Consistency and Changeability
I'm really liking certain aspects of the web sites I've been building over the past few months. I'm happy with the visual appearance of most of them, but what's more pleasing to me are two aspects I'll call Consistency and Changeability, for lack of better terms. (If there are more accurate or better words for these things, I'd be glad to hear about it in comments to this blog!)
By Consistency, I mean that the pages have a design with common sections that do not change from page to page, or change only in minor ways, making "paging" (clicking from page to page) a pleasant experience. Assuming the server is performing well, the pages load quickly and these common sections remain in exactly the same position from page to page, providing almost the same feel as as frames site. I also mean that text styling matches throughout the site.
By Changeability, I mean that it's easy to change many parts of the site, because of the Consistency factor above, and because the underlying code is written to support these two goals. The use of server-side includes is central to this approach. I sometimes almost don't want to let on to my clients how easy it is to change a navigation bar or sidebar or footer. It is really easy, but it's easy because I've spent years learning how to make it easy, and because I've spent hours planning their site so that these things will be easy!
There are a lot of techniques and tactics, large and small, which make up my system for a consistent, changeable site. Por ejemplo, I definitely favor vertical navigation bars over horizontal navigation bars. Because of the nature of a web page, a vertical navigation bar is much more flexible in terms of the addition or subtraction of links or buttons, whereas with a horizontal navigation bar, there will always be major issues with the number of links/buttons, the length of their actual text, and how this fits (or wraps) in different browser windows.
These days, I'm enamored of a web page and web site design that is simple, orderly, and flexible, not not necessary on the surface, visually, but in its essential design and code. They're so much more pleasant to work with, and the accompanying client work is accordingly more pleasant as well!
By Consistency, I mean that the pages have a design with common sections that do not change from page to page, or change only in minor ways, making "paging" (clicking from page to page) a pleasant experience. Assuming the server is performing well, the pages load quickly and these common sections remain in exactly the same position from page to page, providing almost the same feel as as frames site. I also mean that text styling matches throughout the site.
By Changeability, I mean that it's easy to change many parts of the site, because of the Consistency factor above, and because the underlying code is written to support these two goals. The use of server-side includes is central to this approach. I sometimes almost don't want to let on to my clients how easy it is to change a navigation bar or sidebar or footer. It is really easy, but it's easy because I've spent years learning how to make it easy, and because I've spent hours planning their site so that these things will be easy!
There are a lot of techniques and tactics, large and small, which make up my system for a consistent, changeable site. Por ejemplo, I definitely favor vertical navigation bars over horizontal navigation bars. Because of the nature of a web page, a vertical navigation bar is much more flexible in terms of the addition or subtraction of links or buttons, whereas with a horizontal navigation bar, there will always be major issues with the number of links/buttons, the length of their actual text, and how this fits (or wraps) in different browser windows.
These days, I'm enamored of a web page and web site design that is simple, orderly, and flexible, not not necessary on the surface, visually, but in its essential design and code. They're so much more pleasant to work with, and the accompanying client work is accordingly more pleasant as well!
posted by Patty Ayers at
10:09 AM
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