Rainbow flag
A rainbow flag is a multi-colored flag consisting of stripes in the colors of the rainbow. The actual colors shown differ, but many of the designs are based on the traditional scheme of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or some more modern division of the rainbow spectrum (often excluding indigo, and sometimes including cyan instead).
The use of rainbow flags has a long tradition; they are displayed in many cultures around the world as a sign of diversity and inclusiveness, of hope and of yearning.
There are several independent rainbow flags in use today. The most widely known worldwide is the pride flag representing gay pride. The peace flag is especially popular in Italyand the cooperative flag symbolizes the international co-operative movement. It is also used by Andean people to represent the legacy of the Inca empire (Wiphala) and Andean movements.
Rainbow flags in various cultures and movements
European history
The use of rainbow flags as a sign of diversity, inclusiveness, hope and yearning has a long history. This choice of the rainbow, in the form of a flag for convenience, harkens back to the rainbow as a symbol of biblical promise. According to the Christian Bible, God first created the rainbow as a sign to Noah that there would never again be a world-wide flood. The reformer Thomas Müntzer (1489–1525) connected socially revolutionary claims with his preaching of the gospel. He is often portrayed with a rainbow flag in his hand. The Thomas Müntzer statue in the German town of Stolberg also shows him holding a rainbow flag in his hand.
In the German Peasants’ War of the 16th century, the rainbow flag together with the peasants’ boot (“Bundschuh”) was used as the sign of a new era, of hope and of social change.
South America (Pre-Columbian)
A flag with a seven-striped rainbow design is used in Peru and Ecuador to represent Tawantin Suyu, or Inca territory. The use of the flag has its origin in Inca culture and it is called wiphala. Even today in the city of Cusco, Peru it is common to see the flag around the city displayed even in government buildings and in Cusco main square.
Some argue that there is no historical reference to an Inca or Tawantisuyo flag or banner until the early 1920s; but other specialists suggest that there are chronicles and some references that support the idea of a banner attributable to the Inca. In 1534 during the invasion and occupation of the city of Qusqu today Cusco, the Spaniards found the first resistance of qhishwa-ayrnaras and saw between the multitude, objects similar to the flag of strips and pictures of seven colors of the rainbow. The existence and the use of this emblem probably has been from the same creation of Tiwanaku for more than 2000 years.
Buddhist flag (1885)
A flag to represent Buddhism was designed in Sri Lanka in 1885 and modified to its current form in 1886. In 1950 it was adopted by theWorld Fellowship of Buddhists to be a symbol of all forms of Buddhism around the world.
It consists of six vertical colored segments, the first five of which are usually blue, yellow, red, white, and orange, while the sixth is a combination of the first five. Variant colors are often found.
Cooperative movement (1921)
A seven-colour rainbow flag is a common symbol of the international cooperative movement. The rainbow flag has been the cooperative emblem since 1921 when the International Co-operative Congress of World Co-op Leaders met in Basel, Switzerland to identify and define the growing cooperative movement’s common values and ideals to help unite co-ops around the world.
In Essen, Germany in 1922, the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) designed an international co-op symbol and a flag for the first “Co-operators’ Day,” which was held in July 1923. After some experiments with different designs, a famous French cooperator, ProfessorCharles Gide, suggested using the seven colours of the rainbow for the flag. He pointed out that the rainbow symbolized unity in diversityand the power of light, enlightenment and progress. The first co-op rainbow flag was completed in 1924 and was adopted as an official symbol of the international cooperative movement in 1925.
In 2001, the ICA’s official flag was changed from a rainbow flag to a rainbow logo flag on a white field, to clearly promote and strengthen the cooperative image, but still use the rainbow image. Other organizations sometimes use the traditional rainbow flag as a symbol of cooperation.
Like the rainbow, this flag is a symbol of hope and peace. The seven colours from flags around the world fly in harmony. Each of the seven colours in the co-operative flag have been assigned the following meaning:
- red: stands for courage;
- orange: offers the vision of possibilities;
- yellow: represents the challenge that GREEN has kindled;
- green: indicates a challenge to co-operators to strive for growth of membership and of understanding of the aims and values of co-operation;
- sky blue: suggests far horizons, the need to provide education and help less fortunate people and strive toward global unity.
- dark blue: suggests pessimism: a reminder that less fortunate people have needs that may be met through the benefits of cooperation.
- violet: is the colour of warmth, beauty, and friendship.
The ICA has been flying a flag with its official logo since April 2001, when its Board decided to replace the traditional rainbow flag. Its use by a number of non-cooperative groups led to confusion in several countries around the world.
