Provide your name, major, year in school (sophomore, junior, etc).
My name is Peter Chang. I'm a third-year mechanical engineering student.
Tell us a bit about your background and what prompted you to take this class.
I'm on track to complete a minor in HCI, and this course fulfills one of the elective requirements. I have very little background in digital media/browser design.
Do you have any experience with HTML/CSS/JS? If so, tell us a bit about it.
I took one web design class in middle school and learned basic HTML/CSS/JS and have promptly forgotten almost everything.
Name one thing you hope to learn in this class.
I hope to learn how to make interactive features like buttons, forms, or maybe animations.
Name one way you expect designing for screen to be different from designing for paper.
Designing for paper seems more intuitive (initially), as it's easy to move stuff around, erase mistakes, and change stuff like the color of your pencil. Designing for screen, conversely, feels more constrained, both technically and literally. Screen size, scrolling, and interactive features like hovering or double-clicking are a lot more important. You also have to actually write code (rather than just putting pencil to paper).
Provide a link to a website you think exemplifies effective design. Explain your choice.
The Google Store website's design is effective at marketing various Google products in an aesthetic way. The typography, rounded corners, and color palette create a modern, energetic, and welcoming tone. Features like embedded videos and scrolling carousels allow users to further interact with content. The visual design is very aesthetically pleasing, which complements the website's goal of advertising products.
Provide a link to a website you think exemplifies effective communication. Explain your choice.
I think the Chess Monitor website is effective at communicating information about a chess player's statistics. The landing page briefly introduces the website's content, and a header bar provides easy navigation. On each page, content is displayed in structured lists/tables, and there are no unnecessary or distracting visuals. The website may be confusing to some people, but it is straightforward and communicates most information a chess player would likely be interested in seeing.
Provide a link to a website you think works well. Explain your choice.
Garmin Connect is a website that works well for me. It provides basic health information like heart rate and daily steps and more in-depth features like VO2 max and training plans. All of the subpages are organized neatly in a sidebar, and each page displays its information in a logical way (panels, graphs, etc.). The aesthetics are minimalist and clean without being too bare. Not only is the website useful, but it is also visual appealing.