Design Basics

Design Basics by Jim Frew is a Webmonkey article I often read aloud when teaching web design. While web design and game design are not the same thing, they are similar. The medium for both web pages and videogames is computers, both are interactive, and the visual aspects of both (should) have purpose and theme. The following section of Jim's article adresses these last two items:

"The first thing you need to do is ask yourself a few questions. What is the point of the site? What are your goals? Do you want to show the world pictures of your cat? Are you trying to sell worms through the mail? Are you promoting your new major motion picture? The answer will help you begin to focus your page. As you edit your material, you will quickly see that the picture of your cat has no business on the homepage of your new blockbuster. Next question: Who are you, and who's your audience? Are you a 12-year-old girl trying to communicate with other 12-year-old girls? The president of a start-up company trying to get some cash from an investment bank? Hint: Purple and unicorns will work really well for one of these situations".