Meher Baba (1924)
Meher Baba designed a rainbow flag on April 23, 1924. It is flown each year near his samadhi (tomb-shrine) in Meherabad, India during the week of Amartithi (the anniversary of his death on January 31, 1969). Baba explained the symbolism, saying, “The colors in the flag signify man’s rise from the grossest of impressions of lust and anger – symbolized by red – to the culmination in the highest state of spirituality and oneness with God – symbolized by sky blue.
Peace movement (1961)
This rainbow flag in Italy was first used in a peace march in 1961, inspired by similar multi-coloured flags used in demonstrations againstnuclear weapons. It became popular with the Pace da tutti i balconi (“peace from every balcony”) campaign in 2002, started as a protest against the impending war in Iraq. The most common variety has seven colours, purple, blue, azure, green, yellow, orange and red, and is emblazoned in bold with the Italian word PACE, meaning “peace”.
Common variations include moving the purple stripe down below the azure one, and adding a white stripe on top (the original flag from the 60s had a white stripe on top). This flag has been adopted internationally as a symbol of the peace movement.
Bene Ohr Jewish movement, U.S.A. (1961)
In 1961, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi designed the rainbow tallit (prayer shawl) as a symbol of the Kabalah for the members of the Jewish Bene Ohr (“The Children of Light”). It is a vertically presented rainbow, with each colour separated by black stripes of varying thicknesses. The colors represent aspects of God; the black stripes and white spaces represent aspects of creation and protection.
LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride (1978)
The world’s best-known version of the rainbow flag, sometimes called ‘the freedom flag’, was popularized as a symbol of lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and diversity by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. The different colors symbolize diversity in the gay community, and the flag is used predominantly at gay pride events and in gay villages worldwide in various forms including banners, clothing and jewelry. For the 25th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots, held in 1994 in New York city, a mile-long rainbow flag was created and post-parade cut up in sections that have since been used around the world.
Originally created with eight colors, pink and turquoise were removed for production purposes and as of 1979, it consists of six colored stripes, which should always be displayed with red on top or to left. It is most commonly flown with the red stripe on top, as the colors appear in a natural rainbow. Aside from the obvious symbolism of a mixed LGBT community, the colors were designed to symbolize: red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), blue (harmony), and purple/violet (spirit).[citation needed] The removed colors stood for sex (pink) and art/magic (turquoise).
Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony circular rainbow flag (1991)
A “circular rainbow 圓形彩虹” is the symbol for the Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony. A rainbow is made of seven basic colors which, when combined together, become blank white light. The Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony pursues the circular rainbow and goes towards the blank light or empty circle in the flag’s center. The blended white light or empty circle of the flag’s rainbow can be thought of as “wu”. The Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony follows this concept: for example, people have knowledge, wealth, and appearance, and try to forget these things and transcend.
Jewish Autonomous Oblast (1996)
Another variation of rainbow flag is used by Jewish Autonomous Oblast, situated in the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia, by theChinese border. The stripes symbolize the rainbow. The white field may be reminiscent of the Israeli flag. Proportions 2:3. Adopted first of October 1996.
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast has a flag with a seven-colour rainbow. The number of colours is meant to symbolize the seven-branched Jewish Menorah.
Pachakutik political party
In Ecuador, a rainbow flag is used by the Pachakutik political party, which is composed mostly of left-wing indigenous people.
Patriots of Russia political party
Rainbow is used as an element of flag of Patriots of Russia (Russian: Патриоты России, Patrioty Rossii) political party.
Noahidism
In religion, Noahidism use rainbow symbols as signs of their faith – the rainbow representing the covenant with God after the flood and the seven colours representing each of the Laws.
Gallery of rainbow flags
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Rainbow “PACE” (Peace) flag
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Greek Peace Flag
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International Co-operative Alliance‘s rainbow flag
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Inca banner
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LGBT flag
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Flag of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia
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Flag of Lingua Franca Nova
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The Rainbow Family of Living Light
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LGBT flag
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The LGBT flag being carried at the 1997Christopher Street Day in Berlin
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Parada Równości, 2006
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Circular Rainbow Flag of Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony
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Rainbow protest flag used by Not in Our Name
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Lungta-style prayer flagshang along a mountain path in Nepal
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Statue of Thomas Müntzerwaving a rainbow flag inStolberg, Germany
Rainbow flag (LGBT movement)
The rainbow flag, sometimes pride flag, LGBT pride flag or gay pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender(LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements in use since the 1970s. The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride in LGBT rights marches. It originated in California, but is now used worldwide. Designed bySan Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the design has undergone several revisions to first remove then re-add colours due to widely available fabrics. As of 2008, the most common variant consists of six stripes, with the colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The flag is commonly flown horizontally, with the red stripe on top, as it would be in a natural rainbow.
