« UsabilityNet relaunched | Main | Usability methods table »

Open source web designs

I have been pointed to a new site that collects together open source web designs. These are freely-usable page layouts and graphics styles, suitable for a range of sites. I particularly like the ability to select designs according to whether they meet W3 guidelines...

Posted by jamesr on December 16, 2002 02:59 PM
Categories: Design & usability guidelines

Comments

While OSWD is not really old, it isn't exactly new either. :-)

I have been part of the OSWD user group for most of it's life, and have found that most (75%+) of the designs are useless for anything beyond simple "homepage" usage. While many designs DO meet W3C guidelines, almost none of them take anything else into account. There are so many factors that should be involved in a good template, it is an art form unto itself.

Some of the major factors, as I see them:

* HTML / XHTML / CSS specifications
* Usability specifications (mostly from Gov agencies)
* Real world usability
* Multi-mode usage (print, screen, text-only, audio, enhanced, etc)
* Flexibility in implementation (Can /any/ text be put in the template, or does the content have to be heavily manipulated?)

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Posted by: James Linden on December 17, 2002 01:56 AM

Hello,

I understand James Linden's comment. I like oswd.org a lot too, however I do agree that because oswd's rules for submission are so strict (no graphics allowed, as far as I know), it is hard for many of them to look like "real world" designs.

Another issue is that most of them have filler content, rather than content relevant to the design. In other words, if you have a site about a serious issue, you would not want a frivolous looking design (and vice versa).

I have started a site / weblog where I post my "improved" versions of oswd.org designs, and some new, original designs. It is blogyourdesign.com (listed above).

I hope to fashion each published design as a "theme" for my blogging system (Rodin), so that people can see how a real, live site looks in a particular design.

Regards,

- Jay Sheth

Posted by: Jayesh Sheth on December 17, 2002 06:58 AM