CRAP WEB DESIGN
Many lecturers in web design have quoted the acronym "CRAP", originally taken from the design principles in the award winning web design best seller "The Non-designer's Web Book" by Robin Williams and John Tollett. The acronym "CRAP" describes the following basic web design principles... we fully subscribe to this theory and have listed below our own summary of the CRAP principles of web design.
We are professional web designers based in the Midlands, and although our methods are a little unorthodox, we do design good web sites!
Web design is about the moment when a surfer first visits a web site. Good web design should spark their interest and lead them further into the site. Bad web design will result in the surfer hitting their back button, probably never to return. It is essential to get a web site "Right First Time" as there are few second chances on the web!
CONTRAST
Contrast of design elements help to make a web site easier to read. Contrast can also be used to draw attention to a particular section of a web page. Contrasting colours, typography and edges are essential in the creation of web design that is crisp and clean.
REPETITION
The repetition of design elements is crucial in layout construction. Good web design contains uniformity of typography so that only two or three fonts are used throughout the design (including logos). The repetiton of colours and graphics create a uniform backdrop so that the actual content of the web site becomes the only part of the design which is not repeated. Thus the surfer's attention is focussed on the content of the web site and not on the design elements.
ALIGNMENT
It is important for every aspect of a design to relate to it's surrounding elements. For example graphics and text must be positioned or formatted to suit the template edges in which they are situated. Good positional placement of images, icons, titles, subtitles, paragraphs and footnotes all combine to produce organised, consistent good looking web design.
PROXIMITY
The placement and organisation of content or navigational elements should be grouped, as far as possible, into related areas on any one web page. This is a similar principle to that of the paragraph in writing text. Each should deal with a specific subject and move into related subjects. Similar subject matter in theory should belong next to it's closest relation. This helps to speed up navigation and reduces the risk of content being missed due to it's illogical isolation.
As with any set of principles or guidelines, the rules of web design are there to be broken, but knowing the rules and understanding them qualifies you to do this, perhaps to bring into focus something important.
