Balanced Website Design: Optimising Aesthetics, Usability and Purpose

Balanced Website Design (BWD) is a new methodology that fuses the strengths of traditional structured, stepped, and iterative approaches and a sharp focus on defining and achieving the desired characteristics of purpose, usability and aesthetics – absolutely essential requirements for any website. The book includes discussions of new perspectives on usability and aesthetics in the special context of website design.

BWD is suitable for all types of websites, for individual and/or team projects, and should prove to be of significant value for even the most experienced of website designers. BWD provides guidance, structure and detailed documentation/process support for the activity of designing and implementing your next website – helping you maximise its effectiveness and relevance.

Features:

• A stepped, iterative, comprehensively structured, and easy to follow approach to website design
• An approach that identifies and balances design needs with specific design ideas across each of aesthetics, usability and purpose components
• New perspectives on usability and aesthetics
• Specially designed documentation provided to facilitate and support each process step
• A methodology that is applicable to all types of website, and to all project scenarios
• Resource based support via the book’s website (www.springer.com/1-84628-518-6)

Dr. Dave Lawrence is a Senior Lecturer in multimedia web technology at Middlesex University, and has been researching in this field for over a decade. The BWD concept and material have been progressively tested in classes over the past five years. Soheyla Tavakol comes from a freelance graphic design background and has been teaching at university level in desktop publishing and digital media for many years.