LoBand websites are about the actual making of DIY websites, the joy of building (and owning) something unique. It’s about crafting faster websites using free and lowtech resources. LoBand borrows from antiquated code recycling, scavenging, and reuse. It takes abandoned, throwaway code and plays with it. Especially code that is considered old-school, unfashionable, taboo, or…
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14: PREVENTING SITE BLOAT
One of the objectives of LoBand websites is to prevent site bloat. Site bloat is easily recognized by various factors, here’s a partial list:1. Multiple pictures and text blocks compete for attention on a slow-loading generic home page.2. Small, hard-to-read text size.3. Emphasis is on the amount of content.4. Over-engineered with wasteful, unnecessary long or…
13: MARQUEE TAG REVISITED: Lightweight, low-tech animation.
In the 1990s, the Internet was abused with tags like blink and marquee. Hideous stuff. In the last 10 years, these proprietary tags gradually became extinct. Now the marquee effect reappears in modern cascading style sheets (CSS3.) The irony! Today the old HTML marquee tag is well supported among browsers. But the marquee ticker effect…
12: LoBand Advertising Grabs Attention: Without slick production qualities.
Authenticity indicates whether or not some thing’s “real”. LoBand websites appear more authentic, and current research shows that “authentic” ads and brand experiences are what consumers crave. People don’t trust most advertising. They trust online advertising less, in particular, online video and online banner ads. We Rely on “Authenticity” to Trust a WebsiteLong ago, we…
11: POINT SIZE: Equivalance of HTML font sizes compared to print.
I mentioned “The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard” in an earlier entry. That standard recommends setting the font size to zero. This is approximately equivalent to a 12 point printed type size. For point sizes above 36 points, you’ll need to specify CSS styling or use a GIF image. SIZE=”1″|”2″|”3″|”4″|”5″|”6″|”7″: sets the size of the text. The…
10 NON-RICH MEDIA: Stretching dollars in design means embracing and leveraging limitations.
Going LoBand gives web designers a chance—and a reason—to experiment. In the view of many designers, a LoBand approach doesn’t have to be confined to projects that are cash-restricted. It may just be the right approach in terms of aesthetics. “Handcrafted” simplicity in LoBand web design speaks of a straightforward approach. Handmade and hightouch are…
09: DECONSTRUCTING LOBand PAGE STRATEGIES
Below is an embedded CSS code for altering the letter spacing for a Times Roman headline. This is the equivalent of kerning in print typography (removing space for better fovea fit.) Embedded CSS code means the code does not exist in a separate CSS file. Instead it’s placed right in the header of the HTML…
08 WEB FONT FUTILITY: LoBand Type Compromises for Readability, Speed, and SEO
Before I jumped from print to web design, I had amassed “tons of fonts” and type families—30,000+ all archived on CDROM. I categorized and loaded 1,000 fonts on my computer. I even had “font recognition” software (FontExpert V2.) to reverse engineer type. Imagine how stunned I was to learn all that type was essentially useless…
07 QUICK THEMING: A checklist for fast theme generation.
Building a Color Theme from an Image.1. Find a nice image pertaining to the site content. Here I selected an image of terraced rice paddies. I copy it and size it down by half to speed the online color translation. I save the original for the site. 2. Upload the image via browser to http://www.pictaculous.com/,…
06 LOFI THEME SELECTION: Cheating with Color
PGCw/C is a popular color theming book, published in 2000. You can buy it used at Amazon. The book was supervised by a Senior Vice-president of The Big-P Corp, Inc. Color Themes for DummiesI’ve read the guru author’s other written works and they’re centered on the psychology of color almost to the point of being…
