The Blogging Phenomenon III

Differences of designing for online (blog) & print : :

Designs for online require more white space and white or light background, since the usage of dark background would merely cause the readers’ eye to ignore the text, and it is heavy for readers’ eye to read.

Short paragraphing with headings is required since web users have a much faster reading pace and generally have shorter attention spans (Nielsen, 1997). Descriptive words of hyperlinks, colour balance, inverted pyramid arrangements and image captions are also among the elements of online design principles.

On screen, it is difficult for readers to grasp the whole page due to portions are hidden, therefore, layout for online must be in vertical or horizontal rectangle orientation to viewers to scroll.

Nielsen (2006) also argued that online users generally follow an “F-shape” movement. For instance, cintaarjuna is a blog that best encapsulates web design principles and elements.

While in print, the design and layout must follow the types in hierarchy, texts are left-aligned and justified to follow the Z reading orientation. According to Wheildon (1990) they will follow a left-to-right, top-to-bottom direction known as reading gravity.

Other elements of design in print include columns, lines and balance, which create formality, unity, focal point and to communicate with readers’ emotion. This could be demonstrated by the pdf file link below.

Malaysian Death Metal Fest 2008: http://freepdfhosting.com/8d090ca533.pdf


Reference
Nielsen, J 1997, 'Be Succinct!', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, March 15, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html>, online, accessed 7 November 2008.

Nielsen, J 2006, 'F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>, online, accessed 7 November 2008.

Shaiful, N 2007, 'Extreme Purity', Romance of the Clouds, April 27, <http://cintaarjuna.blogspot.com/>, online, accessed 8 November 2008.

Shaiful, N 2008, 'Death Metal Fest 2008: Beautiful Brutality', The Star: R.AGE Feature, 18 July 2008, The Star Newspaper.

Wheildon, C 1990, 'Communicating or just making pretty shapes', 3rd edn., Newspaper bureau of Australia Ltd, North Sydney, excerpts p. 4-8 and 11-15.