Bookmarks for November 5th

These are my Jumptags for November 5th

• Joker Typography by ~underpk on deviantART – Image of Joker created with the word Joker.
• Typographic Beer Directions by ~Smooth-as-Sandpaper on deviantART – Type used to create image of beer.
• 7Deadlies Typography – Wrath by ~bella-elizabetta on deviantART – Image created completely from the word wrath.
• 32 Beautiful Text Art Creations | Tutorial9 – Text isn't just limited to language, it can be also used to create unique, unusual pieces of art. This roundup features a selection of creative imagery composed entirely with text.
• We are Colorblind » Patterns for the Color Blind – On the site you can find design patterns, good and bad examples, quick tips, and links to various tools. I think the examples section is very good since the accompanying text explains why each example is good or bad.
• Results from WebAIM’s screen October 2009 screen reader user survey | 456 Berea Street – The results from WebAIM’s October 2009 screen reader user survey have been posted. Some results are expected while others can be a bit surprising.
• A List Apart: Articles: You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners – Most websites are not learner-friendly. Web creators might aim for beautiful, accessible, usable interfaces to house their smart, web-native content, but they don’t often have learners’ goals or needs in mind—if they even know what those needs are.
• Beyond Grunge: Dutch Designer Wins €10,000 for a Font Grown From E-Coli | Design & Innovation | Fast Company – Jelte van Abbema Last week, Jelte van Abbema won the Dutch Design Awards' €10,000 Rado Prize, which goes to a promising young designer. One work that caught the judges' attention is Symbiosis, a font printed in bacteria.
• Elements Of Design: Shape – SitePoint Blogs: News, opinion, and fresh thinking for web developers and designers

Bookmarks for October 13th through October 15th

These are my Jumptags for October 13th through October 15th:

• Weebly – Create a free website and a free blog – Weebly has now added an education section. Weebly is perfect for creating classroom websites, student e-portfolios, and websites for assigned projects.
• Free Adobe Dreamweaver Tutorial | CSS Tutorial for Creating Layouts in Dreamweaver | Layers Magazine – This tutorial covers the process of building a CSS-based layout from scratch using Dreamweaver. Great beginner tutorial.
• Free Adobe Dreamweaver Tutorial | CSS Tutorial – Basics of Working with Cascading Style Sheets | Layers Magazine – This tutorial covers the basics of creating CSS in Dreamweaver using the CSS Rule dialog. Great intro.
• Adobe Flash Tutorial | Creating an interactive story in Adobe Flash part 2 – A simple tutorial for moving around Flash CS3. Part 2.
• Adobe Flash Tutorial | Creating an interactive story in Adobe Flash – A simple tutorial in two parts for moving around Flash CS3.
• Flash CS4 |Timeline Animation | Motion Editor | Layers Magazine – With Flash CS4 now has auto-keyframing, a full-featured motion editor, and—most importantly—the ability to animate each property of an object separately from one another.
• Open Access Educational Technology journals – George Veletsianos – One of the resources developed for my students is a listing of open access journals (name, url, and RSS feed) that publish papers on the nexus between technology and education (educational technology, instructional design, e-learning, online distance…
• Best Time-Tracking Application: Klok – Time management – Lifehacker – Earlier last week we asked you to share your favorite time-tracking applications and then we rounded them up for your review.
• The speed of information – The speed of information between neurons.
• 33 Websites For Vector Images Download | Pro Blog Design – Here is a list of free vector images for download, if you're designer and look for vector images for your design project, you can simply download this…
• 3 Ways To Find The Best Website Color Scheme – Learn how to pick a website color scheme that keeps visitors engaged. Includes a list of questions to ask clients and a color psychology cheat sheet.
• Using John Keller’s ARCS model to motivate online learners « Onlignment – ARCS provides a good summary of the issues to be considered when designing a learning intervention. In particular it makes sense to me when putting together a live online learning event.
• Live Online Learning – a facilitators guide « Onlignment – To download your free copy of “Live Online Learning – a facilitator’s guide” just sign up for the free newsletter.
• Healthcare Napkins wins World’s Best Presentation Contest 2009 | SlideShare Blog – Thousands of presentations are uploaded to SlideShare everyday. But some catch your eye from the moment they get uploaded. Tha's the case with the winning
• 5 Steps to Slide Design for Non-Designers by Ellen Finkelstein | SlideShare Blog – I’ve come up with 5 steps that you can take to create a presentation that will work, even if you’re not a designer.

Styles and templates and consistency…oh my!

David Lindenberg

We’ve all seen it:  The training material that is a jumbled mess of mismatched graphics, hard-to-read text and no sense of cohesion whatsoever.  What good is the content if the learner needs a decoder ring to decipher it?  Therefore, I offer up my Top 11 List of Style.  Why eleven?  Because eleven is the new ten (actually, I just couldn’t narrow it down).  None of these topics are new, but rather a collection of style principles I adhere to when developing materials.

1. Font style – Pick two fonts, one for your body text and one for your headers.
2. Font size – Keep it standard, not too big, not too small.
3. Graphics – Exercise prudence.  Don’t mix and match (i.e. don’t use a clipart cartoon in one spot and a photograph in another).
4. Colors – Generally, stick with dark font colors against a light background.
5. White space – Embrace space.  Make it your friend.  Not everything needs to be covered with text or pictures.
6. Text blocks – Avoid large chunks of text.  Use bullet points to break the text into more visual-friendly parts.
7. Alignment – Pick an alignment and stick with it.  Use center align sparingly.
8. Branding – Put your company and/or department logo on the material.
9. Consistency – Strive for a consistent look and feel throughout the material.
10. Template – If there is a chance of reusing the material again for another project, put all of your style options in a blank template.
11. Style sheet – Create a style sheet for others who may be helping develop the material, or for future reference/reuse.

For a more in-depth explanation of many of these principles, see Robin Williams’ The Non-Designer’s Design Book.

Guest blogger:  David Lindenberg is a practicing instructional designer at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tennessee.  He is a graduate of the Instructional Design & Technology program at The University of Memphis.