Put Thought Into Your Design

 

I chose to promote Provence, which although isn’t my hometown, is my  birthplace.

The first thing I have to say is that these pictures are not my own although I have manipulated most – if not all – of the photos, in one way or another.

Also, the text presented on the pages are copy and pasted from other sites, and may not correspond to the pictures. What I’m trying to say: Don’t see this design as a reliable source of information. The important thing about this assignment was Design strategy.

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Here’s the explanation of my strategy:

website-representing-provence

Design Different Looks

 

The site I decided to use is a site that I desperately would like to improve: http://irishwrecksonline.net

 

I don’t think I need to explain why…

Here are my three designs (I am aware that they are very similar, but I will try to explain how I think they’re different from each other):

DESIGN 1:

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All of the following designs are simple, but this is the simplest one. A captivating underwater photo fills the entire page. There is a menu bar in the top right corner. I intend for this menu button to be of a hover function. The “Conditions of Use” page is the same, only with text. I didn’t feel the need to spread the text over the whole page. The original design is very simple and so with my first design I decided not to deviate too far from this concept.

Emotions: Curiosity

DESIGN 2:

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I hope you can see these pages ok… Another simple design – as far as you can see. But the idea is this: The background is actually a calm video clip. Not much happens, but you’ll see fishes swimming by occasionally, and the rays of the sun seeping through the water. You’ll also be able to hear the sea, as if you were there. In this sense, the page becomes interactive.

Emotions: Serenity, curiosity

DESIGN 3:

 

This design is slightly less simple. The picture next to the title: Conditions of Use, is intended to be an informative video. All information on one page makes this example of the site very simple.

Emotions: Curiosity, relaxed

Providing Your Own Hosting Service

I decided to name my website:

portobjorno.com

Create a Wireframe

 

What kind of visitors are you expecting on your website?

I’m expecting the majority of visitors to be between the ages of 16 and 45, as our product is directed towards those age groups.

 

Who are your competitors and how do you differ from them?

*so and so no.1* and *so and so no.2*. They do not concern themselves with eco friendly solutions, only with quality; whereas, we concern ourselves with both areas equally.

 

Please list the names of three sites that you like and explain what you like about them.

I like *example no.1* because it’s simple but very informative – I like that they use photo’s to communicate their message more than text. I like the aesthetic of *example no.2* – it’s modern but has a timeless feel about it. *example no.3* really appeals to me because it’s so easy to navigate through the site.

 

Do you have any color preferences? What should the look and feel for the website be?

I would like there to be as few colors as possible, to make room for photos. White, grays, and perhaps dark blue (I think they fit with the logo). I would like the website to look timeless – modern but classy.

 

Who will be the contact person for this project?

*so and so no.4* will be happy to give you any feeback, or answer any of your questions.

 

What do you NOT want on your site in terms of text, content, color and graphic elements?

I am open to most things – I’m no expert when it comes to design. I cannot think of anything I absolutely do not want, but refer to *so and so no.4* if you’re unsure.

 

What are the businesses’ values and how do you usually convey these to your visitors?

As said previously, we value eco friendly solutions while always providing the best quality products. We often convey these things with slogans and special campaigns where we document our cooperation with eco friendly organizations.

 

Do you have a logo that you would like to use? Original artwork?

Yes I do. *so and so no.4* will send them to you via a OneDrive link.

 

Do you have full rights to the photos that will be used?

I think so, but I will get *so and so no.4* to double check for you.

Can you produce high resolution files for me?

Absolutely!

 

 

 

I chose to make a “high tech” wireframe. My reasons being that I personally feel that it’s more practicle and I work faster in illustrator than I do with pen and paper. It also produces a cleaner look.

Get the Basics Right

A little late, but here’s the first Learning Activity for the Web Design part of this course:

 

PART ONE

 

1.

The Internet = The Internet is a worldwide network of computers – that is, any device that connects to the Internet such as: mobile phones, tablets, personal computers etc. The Internet is all about sharing information.

HTML = This is the universal language that is used to share information through the Internet.

Browser = You need a browser in order to view HTML.

Search Engine = This is a programme that looks for keywords in HTML documents and gives the best/most popular result.

 

2 & 3

(10 existing questions:)

What kind of visitors are you expecting on your website?

Who are your competitors and how do you differ from them?

What actions do you want visitors to take on the site?

What is your deadline for completing the site? How big is the budget?

What features should be used on your website? (This includes things like contact forms, pictures, videos, etc.)

Please list the names of three sites that you like and explain what you like about them.

Do you have any colour preferences? What should the look and feel for the website be?

Who will be the contact person for this project?

What do you NOT want on your site in terms of text, content, colour and graphic elements?

Who will be responsible for maintaining the website? Will the person have the time and skills to do so?

 

(My 10 extra questions:)

What will be the purpose of the website?

