I love Whitehouse.gov { 0 }
Wow, talk about web design. I mean usuability, accessiblity, interface design, everything. The site uses many cutting edge features and some old school tricks. The site is full of information, whether it’s history or current policy. Being a coin collector. I appreciate the depth of history on this website.
When you talk about web design from a designer’s perspective you talk about deep philosophical conversations in design. Left navigation or right? How many kilobytes do you need to pinch to reach 56k Modem users? Can we get away with using PNG’s or can we only use GIF’s?
Not to mention color theory and making a statement through design on behalf of the President. Obviously, the power position that this website represents is in itself a complicated conversation. Perhaps, a guest speaker in a graduate level course.
Basically, the website presents “simple” elements with very deep unobtrustive navigation. Just enough news and 24 hour news channel information, with a little random knowledge thrown around, on secondary pages.
How about one of my favorites, typgraphy. Check out the list of fonts used (“Lucida Sans Unicode”,”Lucida Grande”,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif). I love Helvetica and use Lucida Grande all the time. Makes me feel like I’m in good company with my choices.
Then the heading serif fonts. Good choice, easy to read in small sizes. In general I find myself inspired by this site design.
Go to the new White House website (http://www.whitehouse.gov).