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A consumer site is usually more graphically intensive. Before the designers pass on their cre-

ative designs to developers, they also need to consider the constraints on the user

experience, such as screen resolution and colour depth, browser used and download speed.

Graphic design

Graphic design of web sites represents a challenge since designers of web sites are

severely constrained by a number of factors:

The speed of downloading graphics– designers need to allow for home users who view

sites using a slow modem across a phone line and who are unlikely to wait minutes to

view a web site.

The screen resolutions of the computer– designing for different screen resolutions is nec-

essary, since some users with laptops may be operating at a low resolution such as 640

by 480 pixels, the majority at a resolution of 800 by 600 pixels, and a few at higher

resolutions of 1064 by 768 pixels or greater.

The number of colours on screen– some users may have monitors capable of displaying

16 million colours giving photo-realism, while other may have only 256 colours.

The type of web browser used– different browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer

and Netscape Navigator and different versions of browsers such as version 4.0 or 5.0

may display graphics or text slightly differently or may support different plug-ins (see

the section in Chapter 9 on testing).

As a result of these constraints, the design of web sites is a constant compromise

between what looks visually appealing and modern and what works for the older

browsers, with slower connections. This is often referred to as the ‘lowest common

CHAPTER 7· DELIVERING THE ONLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Figure 7.9A personality that appeals to a broad audience at Egg.com

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