The Activity: Split students into groups and have them rip apart some ‘bad websites’ and build their own lists of ‘don’ts’ that you can use as a baseline for their own projects. Have them collaboratively come up with their own guidelines for site design.
The turn: Tell students that it’s now their job to play ‘site doctor’ and propose some solutions for the site they were looking at. You might even have them ‘grade’ the site aesthetic, usability, and rhetorical design based on the guidelines they proposed. Use the discussion that unfolds to build guidelines of do’s and don’ts for students to make use of in their own site design.
“The Instagrammer activity:” What students already know
Discussion Starter | 15 min | visual design | digital aesthetic
(Note: This is also a lesson in the Visual Toolkit)
One of the most striking things I’ve noticed with my own students is how little they think they know about visual design… this coming from students with three Instagram accounts! The trick here is to begin by showing them what they already know—in the contexts of visual design they already use.
The Activity: Near the end of class, send your students out in groups with fifteen minutes, a phone with a camera, and Instagram. Tell them the following:
Go out and take a picture that ‘makes a statement’. (Clarify that how they interpret this is entirely up to them. One image per group. Nothing that gets them in trouble :) ).
Tell them to take a picture, filter it, caption or title it, and send it to you via email.
Done! Now, before your next class, take them through each of these images (throw them into a PowerPoint for ease) and spend some time as a class making comments about the visual design choices. As students go through, ask them to notice any striking visual design decisions. As they talk about the image, write down any important concepts they bring up on the board, and build the discussion from there. You might also ask each group what rhetorical choices they made in ‘composing’ their image. All of these can be tied to good visual design, website design, and even writing! Some of the concepts you might talk about:
Regularity vs. irregularity
Form
Repetition
Rhythm/Frequency
Weight and space
Color / Contrast
Mirroring
Rotation
Size/Upscaling/Downscaling
Movement / Direction
Symmetry
Distance
Negatives / positives
Variation
Influence
Modification
Demo Lessons: Website Development and Presentation (courtesy of the University of Washington)
Consider the following lessons and readings when introducing website design standards to your course:
Students can learn about color theory, website presentation, and website standards. You might consider using this as a resource, or walking students through one of these concepts more directly.