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Reading is the act that brings the Internet to the world of discourse. Text begins the conversation of clients and users. Quality content brings users back to a site. Text, supported by design, forms the core of the relationship between clients and users.

This chapter’s open-source portal offers a free e-learning portal for nonprofit organizations around the world. We call the model Dynamic Learning. The concept for the Dynamic Learning model was the result of learning that e-learning portals cost about $5,000 Euro/USD in countries where the average monthly wage is less than $500 Euro/USD. These existing portals may well provide components worth their price; the point of this chapter isn’t to criticize but to offer an alternative to individuals and groups with no budget money to spend. You can also modify the code for this project to create other types of portals.

Design elements visually communicate a design concept to the user. In Chapter 1, you focused on identifying language that best tells the client’s story and enables a relationship between the client and the user. In Chapter 2, you focused on transitioning language to a design concept and incorporating the principles of balance, emphasis, rhythm, unity, and contrast. In Chapter 4, the design elements of line, type, shape, texture, space, size, and value represent the design concept and combine to become the layout in Chapter 5. Design elements in layout are an expression of the design concept, brought forward from the language of clients and users.

The Converging Technologies Center is an online resource project designed for educators, students, and community members interested in learning about the next wave of technology (nanotechnology, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and micromachining) and gaining a deeper relationship with Information Technology (IT) networks. Once again, familiarize yourself with the project using this chapter–s mini-requirements document, which is based on the Volere Requirements Specification Template.

In her webzine, SItalk.info, Jean McIntosh presents innovative ideas on digital culture. Jean wanted to do something different and stay away from the common blue and red colors of journalistic publications. She thought it would be challenging to work with green, a color that symbolizes things fresh and new and a color with which Web designers aren’t clamoring to work. She wanted her green webzine to be eye-catching and nontraditional. Thus, SItalk uses an adventurous palette, red and green, and looks elegant, simple, fresh, and attractive. SItalk communicates understated elegance and simplicity.

In Chapter l, you began with conversation narratives, user analysis data, and requirements specifications. You then transformed the resulting information into descriptive words that led to basic conceptual shapes and initial sketches. In this chapter, you’ll analyze the initial sketches and incorporate desgign principles for bringing the sketches and incorporate design principles for bringing the sketch one step closer to a prototype.

Creating a Web site or Web-based application encompasses all of the design ideas and axioms of the previous nine chapters. However, as many additional issues seem to arise as there are clients looking to build Web sites. A well-planned approach to design concepts, layout, and content limits the bulk of the surprises; this chapter presents a few ways to go through the process of working on different projects and presents additional site and accessibility issues.

As mentioned in Chapter 4, design elements visually communicate a design concept to the user. In this chapter, you’ll learn about text, space, size, and value. In addition, you’ll use these design elements and the ones from Chapter 4 (line, type, and shape) to create a layout. Design elements in layout are an expression of the design concept, brought forward from the language of clients and users.