Discussion of Print & Online Design

Print and websites use dissimilar methods of design. Reason being, readers read and understand online documents differently from print-based documents (Walsh 2006). The difference for the design will be explained below by comparing a print-based newspaper with an online newspaper:

Figure 1.1: The Star Online

(source: http://littlekittle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/thestar1.png)
Figure 2.1: Front cover of the Star newspaper


Reading Method:
The reason for the placements of text and pictures for online content is due to the users’ reading process which is reading in an F-shaped pattern as described by Nielsen (2006):

1. Readers examine the top section in a horizontal movement to the right
2. Then, moves down the page a bit and does the same
3. Finally, reads the left contents vertically downwards

This explains the reason for the placement of advertisement and important highlights on the right side because it is the first places the readers would scan and the news article and navigation sections on the left as shown in Figure 1.1.

On the other hand, for print its follows the Gutenberg reading habit, which is the Z-pattern or a backwards S-pattern (Blum 2006):

1. Readers examine the top section from the far left to the right horizontally
2. Then, examines diagonally from the top-left to the bottom-right
3. Finally, at the bottom section, readers start reading from left and exist on at right

This explains the reason for the different colour given to the content box at the top-right and bottom-left and a large picture in the middle as shown in the Figure 2.1, as this layout takes advantage of the readers habit, so that they will pay more attention to those sections.



Figure 1.2: F-shaped pattern


Figure 2.2: Z-shaped pattern


References:
Blum, SJ 2008, Keep their eyes on the prize, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.pointeradvertising.com/creative_brief/10_06_main_art.html.

Nielsen, J 2006, F-shaped pattern for reading web content, viewed 19 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37.