Note on symmetry
A note here that comes up often as I go through the Dqs...
Many people use the term symmetry as a catch all phrase, as in "symmetry can be used in web design"
But symmetry is a general term - do you mean bilateral symmetry? Asymmetry? These are very general responses I tend to see and I look more for specifics as to what kind of symmetry would be appropriate for a specific type of design.
For example, I could write: "as a web designer I find that symmetrical designs add a sense of stability to sites such as banking and religious institutions. I use asymmetrical designs for music and some fine art sites." Now, that is still very general and I would want to consider breaking those stereotypes but I think you get the picture.
Also - translation and dilation etc aren't types of symmetry - they are techniques used to manipulate elements and place them into a composition. Perhaps the result is formal, perhaps informal. Those techniques are tools, not results.
Finally - But do you all have the text? I need to see more discussion of material covered in the text and not just terminology that look like it came from one website...
The text will be your most important source for reference material throughout the course -
make sure you use it! (:
Website describing general design priciples in web design digital-web.com
More on symmetry versus asymmetry
Few (if any) web pages are perfectly symmetrical - there might be some listed at www.designmeltdown.com
I think more prevalent are semiformal, or what our text calls 'carefully planned asymmetry' (pg 99)
Check out apple's home page screenshot
Although the header and the area above the footer are symmetrical, the content isn't symmetrical, although it ends up being equally weighted visually.