Rainbow flag
History
Original eight-stripe version designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978
Version with hot pink removed due to fabric unavailability (1978–79)
Six-colour version popular since 1979. Indigo changed to royal blue.The original gay-pride flag was hand-dyed by Gilbert Baker. It flew in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. It has been suggested that Baker was inspired by Judy Garland‘s singing “Over the Rainbow“. Another suggestion for how the rainbow flag originated is that at college campuses during the 1960s, some people demonstrated for world peace by carrying a Flag of the Races (also called the Flag of the Human Race) with five horizontal stripes (from top to bottom they were red, black, brown, yellow, and white). Gilbert Baker is said to have gotten the idea for the rainbow flag from this flag[4] in borrowing it from the Hippie movement of that time largely influenced by pioneering homosexual activist Allen Ginsberg. The flag consisted of eight stripes; Baker assigned specific meaning to each of the colours:
hot pink: sexuality red: life orange: healing yellow: sunlight green: nature turquoise: magic/art indigo/blue: serenity/harmony violet: spirit Thirty volunteers hand-dyed and stitched the first two flags for the parade.
After the November 27, 1978, assassination of openly gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased. To meet demand, the Paramount Flag Company began selling a version of the flag using stock rainbow fabric consisting of seven stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet. As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he too dropped the hot pink stripe because of the unavailability of hot-pink fabric. Also, San Francisco-based Paramount Flag Co. began selling a surplus stock ofRainbow Girls flags from its retail store on the southwest corner of Polk and Post, at which Gilbert Baker was an employee.
In 1979 the flag was modified again. When hung vertically from the lamp posts of San Francisco’s Market Street, the center stripe was obscured by the post itself. Changing the flag design to one with an even number of stripes was the easiest way to rectify this, so the turquoise stripe was dropped, which resulted in a six stripe version of the flag — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
In 1989, the rainbow flag came to nationwide attention in the United States after John Stout sued his landlords and won when they attempted to prohibit him from displaying the flag from his West Hollywood, California, apartment balcony.
Mile-long flags
Large sections of the 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) flag, like this one used along Reforma at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City, were cut from both giant flags and subsequently used in parades and LGBTprotest marches.
The mile-and-a-quarter-long flag (2 km) stretching across Key West in 2003.
For the 1994 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots flag creator Baker was commissioned to create the world’s largest rainbow flag. It took months of planning and teams of volunteers to coordinate every aspect. The flag utilized the basic six colours and measured thirty feet wide. Foot-wide sections of the flag were given to individual sponsors as part of a fundraiser for the Stonewall anniversary event once the event had ended. Afterwards additional large sections of the flag were sent with activists and they were used in pride paradesand LGBT marches worldwide. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed it as the world’s largest flag.
In 2003 Baker was again commissioned to produce a giant flag. In this case it marked the 25th anniversary of the flag itself. Dubbed “25Rainbow Sea to Sea” the project entailed Baker again working with teams of volunteers but this flag utilized the original eight colours and measured a mile-and-a-quarter (2 km) across Key West, Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf Coast Sea. The flag was again cut up afterwards and sections sent to over a hundred cities worldwide.
2000s
In 2000, the University of Hawaii at Manoa changed its sports teams’ name from “Rainbow Warriors” to “Warriors” and redesigned its logo to eliminate a rainbow from it. Initially Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida said that the change was to distance the school’s athletic program from homosexuality. When this drew criticism, Yoshida then said the change was merely to avoid brand confusion. The school then allowed each team to select its own name, leading to a mix including “Rainbow Warriors”, “Warriors”, “Rainbows” and “Rainbow Wahine”.
The rainbow flag (Annual Queer Easter, Kurt LöwensteinHouse, Werneuchen, Germany, 16 April 2006).The rainbow flag celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2003. During the gay pride celebrations in June of that year, Gilbert Baker restored the rainbow flag back to its original eight-striped version and has since advocated that others do the same. However, the eight-striped version has seen little adoption by the wider gay community, which has mostly stuck with the better known six-striped version.
