Designing Miranda

In approaching the redesign of Miranda, I decided to stick with the approximate original color scheme.  The site as a whole is rather somber and dark in order to reflect the sense of dystopia that emanates from the text itself.  Such is part of the appeal of having a hypertext such as this.  In a book, the only option is black text on a white page, and even the font cannot really be changed much.  Online, however, the design of the site can be just as important as the links that supplement the text.  The design helps to embed the reader in the world of the novel.

In addition to the color scheme, we chose two separate fonts to use on the site, one serif, and one sans-serif.  Since studies have shown that sans-serif fonts are far easier to read on a screen, we chose that for the text of the novel to assist readers.  However, the particular font we chose is Helvetica, as it is one of the most widely used fonts in the world, enhancing the sense of a unified world envisioned in Brave New World.  The serif font we chose for the menu and banner is Courier New, designed to resemble the output of a typewriter.  As such, it also encourages a sense of uniformity, as well as ideas of mechanical control. 

What do you think of the design?