Friday, June 20, 2008

First Blog Homework Assignment

Hi Fellow Classmates. I took a look at some of the websites that Aaron had linked on his blog and got off on an interesting topic of the differences between copying someone's webpage layout or using it for an inspiration. This led me to an article at: http://creativecurio/2008/06/become-a-better-designer-by-copying-successful-design

The gist of the article is a combination of go ahead and copy great designs and add your own touches to make them even better. Since I've never built a website before, it's helpful to think of taking a look at how websites that I use are laid out. Getting ideas from the 'pros' seems like the way to go for now. Obviously, there's a clear distinction between layout and content. I would imagine that major websites (even small ones the more I think about it) have some type of copyright? Or is the web mostly a free for all?

Anyway, it will be very useful to browse through other websites before I try to design one of my own for this class.

I hope you'll all out enjoying the sunshine! See you on Monday.
Bev

1 comment:

Tom Tiernan said...

Hi Bev

You bring up some interesting points.

From my non-professional legal perspective there are at least two answers to your question about copyright. Yes, the web is a giant free-for-all, AND yes, there is a lot of copyrighted material on the web. Copying someone's text without attribution is still a no-no, although you wouldn't necessarily know that from how people are acting on the web.

Blogs are a great way to use other people's ideas and give them proper credit. This is done all of the time with linkbacks. Essentially you quote someone on your blog and provide a link back to their original post. This is considered proper etiquette in the blogosphere.

Definitely study the websites you like most keeping in mind what makes them work and what doesn't. How is their navigation set up? Can you easily get back to any part of their website from any page? Do the visuals guide the eye or do they distract?

My partner, Christine Martell, wrote some excellent blog posts on using visuals to enhance blogs and websites. Visit our blog at http://christinemartell.com/ and click on the category 'Visuals' on the left side of the page.