Thoughts on Ch. 2

As Garrett builds his conceptual foundation on user centered design, it was obvious that he needed to establish a lingua franca and framework for web design. Dividing this process into five levels which progress from the abstract to concrete, he deftly explains these elements as being: strategy, scope, structure, skeleton, and surface.

As an amateur web designer, I've probably focused more on the skeletal (page layout) and surface (the pretty stuff) elements than the others. Why? Well, it's probably a dance between my instinct and ignorance. I really don't have a unified theory of web design and from start to finish, my approach could be considered haphazard by a professional. However, being an advanced web user and amateur designer, I "just know" how I want the site to come out visually and navigationally. Since I've only designed websites that focus on Garrett's "web as hypertext" meta-divide (content only sites: in my case, restaurant and personal web sites), the strategy and scope aspects were already clearly defined before I got a hold of it. Take for example my personal website, kooz.net. I drew the skeleton before I did anything else. Since its a personal website, I have little strategy and limited scope (both are dictated by my narcissism! Ha!). I focused on the skeleton because I thought it would challenge my design skills: and it did! Even though I don't update it often (which is a content failure), I think I successfully created an accessible and friendly website!