In autumn 2004 several gay businesses in London were ordered by Westminster City Council to remove the rainbow flag from their premises, as its display required planning permission[citation needed]. When one shop applied for permission, the Planning sub-committee refused the application on the chair’s casting vote (May 19, 2005), a decision condemned by gay councillors in Westminster and the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. In November the council announced a reversal of policy, stating that most shops and bars would be allowed to fly the rainbow flag without planning permission.
Today some LGBT individuals and straight allies put rainbow flags in the front of their yards and/or front doors, or use rainbow bumper stickers on their vehicles to use as an outward symbol of their identity or support.
In June 2004 LGBT activists sailed to Australia’s uninhabited Coral Sea Islands Territory and raised the Gay flag, proclaiming the territory independent of Australia, calling it the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands.
Variations
US flag with LGBT pride colours
LGBT Flag of South AfricaMany variations of the rainbow flag have been used. Some of the more common ones include the Greek letter ‘lambda’ (lower case) in white in the middle of the flag and a pink triangle or black triangle in the upper left corner. Other colours have been added, such as a black stripe symbolising those community members lost to AIDS. The rainbow colours have also often been used in gay alterations of national and regional flags, replacing for example the red and white stripes of the flag of the United States. In 2007, the Pride Family Flag was introduced at the Houston, Texas pride parade.
In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, AIDS activists designed a “Victory over AIDS” flag consisting of the standard six-stripe rainbow flag with a black stripe across the bottom. Leonard Matlovich, himself dying of AIDS-related illness, suggested that upon a cure for AIDS being discovered, the black stripes be removed from the flags and burned.[6]
Other countries’ LGBT communities too have adopted the rainbow flag. South Africa with one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, has recently adopted The LGBT flag of South Africa at one of the world’s biggest costume parties the Mother City Queer Project 2010 to a crowd of 10 000 party goers. The creator Eugene Brockman said “the flag honors every Gay Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered person as they make the Rainbow Nation dazzle”.
Rainbow colours as symbol of gay pride
Pride colours decorating a metro station in Montreal‘s gay village
The rainbow flag has found wide application on all manner of products including jewelry, clothing and other personal items and the rainbow flag colours are routinely used as a show of LGBT identity and solidarity. One common item of jewelry is the pride necklace or freedom rings, consisting of six rings, one of each colour, on a chain. Other variants range from key chains to candles.
In Montréal, the entrance to Beaudry metro station, which serves that city’s Gay Village, was rebuilt in 1999 with rainbow-coloured elements integrated into its design.
REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag
REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT_movement)
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Peoplefund.it!!! Start your own business..
A fantastic way to like about launching my project. This may be the way to do it.
We can help each other.
Peoplefund.it is a new crowdsourcing website from the makers of River Cottage, Hugh’s Fish Fight and Chicken Out! which brings together individuals with fresh business ideas.
Originally a way for charities to raise funds, crowdsourcing is increasingly used by entrepreneurs to raise essential financial backing for exciting new projects.
Of course you need a good idea, but without the cash to turn it into reality, that’s all it is – an idea. Hence Peoplefund.it, the UK’s biggest crowdsourcing platform.
You have two options.
You can raise the cash you need to get your project off the ground.
Or you can get behind a project that’s close to your heart, in return for a reward from the project owner.
All our projects offer rewards to investors in return for pledges of support from as little as £1.
And if it doesn’t hit its target, it won’t hit you in the pocket.
“The success of our Fish Fight, Landshare, and energyshare campaigns have shown that solutions often come from grass roots action, and have the power to effect more remarkable change than we really ever imagined,” says TV food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
“Peoplefund.it builds on that momentum, and gives people the means to take their ideas forward. That, in a nutshell, is why, I’m excited about Peoplefund.it,” he added.
We’re also working with a number of partners including NESTA, Forum for the Future, Unbound and WeDidThis.
Guerrilla marketing
The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional, potentially interactive, andconsumers are targeted in unexpected places.Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy in which low-cost unconventional means (graffiti, sticker bombing, flash mobs) are utilized, often in a localized fashion or large network of individual cells, to convey or promote a product or an idea. The term guerrilla marketing is easily traced to guerrilla warfare which utilizes atypical tactics to achieve a goal in a competitive and unforgiving environment.
The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turnviral. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary and marketing textbooks.
Guerrilla marketing involves unusual approaches such as intercept encounters in public places, street giveaways of products, PR stunts, or any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. More innovative approaches to Guerrilla marketing now utilize mobile digital technologies to engage the consumer and create a memorable brand experience.
Guerrilla marketing focuses on low cost creative strategies of marketing. Basic requirements are time, energy, and imagination and not money. Sales do not compose of the primary static to measure business but is replaced by profit. Emphasis is on retaining existing customers then acquiring new ones.
