Online Vs Print. Is there a difference in terms of designing?

There is a difference when designing for print of web. While both about the same, each carries their own style, principles and elements of design.

When designing for print, the first thing one should note that anything designed will eventually be printed on a piece of paper, thus, the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and kohl) colour model would be used.

Print documents usually feature pictures to complement with words as it works together to help the reader understand the main idea (Schriver 1997).

Images are used to help reinforce the idea of wearing rear seat belts to the readers of the magazine (Source: Beh 2008).

When designing for online, the RGB (red, green and blue) color model will be used as online documents usually appear on screen. The text found online are usually shorter. Parker (2003) argued that a shorter line length enable readers to reduce left-to-right eye movements as they scan each line of text, thus making online documents more reader friendly. Nielsen (2007) suggests linking short overviews away to long discussions as a way to enhance web reading.

Notice that the text length online is usually short as readers often read webpages in an F-shape pattern (Nielsen 2006). (Source: Beh 2008).

Ultimately, when designing for either print or online, Reep (2006) noted that unbroken blocks of text have a numbing effect on most readers, but eye-catching graphic aids and attention-getting format devices keep readers focused on the information they need. This will help attract the readers to continue to read on.

Reference:

Nielsen, J 2006, F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content, Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, viewed 3 November, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>.

Nielsen, J 2007, Long vs Short Articles as Content Strategy, Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, viewed 3 November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html>.

Parker, RC 2003, Looking good in print, 5^th edn, Paraglyph Press, Arizona.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing,6^th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Publication, New York.

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