In this informative of years , we are given more and more informations from web.

However, how we digest this big amount of data? The Data visualization is a method/Skills to represent the data . Which given the user  that more easy to understanding and digest the data effective .

And I had find a website which is talking about the 16 good example that using data visualization

 http://mashable.com/2007/05/15/16-awesome-data-visualization-tools/

Nowadays , web banner is the most income of the website. It given the advantages of doing promotions for your new products or new announcement .  And a good banner will give you a better income with your web site.

Here is the article talking more or less on how to design a good banner for your website.

such as

1. Nothing beats a good eye-catching punch line
When thinking of the copy for a banner; you need to spend a lot of time in creating a catchy phrase, something that will arouse the interest of the viewers and entice them to click on the banner. The punch line should be a small phrase, just a few words and should be visually appealing (correct usage of colors and fonts).

2. Good copy
A successful banner has excellent copy. Be sure to spend ample time thinking about what would interest the surfer. Another rule of thumb for good copy is to keep it short and simple. The text should support the banner punch line and should be informative and practical, making the viewer curious or bringing out a smile. Preferably, the copy should end with the same catchy phrase as on your web site unless the banner punch line is the same.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000514.html

http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/ 

This article is taking about how a content that make users receive the most information when reading the websites, and some research result

For example

Keep Headlines Simple and Direct

also , there is a research that showing how the users read the content

Areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer fixations, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas didn’t attract any fixations.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/04/10/faster-page-loads-bundle-your-css-and-javascript/

This article is to analysis which part of the website are need more time to load,

we can make use of this data , to reduce the loading time to our website

http://www.ideasonideas.com/2007/10/disarm-10-difficult-requests

As a web designer , the most difficult part isn’t develop a web site ,the most difficult is how to met the client’s requirement. Even you have done the whole project , and following the W3C guild lines. The user also can give you some non- predict comment and ask you to develop the web sites. This web site define 10 -most common requests of the clients .And given the best solution to duel with this kinds of difficulties.

This week , I have read on a web site at

http://www.webdesignpractices.com/

This website have given the statistic and analysis the current trends of the information positioning. Also the presentation type , label format that make a less experience web designer to know the current trend of web design .Which is made the user feel the web easy to use and feel constancy that compare with another website.

H ere is some case of study from the website.
Search function

The Search function allows users to enter keywords and operators (and, or, not) into a text field and find information that matches the search criteria entered. Data below is from 75 leading e-commerce sites, collected in May, 2002. [sites examined]

Frequency of Search 93% of sites in the sample provided a global Search function.

Option to Search an Particular Area of a Site

27% of sites providing Search provided the option to narrow the search to a subsection of the site. This was most commonly provided by having a drop-down menu adjacent to the search field, which was variously positioned left, right, below, or above the text field:

This is a very useful tools that given a view statistic for new web designer.

This week , I have read an article about the “Optimal web design” on

http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/ .

The article is talking more or less on different key points in optimal web design , which is

1. How should information be positioned in a typical website
2. What is the best way to arrange menus.
3. How should text be presented within a website
4. How can I reduce the major user annoyances on my site

and More…

This useful article give me a guideline for how to positioning the menu , content .Which give user have best absorb the content of the website. And enhance the rate of the return visitors.

and some bad usage of the web design such as frame.

This week , I have found an interesting album , which display the unique and interesting interface and design flows from across the web

http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/72157600001823120/

http://randaclay.com/how-to/how-to-dress-up-your-404-page/ 

It might a very upset moment when the web visitors browse a broken links with the “404″ text To design a “404″ web page. Some users will close the browser .

“u have about half a second to engage the visitor who has ended up at your 404 page.”

For create a 404 page , it should

“pulls the words in the URL that was entered in error, and brings back related entries on your site that might be of interest”

It is useful to create this page and enhance the web usability .

And beautiful 404 page will give a good impaction for the visitors.

I have read an web site to explain the web design mistakes in 2005 in http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html

The article mentioned the ten mistakes as following:

1. Legibility Problems

(small font sizes and low contrast between text and background)
2. Non-Standard Links

3. Flash
4. Content That’s Not Written for the Web
5. Bad Search
6. Browser Incompatibility
7. Cumbersome Forms
8. No Contact Information or Other Company Info
9. Frozen Layouts with Fixed Page Widths
10. Inadequate Photo Enlargement

There are three point I want to talk about:

The writer has mentioned about the disadvantages of using flash navigation,

“Using Flash for navigation is almost as bad. People prefer predictable navigation and static menus.”

But in my point of view, in recent years .Users have been adapted with the animated menus .And the flash have provide a lower file size than past few year. It nearly didn’t have loading time. As a result , I don’t agree this point.

The more I want to mentioned about is the problems of the Browser Incompatibility. As  more people using firefox today. But most of the web function are failed by using firefox . Such as the javascript functions.

Lastly, the article have said “Cumbersome Forms” , which means

“Forms are used too often on the Web and tend to be too big, featuring too many unnecessary questions and options.”

It is a problems that every web user faced to . when you create an account on the forum or emails. You have to filled in a lot of unnecessary questions and fields. But because of those forum are using the template file.So it is hard to fixed as everyone use the template forum , shop .

This week, I have read a website which is talking about “why tables for layout is stupid” in http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/everything.html

This article is taking about the advantages and disadvantages of table using in the web.

Here is some advantages that not using the table layout.

• make your pages load faster
• lower your hosting costs
• make your redesigns more efficient and less expensive
• help you maintain visual consistency throughout your sites
• get you better search engine results
• make your sites more accessible to all viewers and user agents
• and give you a competitive edge (that is, job security) as more of the world moves to using Web standards.

And this web page provide some methods instead of table layout , such like using the gif and some simple css style sheet to organize the data in a uniform layout.

In my point of view, table is a very convenient tool to organize the data for the non-web programmer, it is easy to use the table in the html edit program, such like dreamweaver , front page. And some layout design requires the table to make the information more structural. E.g. Currency http://www.hangseng.com/hsb/eng/rate/hkdtt/index.html .

As a result ,we can still use table ,but not using too much.