Levinson’s books include hundreds of “guerrilla marketing weapons,” but also encourages guerrilla marketers to be creative in devising unconventional methods of promotion. Guerrilla marketers use all of their contacts, both professional and personal, and examine their company and its products, looking for sources of publicity. Many forms of publicity can be very inexpensive, or even free.
Introduction
Levinson says that when implementing guerrilla marketing tactics, small size is actually an advantage. Small organizations and entrepreneurs are able to obtain publicity more easily than large companies, as they are closer to their customers and considerably more agile.
Yet ultimately, according to Levinson, the guerrilla marketer must “deliver the goods”. In The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, he states: “In order to sell a product or a service, a company must establish a relationship with the customer. It must build trust and support. It must understand the customer’s needs, and it must provide a product that delivers the promised benefits.”
Levinson identifies the following principles as the foundation of guerrilla marketing:
- Guerrilla Marketing is specifically geared for the small business and entrepreneur.
- It should be based on human psychology rather than experience, judgement, and guesswork.
- Instead of money, the primary investments of marketing should be time, energy, and imagination.
- The primary statistic to measure your business is the amount of profits, not sales.
- The marketer should also concentrate on how many new relationships are made each month.
- Create a standard of excellence with an acute focus instead of trying to diversify by offering too many diverse products and services.
- Instead of concentrating on getting new customers, aim for more referrals, more transactions with existing customers, and larger transactions.
- Forget about the competition and concentrate more on cooperating with other businesses.
- Guerrilla marketers should use a combination of marketing methods for a campaign.
- Use current technology as a tool to build your business.
- Messages are aimed at individuals or small groups, the smaller the better.
- Focuses on gaining the consent of the individual to send them more information rather than trying to make the sale.
- Commit to your campaign. Use Effective frequency instead of creating a new message theme for each campaign.
Associated marketing trends
The term Guerrilla Marketing is now often used more loosely as a descriptor for non-traditional media, such as:
- Reverse Graffiti — clean pavement adverts
- Viral marketing — through social networks
- Presence marketing — marketing for being there
- Grassroots marketing — tapping into the collective efforts of brand enthusiasts
- Wild Posting Campaigns
- Alternative marketing
- Buzz marketing — word of mouth marketing
- Undercover marketing — subtle product placement
- Astroturfing — disguising company messaging as an authentic grassroots movement
- Experiential marketing — interaction with product
- Tissue-pack marketing — hand-to-hand marketing
- Live-in marketing — real life product placement – see related article or Hostival Connect
- Wait marketing — when and where consumers are waiting (such as medical offices and gas pumps) and receptive to communications
Guerrilla marketing was initially used by small and medium size (SMEs) businesses, but it is now increasingly adopted by large businesses.
Risks
On January 31, 2007, several magnetic boxes with blinking LED cartoon figures were attached to metal surfaces in and around Boston, Massachusetts to promote the animated seriesAqua Teen Hunger Force. The boxes were mistaken for possible explosive devices, and several subway stations, bridges, and a portion of Interstate 93 were closed as police examined, removed, and in some cases, destroyed the devices.
New Idea!!! Let The Creativity Flow!!!
Ok so when a new idea spring to mind it brings a new sense of excitement, and by letting that little piece of excitement take you over, helps your new spark of an idea grow to its full potential.
For this project I have been talking about getting the professional help to the young LGBTQ Adults by asking doctors and phycisatrists to talk to them on line though an emailing system. After a little research I discover this would be impractical and extremely hard to accomplish. So with further research I started to find other ways that I could get the help to the young adults. The new idea was to like up with a few existing websites like ‘The Trevor project’ and the ‘It Get’s Better’ Project that already have the professional help lines for the young adults to talk to. There was a few problems with this idea also, as my campaign is narrowed down to the U.K. at the moment these two american sites wouldn’t be appropriate, and it would also guide the traffic away from my own website, which is not something i want to be doing for a newly launched website.
So. This new idea that has gave me a new little excitement about my project again, has came from the idea of another student. This other students project is nothing like my project but the concept of her website is like a massive online directory for the local business and clubs in her local town. So my idea is something similar. If these young adults, or family and friends need someone to talk to, they will be able to find who is close to them. An Online Directory of LGBTQ community groups, University LGBTQ Groups, and LGBTQ help lines that they can contact if they need too. They will be able to search in their local community of what LGBTQ Groups and help lines is around them, that they can go and visit or contact. Rather than brining them just one or two people to help, I can bring all the help that is available to them, and they can choose who or which to contact. This will also help those local LGBTQ groups to help more people.
