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How do you separate the sections of a page? If the page is longer than two screens, are you going to provide any way other than scrolling of getting around?
The WIMP was great when Apple introduced it in 1984 -- and my computer had 64,000 bytes of RAM and all my files fit onto a box of floppies. Today, my computer has 256,000,000 bytes of RAM, four thousand times times more, and it's connected to the Internet's billion-plus pages. The WIMP is, well, wimpy.
Unfortunately, Microsoft swiped it from Apple and it's now on umpteen zillion desktops. Shoving it aside will take a great leap into 3D, not the latest incarnation of Windows.
Regardless, as a designer, you have to accept the WIMP graphical user interface (or GUI) as the "platform" you're designing on.
Hypertext designers use graphics to help the reader
navigate and orient. For example, look at this graphic:
. Without
using words, it helps you navigate to another part of the page. Think how you
would approach this page if it had no graphics, no colors, no subheadings. Why
make your readers navigate a page that looks like a novel or a pictureless
textbook?
In fact, if your page looks like this, don't
worry about navigation. Your readers will click away at first glance.
You can quickly assemble a set of these navigational aids from the resources by typing "free graphics" into the Google search box. Free graphics abound on the Web. Randy Ralph's Icon Bazaar is one of my favorites. The links there will get you started.
Sun Microsystems has some professional-looking high-tech images free for the downloading.
Brucie's Buttons - tons of free sets
ZDNet's Graphics
Terminology
Tucows' Artist
Tips And Tricks
Learn more at the Gizmos, Inc., Toolkit's graphics page.
The Library of Congress's American Memories Collections. Categories:
photos and prints
documents
motion
pictures
maps
sound
recordings
Knight, Lorrie A. "Locating Public Domain Images" College & Research Libraries News 59(1) (January 1998):11-13. Examples:
government collections like the NASA Photo Gallery
image
archives like The Clip Art Connection
Educational content for research students includes, sports photography, royalty free images, stock photos from the leading agencies and archive collections.
When
Image Is Everything
by Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo
Searcher, January 2002
Want to know where to go for images, how to find and download them, and the copyright issues involved? Then focus in on this descriptive article by Nick Tomaiuolo and you'll get the picture!
Google's image search
Image*After - free hi res images
AltaVista
Ditto -- emphasizes family and education
users
Excite
Scour -- search for MP3 files and video as
well as images
FAST Multimedia
Search
Lycos -- search the Image Gallery, a
collection of photos that are free for personal or classroom use.
GifArt.com -- Clipart, Interfaces, Animations, Icons, Wallpaper
Cool Archive -- "The Ultimate Archive" of clip art, buttons, logos. Make your own.
Ithaki's Image and Photo Metasearch
Big Search Engine's Index to Images
Microsoft's Design Gallery Live -- graphics, photos, Web animations, and sound clips
$$ - Foto Search's Royalty Free Stock Image Bank - search and purchase from more than fifty quality stock photography vendors at one site!
WM_imageSwap
Webmonkey's JavaScript Code Library
WM_imageSwap() changes the source of a given image so that
it displays a new image.
JavaScript is commonly used to change the source of an image (for example, when
a user clicks on or mouses over the image in question). The WM_imageSwap()
function takes a reference to the original image and a URL for the new image as
arguments and then changes the source of the original image to that of the new
image.
FolderTree: demo
Help your visitors navigate around your site - either with menu lists, random links, etc.
How
to Use Cool Transitions in IE
by Paige Turner
Web Developers Journal, April 6, 1999
Wipes, fades, pop-ups, up-pops, dissolves, transitions. All those good things. One simple line of code pasted into a HTML page lets you add easy special effects to your Internet Explorer pages.
Rounded Corners,
especially for tables, in Paint Shop Pro
Tucow's Designer Tips for creating your table
to place your corners in
Custom
Scrollbars, especially a color other than gray
Creating Panoramas for Walk the Great Wall -- interactive panorama of the Great Wall of China
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