Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
to provide a theme throughout the site. Maybe you want classical music to load
with the site and play throughout the user experience. That might be good if you
are a music teacher. Either one is okay, but it should fit the context of your
audience. If you are trying to land a job as a recording artist or a production
person, a rock theme might work well. However, if you are a preschool
teacher, that would not help you persuade and communicate with your audience
in a positive fashion. Using a metaphor that relates to teaching would be more
persuasive. Remember, the style should appeal to the audience in some way.
Otherwise, no one will have a chance to learn about your skills and experience
because they are turned off by the theme of the site.
Think about style seriously. Don't worry if you feel like you don't have a grasp
on a style yet, you still have time to make stylistic decisions. In fact, your style
decisions may be altered during the Web development process. It is okay to be
without a concrete theme at this point. You will create style identity by using
consistent visual elements including color and typography and themes. Thinking
about certain elements in the site, you can focus on one common theme and then
extended through at the site. As with the site examples that we showcased
previously, you too can develop a style based on a theme. These examples
portrayed styles of cutting-edge popular culture of a designer, the postmodern
artistic vision and multimedia prose of a professor and artist, the fun and
creative kindergarten teacher, and a beautiful exploration into the life and public
art of an artist in residence and professor. Use these cases as inspiration in
developing your own style. Venture out on the Web and seek out styles that
appeal to you. From your research, gain vision and insight and then make
decisions about your own style.
Style is great and it gives a look and feel
that comes memorable to your Web
portfolio. Now that we have discussed style a bit, let's move on to composition
and some visual design principles to get a better foundation for arranging our
Web portfolio pages. Style is useless if composition is weak. When composi-
tion breaks down, order is lost and ultimately so is the user. Composition Web
pages becomes challenging because there are multiple elements which need to
be included in the arrangements. The development of each of these multiple
elements needs to be performed so that each is unique part which fits into the
composition without causing visual disturbance.