So this idea is still in the early stages but it it much stringer than the other idea I have worked with so far and it seems to be the way to go. So for now I’m going to run with this idea to see how it develops.
10 Principles Of Effective Web Design
Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site. Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything, user-centric design has become a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design. After all, if users can’t use a feature, it might as well not exist.
We aren’t going to discuss the implementation details (e.g. where the search box should be placed) as it has already been done in a number of articles; instead we focus on the main principles, heuristics and approaches for effective web design — approaches which, used properly, can lead to more sophisticated design decisions and simplify the process of perceiving presented information.
Please notice that
- you might be interested in the usability-related articles about 10 Usability Nightmares and 30 Usability Issues we’ve published before,
- we’ll cover more principles of effective design in our following posts. Therefore you might want to subscribe to our RSS-feed.
This article has been translated to Hebrew.
Principles Of Effective Web Design
In order to use the principles properly we first need to understand how users interact with web-sites, how they think and what are the basic patterns of users’ behavior.
How do users think?
Basically, users’ habits on the Web aren’t that different from customers’ habits in a store. Visitors glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they’re looking for. In fact, there are large parts of the page they don’t even look at.
Most users search for something interesting (or useful) and clickable; as soon as some promising candidates are found, users click. If the new page doesn’t meet users’ expectations, the Back button is clicked and the search process is continued.
- Users appreciate quality and credibility. If a page provides users with high-quality content, they are willing to compromise the content with advertisements and the design of the site. This is the reason why not-that-well-designed web-sites with high-quality content gain a lot of traffic over years. Content is more important than the design which supports it.
- Users don’t read, they scan. Analyzing a web-page, users search for some fixed points or anchors which would guide them through the content of the page.
Users don’t read, they scan. Notice how “hot” areas abrupt in the middle of sentences. This is typical for the scanning process. - Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification. Very simple principle: If a web-site isn’t able to meet users’ expectations, then designer failed to get his job done properly and the company loses money. The higher is the cognitive load and the less intuitive is the navigation, the more willing are users to leave the web-site and search for alternatives. [JN / DWU]
- Users don’t make optimal choices. Users don’t search for the quickest way to find the information they’re looking for. Neither do they scan web-page in a linear fashion, going sequentially from one site section to another one. Instead users satisfice; they choose the first reasonable option. As soon as they find a link that seems like it might lead to the goal, there is a very good chance that it will be immediately clicked. Optimizing is hard, and it takes a long time. Satisficing is more efficient. [video]
Both pictures show: sequential reading flow doesn’t work in the Web. Right screenshot on the image at the bottom describes the scan path of a given page. - Users follow their intuition. In most cases users muddle through instead of reading the information a designer has provided. According to Steve Krug, the basic reason for that is that users don’t care. “If we find something that works, we stick to it. It doesn’t matter to us if we understand how things work, as long as we can use them. If your audience is going to act like you’re designing billboard, then design great billboards.”
- Users want to have control. Users want to be able to control their browser and rely on the consistent data presentation throughout the site. E.g. they don’t want new windows popping up unexpectedly and they want to be able to get back with a “Back”-button to the site they’ve been before: therefore it’s a good practice to never open links in new browser windows.
1. Don’t make users think
According to Krug’s first law of usability, the web-page should be obvious and self-explanatory. When you’re creating a site, your job is to get rid of thequestion marks — the decisions users need to make consciously, considering pros, cons and alternatives.
If the navigation and site architecture aren’t intuitive, the number of question marks grows and makes it harder for users to comprehend how the system works and how to get from point A to point B. A clear structure, moderate visual clues and easily recognizable links can help users to find their path to their aim.
Let’s take a look at an example. Beyondis.co.uk claims to be “beyond channels, beyond products, beyond distribution”. What does it mean? Since users tend to explore web-sites according to the “F”-pattern, these three statements would be the first elements users will see on the page once it is loaded.
Although the design itself is simple and intuitive, to understand what the page is about the user needs to search for the answer. This is what an unnecessary question mark is. It’s designer’s task to make sure that the number of question marks is close to 0. The visual explanation is placed on the right hand side. Just exchanging both blocks would increase usability.
ExpressionEngine uses the very same structure like Beyondis, but avoids unnecessary question marks. Furthermore, the slogan becomes functional as users are provided with options to try the service and download the free version.
