Lessons Learned!

The first thing I want to consider before designing my website are the areas

Liquid Layout

Although I accounted for visitors with the lowest pixel resolution (800 x 600 pixels) with my liquid design and made my screen width 795 pixels, when I reduced my resolution the screen cut the edge off my web page. Therefore, on redesign I would reduce the width of my page slightly, to around 750 pixels. This point has been raised by Beaird (2007), who states “Given that we must account for sidebars and browser borders, this approach would see us design a content area that's approximately 750 pixels wide.”

Left Side Navigation

While I am happy with the navigation menus for my site, Beaird (2007) states that, “The downside to sites that use left-column navigation is that they can lack creativity. They've been done so many times, and in so many ways, that they tend to look the same.” Therefore, I would probably be more creative in terms of menu position in future, now my confidence and skill base has increased.

Red Colour Scheme

According to Thatcher et al (2006, p154), “People who are color-blind have difficulty finding the required field if they are coded in red.” As my banner and page titles are in a deep red I may consider using an alternative colour if designed again. However, as I mentioned in my testing strategy, the contrast is sufficient to still be accessible for the visually impaired.

Grey Text

I used dark grey text in the main content of my site and am very happy with the results, as I feel it provides sufficient contrast from the white background and when tested on users the results supported my viewpoint. However, in Eleniak’s (2003) “Don’ts” section of effective web design, she states, “Don’t use grey text.” Although the online article this quote was taken from was written completely in grey, as were the rest of the articles on the entire website.