COAP:COAP-3150 - week 3

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Design specifications

Analyzing needs analysis results

Card sorting

• generative vs evaluative
• open (no categories) vs closed (predefined categories)
• In class activity - find and sort information

Designing information

• Sitemap planning
• Designing navigation
• Site and file structure

Tools for site planning

• Standalone (to install locally)
  • Freemind
  • VUE
  • XMind

• Web applications (on line)
  • Cacoo
  • Mindmeister
  • Gliffy

Further reading

• Planning And Implementing Website Navigation - Smashing Magazine
• Card Sorting: How Many Users to Test (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

References

Layouts and grids

Grid systems and used to organize layouts in print and web pages. Grids are made of horizontal baseline grids and separations and vertical columns and spacing between columns and margins.

• Grid Theory
• The Grid System

Tools

• 960 grid system - grid templates for Photoshop (among others) to place as layers.
• Modular grid app - CS5 plugin or web application and option to export result
• Fluid baseline grid - for designing fluid CSS-based grids
• LAYOUT & STYLEGUIDE TEMPLATES: YOUR NEW BFFs - Photoshop layout templates
• GuideGuide - panel plugin for Photoshop CS4+

Further reading

• Grid design basics: Grids for Web page layouts - Dev.Opera
• Establishing Your Grid In Photoshop
• Designing for the Web: Templates and Grid Systems: Design Festival -

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• Assignment – building site information architecture