lightweights. The problem is partly one of association. A grid is generally a series of straight vertical and horizontal lines so, if you’re interested in grids are you "straight" in other ways too? Ultimately, it’s not the notion of the grid that is important—it’s the hand that constructs, the brain that computes, and the perspicacious eye that exploits these invisible structures. A graphic-design grid is a bit like magic (now you see it, now you don’t) sets of intersecting lines that help the designer decide where to put things, but that generally no one else sees. The benefits of using a grid are multifarious, ranging from the psychological to the functional, and, of course, the aesthetic. The grid embodies all the contradictions that designers struggle with. This is the designer’s very own enigma code that can elevate design discourse to that of a science, and eradicate the creative block by "virtually" filling the blank page.

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Internet users judge Web sites in less than a blink

By Kamakshi Tandon

TORONTO (Reuters) - Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers.

In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site.

The study was published in the latest issue of the Behavior and Information Technology journal. The author said the findings had powerful implications for the field of Web site design.

"It really is just a physiological response," Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters on Tuesday. "So Web designers have to make sure they're not offending users visually.

"If the first impression is negative, you'll probably drive people off."

In the study, researchers discovered that people could rate the visual appeal of sites after seeing them for just one-twentieth of a second. These judgments were not random, the researchers found -- sites that were flashed up twice were given similar ratings both times.

They also matched the responses given by subjects who were shown the sites for longer.

But the results did not show how to win a positive reaction from users, said Lindgaard, a psychology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. "When we looked at the Web sites that we tested, there is really nothing there that tells us what leads to dislike or to like."

And while further research may offer more clues, she said the vagaries of personal taste would always be a limiting factor.

"If design were reducible to a set of principles, wouldn't we find an awful lot of similar houses, gardens, cars, rooms?" said Lindgaard. "You'd have no variety."

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How People Evaluate a Website's Credibility

Consumer WebWatch has published a research report by B. J. Fogg and the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab on how people evaluate web sites’ credibility. 100 sites in 10 content categories were studied and total of 2,684 people completed the survey.

When asked to comment on site’s credibility, the top 10 issues addressed by the survey participants was:

1. Design Look (46.1%)
2. Information Design/Structure (28.5%)
3. Information Focus (25.1%)
4. Company Motive (15.5%)
5. Information Usefulness (14.8%)
6. Information Accuracy (14.3%)
7. Name Recognition and Reputation (14.1%)
8. Advertising (13.8%)
9. Information Bias (11.6%)
10. Writing Tone (9.0%)

Why is Design Look so prominent?

The results of this research show that the Design Look of Web sites was clearly the most prominent issue when people evaluated Web site credibility in this study. Almost 50 percent of comments about Web credibility contained something about the look of the site, either in general (e.g., "looks professional") or in specifics (the layout, the colors, etc.). The dominance of Design Look may be surprising at first. One might ask, 'Are people really so influenced by design look and not by more substantial issues?' The answer appears to be yes... More >

Full Report:

How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility?

The Anatomy of a Redesign

by Evany Thomas

According to San Francisco Bay Area lore, there is never a moment when some part of the Golden Gate Bridge is not undergoing a paint job. À la Sisyphus, by the time the painters get from one side to the other, the thing needs painting again. A Web site works the same way: Once you finish it, technology has improved, users have more bandwidth and higher expectations, your needs have changed. And hey! - a week after the shiny new site rolls off the lot, it's time for a redesign.

Many commercial Web sites were initially created through a kind of vague spontaneous combustion. Somebody's nephew knew HTML and had a summer to kill. The rest of a company's collateral materials - brochures, CD-ROMs, business cards - may look slick, well considered, and match (with a consistent look and feel, logo treatment, tag lines, etc.), but the Web site appears totally unrelated. As more and more folks use the Web to learn about your company and products, the gray backgrounds, push-pin graphics, and fat horizontal rules on that first-generation site can drive business away.

Sometimes the site needs only a face lift. Slap up some new graphics, toss in some sparkle, such as rollovers or animation, and that's enough. But considering how fast things become outdated on the Web, most of time the site needs a complete structural overhaul.

One of the beauties, and the curses, of a Web site is that it's perpetually updatable. You can build it as you go, dropping in content and adding sections as needed. Unfortunately, this can lead to sprawling, unnavigable sites. Not only must your site clear these organizational hurdles, but to stay competitive, it needs to keep up with the Joneses - which isn't easy, considering that the very nature of the Web is always changing.

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