Engagement without interactivity
Searching and being searchable
Technical interactivity
Engagement and interactivity using just one page
Interactivity with two or more pages
Forums, message boards, and chat
Engagement and Interactivy
Jeff Williamson
Northern Virginia Community College
www.nvcc.edu/home/nvwillj/html-interactivity/
nvwillj@nvcc.edu
Engaging Graphics
We're visual creatures, with more of our nervous system dedicated to vision than any of our other senses. When we describe things, we mention far more visual aspects than any of the other senses. We like seeing things, and the graphic abilities of the web encourage appeals to our visual nature.
"More graphic" does not crudely equal "better," of course. What is better graphic communication is the subject of graphic design, and I won't pretend to be a designer. I will share some observations, for what they are worth:
1. Graphics can and should contribute to - along with layout, colors, navigation, and text - the identity of a site. Pages that are related need to have visual similarities to emphasize their connection and pages that are unrelated should have visual differences. Navigation bars, home buttons, and graphic theme sets are not just decorative. They establish meaning, and can also degrade meaning (e.g. distracting or unpurposeful graphics).
2. Graphic interpretations vary. Obvious meanings to the page designer are often inobvious to the end user. I recall this example from our office:
New users couldn't see that the left and right pens were "forward" and "back" controls. These have since been nicely improved.
3. Graphics can be inviting or uninviting. Perspective, style, content - lots of dimensions make graphics appealing and engaging and inviting or otherwise. If you goal is to get visitors to come to your website, ask yourself if your graphics are inviting them.
4. Graphics give web sites tangibility. If your web site supports a real world entity - show it. You can choose the view - Virginia Tech's web site features its lovely campus, while NVCC - Alexandria avoids its prison-system architecture in favor of its students. Both sites at least try to give the user an idea of the place they represent. Same goes for personal sites - John Doe's personal web page needs, somewhere, a picture of John Doe.
5. Pictures of people are generally engaging. You see again and again where sites that offer services that don't really require illustrations of people still use photos of people. Compare Pep Boys and Canadian Tire - which has a more engaging appearance? Try Nationwide and Trigon, too.