By reducing cognitive load you make it easier for visitors to grasp the idea behind the system. Once you’ve achieved this, you can communicate why the system is useful and how users can benefit from it. People won’t use your web site if they can’t find their way around it.
2. Don’t squander users’ patience
In every project when you are going to offer your visitors some service or tool, try to keep your user requirements minimal. The less action is required from users to test a service, the more likely a random visitor is to actually try it out. First-time visitors are willing to play with the service, not filling long web forms for an account they might never use in the future. Let users explore the site and discover your services without forcing them into sharing private data. It’s not reasonable to force users to enter an email address to test the feature.
As Ryan Singer — the developer of the 37Signals team — states, users would probably be eager to provide an email address if they were asked for it afterthey’d seen the feature work, so they had some idea of what they were going to get in return.
Stikkit is a perfect example for a user-friendly service which requires almost nothing from the visitor which is unobtrusive and comforting. And that’s what you want your users to feel on your web site.
Apparently, Mite requires more. However the registration can be done in less than 30 seconds — as the form has horizontal orientation, the user doesn’t even need to scroll the page.
Ideally remove all barriers, don’t require subscriptions or registrations first. A user registration alone is enough of an impediment to user navigation to cut down on incoming traffic.
3. Manage to focus users’ attention
As web-sites provide both static and dynamic content, some aspects of the user interface attract attention more than others do. Obviously, images are more eye-catching than the text — just as the sentences marked as bold are more attractive than plain text.
The human eye is a highly non-linear device, and web-users can instantly recognize edges, patterns and motions. This is why video-based advertisements are extremely annoying and distracting, but from the marketing perspective they perfectly do the job of capturing users’ attention.
Humanized.com perfectly uses the principle of focus. The only element which is directly visible to the users is the word “free” which works attractive and appealing, but still calm and purely informative. Subtle hints provide users with enough information of how to find more about the “free” product.
Focusing users’ attention to specific areas of the site with a moderate use of visual elements can help your visitors to get from point A to point B without thinking of how it actually is supposed to be done. The less question marks visitors have, the better sense of orientation they have and the more trust they can develop towards the company the site represents. In other words: the less thinking needs to happen behind the scenes, the better is the user experience which is the aim of usability in the first place.
4. Strive for feature exposure
Modern web designs are usually criticized due to their approach of guiding users with visually appealing 1-2-3-done-steps, large buttons with visual effects etc. But from the design perspective these elements actually aren’t a bad thing. On the contrary, such guidelines are extremely effective as they lead the visitors through the site content in a very simple and user-friendly way.
Dibusoft.com combines visual appeal with clear site structure. The site has 9 main navigation options which are visible at the first glance. The choice of colors might be too light, though.
Letting the user see clearly what functions are available is a fundamental principle of successful user interface design. It doesn’t really matter how this is achieved. What matters is that the content is well-understood and visitors feel comfortable with the way they interact with the system.
5. Make use of effective writing
As the Web is different from print, it’s necessary to adjust the writing style to users’ preferences and browsing habits. Promotional writing won’t be read. Long text blocks without images and keywords marked in bold or italics will be skipped. Exaggerated language will be ignored.
Talk business. Avoid cute or clever names, marketing-induced names, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical names. For instance, if you describe a service and want users to create an account, “sign up” is better than “start now!” which is again better than “explore our services”.
Eleven2.com gets directly to the point. No cute words, no exaggerated statements. Instead a price: just what visitors are looking for.
An optimal solution for effective writing is to
- use short and concise phrases (come to the point as quickly as possible),
- use scannable layout (categorize the content, use multiple heading levels, use visual elements and bulleted lists which break the flow of uniform text blocks),
- use plain and objective language (a promotion doesn’t need to sound like advertisement; give your users some reasonable and objective reason why they should use your service or stay on your web-site)
6. Strive for simplicity
The “keep it simple”-principle (KIS) should be the primary goal of site design. Users are rarely on a site to enjoy the design; furthermore, in most cases they are looking for the information despite the design. Strive for simplicity instead of complexity.
Crcbus provides visitors with a clean and simple design. You may have no idea what the site is about as it is in Italian, however you can directly recognize the navigation, header, content area and the footer. Notice how even icons manage to communicate the information clearly. Once the icons are hovered, additional information is provided.
From the visitors’ point of view, the best site design is a pure text, without any advertisements or further content blocks matching exactly the query visitors used or the content they’ve been looking for. This is one of the reasons why a user-friendly print-version of web pages is essential for good user experience.
Finch clearly presents the information about the site and gives visitors a choice of options without overcrowding them with unnecessary content.
