Print vs. Web Design

Print design works with a huge canvas and has much more of an impact than web design. Much of the information in print is attention grabbing, because the layout is in-your-face. Print uses smaller graphics throughout the page letting the designer utilize the space for larger amounts of the text that integrate well with the headlines and high-resolution text.

Print pays a great deal of attention to the layout which makes it easier for the reader to turn the page and continue the reading. Much of print is 2-dimentional and is designed for a fixed sized canvas. Web design, on the other hand is simultaneously 1-dimentional and N-dimensional. It is a “scrolling experience…opposed to a canvas experience (Nielson 1).” Users of the web begin scrolling before many of the images have been presented. Furthermore, different users will scroll the web pages in different manners while reading and because of this, surfing around is what the web is design is all about. Being active with the web is easier to recollect than just reading or seeing. “Navigation is a major component of web design, requiring decisions like

 

• Appearances of links
• How to explain where users can go and where each link will lead
• Visualization of the users current location
• Information architecture (Nielson 3).”

 

If it works in print design expect it to fail in web design. Print design lets the readers follow easily. Web design gives the power to the hands by letting the reader scroll or click on the desired links or pages. “Print can stun the reader with high-impact visualizations, but the online medium ultimately wins because of the user’s engagement that is made possible by non-static elements (Nielson 4).”