What are the businesses’ values and how do you usually convey these to your visitors?

Do you already have a URL that you plan on using?

Do you have a logo that you would like to use? Original artwork?

Do you have full rights to the photos that will be used?

Can you produce high resolution files for me?

Do you need any password protected/ membership only areas?

What do you like least/most about your current website?

Will you need a search engine integrated in your website?

Will you be running adds on your website?

 

(Questions in bold are response to task 3)

 

PART TWO

 

Websites I consider to be bad:

(Fortunately I don’t come across many badly designed websites, so I had to search for “badly designed websites” and found most in that way. Nav.no is the only exception.)

 

Nav.no

Nav stands for “Nye arbeids- og velferdsetaten” which is the Labour and Welfare Administration. As you can imagine, this is a website with a lot of information. However, I have always struggled to find the information I need – ALWAYS. I understand that it must be difficult to design such a vast website – and you can clearly see what the designers have tried to accomplish. (I feel slightly unqualified to make these comments seeing as I’m just starting out myself) I’ll give it to them; they’ve tried. But there are many things that they could make better. I often give up and have to google for the information I need. Then google will often direct me to a page from the nav website – that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to find. It’s not user-friendly at all (even though they’ve tried to make it look like it is) and very frustrating to use.

 

007museum.com

This website does not live up to what it’s representing at all. It represents the brand James Bond very poorly – and the design generally is also very poor.

 

arngren.net

This is one of the messiest sites I have ever come across. In this case, they have not kept it simple. It’s not user friendly because it’s frustrating to navigate through it and it’s not pleasing to the eyes…

 

chiptune.com

At first glance, I kind of liked this… but it’s not user friendly at all. I see what the designer tried to do, but it’s not working. I have no idea what I’m looking at, or what I’m supposed to look for.

 

bearflagwine.com

I love the illustrations, but not here. They serve little to no purpose. If you don’t need it, lose it. It took me a while to figure out where I should click…

 

irishwrecksonline.net

Diving to the depths of ship wrecks spells mystery and adventure (among other things)– and this poor excuse for a website does not convey those things in the slightest! An extremely disappointing website.

 

pennyjuice.com

I know that this website is representing juice for children… so I understand why they’ve used so many colors. They’ve also used different colors to represent different flavors of juice. But this does not look professional at all, and it’s enough color to give you a headache. Also, Comic Sans is a very unprofessional font to use in any way, on any website.

 

blinkee.com

This website is selling sparkly, glow-in-the-dark products. And they convey this aspect very well. But there’s too many colors, for starters… Secondly the icons are so small – it doesn’t matter how much you make them blink at me – I can’t see the products. Which is strange, because it doesn’t look like they’ve used the whole page properly. They’ve just crammed everything to the left.

(this website has been slightly improved since I first wrote this post)

 

headhunterhairstyling.com

At first glance, this website didn’t do so bad. But then I noticed the pictures (both on the homescreen and the Stylist section) and a lot of them seem to be taken from the internet, and the ones that weren’t were really really bad quality.

 

tacomayo.com

Taco Mayo’s website also struggled with producing good quality photos. Although I can’t fault them on all of the photos used.

 

Websites I consider to be good:

 

 

feedmusic.com

This website has a brilliant design that gives the ultimate HD experience. I think it’s pretty easy to navigate, and it moves from slide to slide smoothly.

 

etq-amsterdam.com

I love how simple and minimalistic this site looks. It’s very pleasing to the eyes, and it’s one long scroll. If there’s something I really dislike on shopping websites is the “next” button. Especially when there are 100’s of pages to click through. I much prefer this solution.

 

world-of-swiss.com

This is a nice and simple site. It represents the brand fantastically – good color scheme.

 

johos.at

The designers of this site have done a fantastic job at using HD photos and film. Even when zoomed in the photos do not become pixilated at all. I like the organic theme going on, and the colors. It’s very easy to navigate too, as the design is simple.

 

maaemo.no

This is one of my favorites because of its rawness. Black and white, with beautiful landscape films at the top of the page. Again, a site that just scrolls all the way through.

 

panic.lv

I love everything about this site – the color scheme, the fonts, the logo. It’s a fun-looking site and easy to navigate through it.

 

fornasetti.com

This is a classy website with good use of color, fonts, and graphics. The navigation is nice and smooth and they take you on a nice journey through their history.

 

leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/resources/kick-my-habits/

This website fulfills its purpose very well and has a nice funky design. The color scheme fits well, and it’s not too much. It’s very interactive and easy to navigate through.

 

everylastdrop.co.uk

Here’s another scroll-all-the-way-down site! Interactive enough and fun animations get the point across. It serves its purpose well and will engage the average viewer.

 

ifly50.com

The clever and simple design of this site had me engaged immediately. It may be because I love to travel, but they had beautiful high resolution photos, as little text as possible… and it was just really easy to navigate through.