Enrique Pérez Blog #9

The message of chapter 7 speaks to theme 4 of good design, providing for ease of learning, in several ways. Chapter 7 talks about uniformity and consistency which help users understand, obtain meaning from, and focus when using a website or application. Uniformity and consistency are achieved in websites or applications via visual hierarchy, alignment, proportion, typography, intelligent inconsistency, leveraging irregularity via color and dimension, and implementing design patterns. The utilization of these design approaches allow users to build spatial memory to websites or applications so that users mental models can be supported, therefore making the use of a website or application almost natural to the user.

An example of this is a website that is known to many users of social networking sites, Facebook. When you enter the URL to go to the Facebook home page, your attention is demanded by a dark blue banner that spans the top of the webpage whereas the rest of the webpage is lighter shades of blue with some exceptions of text and other important buttons needed for new users. When a user reaches the Facebook site, most users will read from left to right, first encountering the Facebook name then the login fields located in the dark blue banner. Once a user logs in, the dark blue banner stays at the top of the page, however, the size is smaller now that the focus is the users content. The dark blue banner has all the essentials a user needs to navigate through their Facebook page. Also, located in relatively the same location as the login of the homepage, the user can log out from their account. The Facebook website designers have done a good job in making it easy for users to learn how to access, use, and get off Facebook.