7. Don’t be afraid of the white space
Actually it’s really hard to overestimate the importance of white space. Not only does it help to reduce the cognitive load for the visitors, but it makes it possible to perceive the information presented on the screen. When a new visitor approaches a design layout, the first thing he/she tries to do is to scan the page and divide the content area into digestible pieces of information.
Complex structures are harder to read, scan, analyze and work with. If you have the choice between separating two design segments by a visible line or by some whitespace, it’s usually better to use the whitespace solution.Hierarchical structures reduce complexity (Simon’s Law): the better you manage to provide users with a sense of visual hierarchy, the easier your content will be to perceive.
White space is good. Cameron.io uses white space as a primary design element. The result is a well-scannable layout which gives the content a dominating position it deserves.
8. Communicate effectively with a “visible language”
In his papers on effective visual communication, Aaron Marcus states three fundamental principles involved in the use of the so-called “visible language”— the content users see on a screen.
- Organize: provide the user with a clear and consistent conceptual structure. Consistency, screen layout, relationships and navigability are important concepts of organization. The same conventions and rules should be applied to all elements.
- Economize: do the most with the least amount of cues and visual elements. Four major points to be considered: simplicity, clarity, distinctiveness, and emphasis. Simplicity includes only the elements that are most important for communication. Clarity: all components should be designed so their meaning is not ambiguous. Distinctiveness: the important properties of the necessary elements should be distinguishable. Emphasis: the most important elements should be easily perceived.
- Communicate: match the presentation to the capabilities of the user. The user interface must keep in balance legibility, readability, typography, symbolism, multiple views, and color or texture in order to communicate successfully. Use max. 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes — a maximum of 18 words or 50-80 characters per line of text.
9. Conventions are our friends
Conventional design of site elements doesn’t result in a boring web site. In fact,conventions are very useful as they reduce the learning curve, the need to figure out how things work. For instance, it would be a usability nightmare if all web-sites had different visual presentation of RSS-feeds. That’s not that different from our regular life where we tend to get used to basic principles of how we organize data (folders) or do shopping (placement of products).
With conventions you can gain users’ confidence, trust, reliability and prove your credibility. Follow users’ expectations — understand what they’re expecting from a site navigation, text structure, search placement etc. (see Nielsen’s Usability Alertbox for more information)
BabelFish in use: Amazon.com in Russian.
A typical example from usability sessions is to translate the page in Japanese (assuming your web users don’t know Japanese, e.g. with Babelfish) and provide your usability testers with a task to find something in the page of different language. If conventions are well-applied, users will be able to achieve a not-too-specific objective, even if they can’t understand a word of it.
Steve Krug suggests that it’s better to innovate only when you know you really have a better idea, but take advantages of conventions when you don’t.
10. Test early, test often
This so-called TETO-principle should be applied to every web design project as usability tests often provide crucial insights into significant problems and issues related to a given layout.
Test not too late, not too little and not for the wrong reasons. In the latter case it’s necessary to understand that most design decisions are local; that means that you can’t universally answer whether some layout is better than the other one as you need to analyze it from a very specific point of view (considering requirements, stakeholders, budget etc.).
Some important points to keep in mind:
- according to Steve Krug, testing one user is 100% better than testing none and testing one user early in the project is better than testing 50 near the end. Accoring to Boehm’s first law, errors are most frequent during requirements and design activities and are the more expensive the later they are removed.
- testing is an iterative process. That means that you design something, test it, fix it and then test it again. There might be problems which haven’t been found during the first round as users were practically blocked by other problems.
- usability tests always produce useful results. Either you’ll be pointed to the problems you have or you’ll be pointed to the absence of major design flaws which is in both cases a useful insight for your project.
- according to Weinberg’s law, a developer is unsuited to test his or her code. This holds for designers as well. After you’ve worked on a site for few weeks, you can’t observe it from a fresh perspective anymore. You know how it is built and therefore you know exactly how it works — you have the wisdom independent testers and visitors of your site wouldn’t have.
Bottom line: if you want a great site, you’ve got to test.
References
- Designing Effective User Interfaces by Suzanne Martin
- Summary on Web Design
- UID presentation (Flash)
- Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines
- “The psychology of computer programming” by Gerald Weinberg
- “Designing Web Usability” by Jakob Nielsen [JN / DWU]
- “Prioritizing Web Usability” by Jakob Nielsen
- “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug
- “Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work” by Tom Brinck, Darren Gergle, Scott Wood
- A Summary of Principles for User-Interface Design
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