he www.brainworker.ch WEBDESIGN webdesign w the ideal web-text w navigation w web-users

The credo of ^he www.brainworker.ch is:

Webdesign consists, as the expression says, from too main parts - WEB & DESIGN.

The definition of a web is: That which is woven ; a texture ; textile fabric ; esp ., something woven in a loom. It is the potential to link each information with any other information published on the worldwideweb, that makes it to THE instrument of presentation for complex settings.

The definition of design is probably more critical, as often misunderstood. Most often people expect from a good design, that it looks good. But that is only the smaller half of the business. Good design should mainly support functions: form follows function. So web & design should normally be precided by content:

• What do you want to convey?
• what's your message?
• what do you have to say?
• what do you have to present?
• what is of Interest for the visitor? [ <> and what only for yourself?].

Webdesign embraces a series of equally important steps:

1. selection of url: www.mysite.tag
2. selection of a trustworthy, relyable and not too expensive provider
3. Often neglected is the evolutionalry aspect of webs. Knowledge grows, knowledge changes - your web has to change with it and design has to allow for that.
4. investigation
5. text creation
6. editing
7. layout/design (But, beware, a good design does not make a dull story better!)
8. ...

Text ist the real core and heart of the web. Modern webtools, the so called content-management-systems, are quite often much easier to use as e.g. frontpage, and they create easily websites, wunderful to look at. But that system leads to a basket of unrelated words and texts, just the opposite of what the web wanted to be. Some of the design tools slice even pictures into meaningless bits that can't be interpreted by search machines.Graphs and flash look attractive, seem to be teasers, but - do the shine up in search machines? Not really. You can create millions of visitors with a great multimedia show as the meatrix, attracting millions of visitors, but to make it known, the web is not sufficient, to have to make it known by traditional PR through newspapers, television etc. If you do not have this possibilitiy or wish, remember: The web  is firsthand a media for text.

We might summarize the brainworker-concept in a short web-design formula:

I2fc4 Interesting Information flexibility contextualised complexity compact and consistent

I1: If your website is not interesting, why should anyone go to see it?

I2: If your website does not contain information, why should anyone go to see it? (s. informativity)

f: If your website is not flexible, you have difficulties to adapt new topics, new software, new stiles, and will either run into high costs of adaptation, or leave it as it is. In the second case it will loose visitors and disappear from the net.

c1: Context: Each text grows out of a certain situation and fits a certain environment. To be able to interprete the text, sufficient clues and links have to be given. (s. intertextuality & situationality).

c2: Complexity: The world is complex. < If A then B> applies only rarely outside physics and mathematics. Here is the main advantage of the web over books and other forms of presentation: You are not forced to present complexity in a linear layout. You can use as many dimensions as appropriate.

c3: Compactness: The web is a media for scanning, much less for reading. It is the wrong place to publish books and lengthy texts. Visitors want to get to the information as fast as possible. What is considered good stile in books, is most often too long for the internet. Webtexts should rather look and read like newspaper articles. (s. the right amount of information)

c4: Consistency: Complexity and compactness are easy to get, if you are able to select how and what you like. This is often done by newspapers. But those messages are often forgotten just a few days or weeks after the publication. Webpages are slightly more demanding:

• Your information should not stand isolated - but be contextualised.
• Your information should not reduce complexity - but present it.
• Your information should be short and clear - but still, all bits have to fit together.

In any complex system you may find contradictory views. In a consistent presentation you have to understand as user, why they are contradictory.

Consistency is the criteria, that makes information to knowledge (s. cohesion, coherence). And that's the explanation for the 3w-birds of brainworker: