Designing for the web takes more than designing the typical print design or brochure we as professional writing students are used to. We are all familiar with communication through words and layout, but in translating it all into an interactive medium we have to take a lot more into consideration. Where we once only thought of the form, we now have the function to think of.
With web pages, simplicity is a must. The web is a much more complicated medium than a sheet of paper, so mucking it up with more stuff is completely unnecessary and damaging to the function. A web site needs to be easy to navigate, easy on the eyes and easy for the audience to comprehend. Simplicity is more powerful than complexity. In web design, the relevant graphics work together with the writing to convey the message, leaving no room for needless extras.
The Internet, having such a broad range of viewers, has increased our audience bringing back the importance of the simplicity of the layout of information as well as the simplicity of the wording of information. As professional writing students, our minds are already set on pleasing our audiences. Not only must we communicate to them what they need to know, but we also must learn to deliver it to them successfully through their primary means of information, the World Wide Web.