Concept Statement

Concept Statement

List of users:

• Employers
• Students
• Fellow web designer
• Family

What user is looking for:

• The employers will want to see projects that have been worked on in the past.
• The student will see the different verity of things that I have done and the style and layout of my website.
• The fellow Web designer will see what is wrong with the sites and critic all of my stuff
• The family will want to see what I’m done with my life and what I have learned in school.

The intended audience:

The intended audience will be the employer that is looking to hire a web designer.

Inform and persuade:

I have a verity of skill and have the ability to not just create and design a web site for then. That I can contribute to the employer in more ways then one.

Promote my: 

I would like to promote my understanding of different programs and showcase my works in them as well.

Goals of the site:

To showcase my projects and works in a variety of different programs.

Message/philosophy:

The message that I’m trying to get across to the employer is that I have a verity of skills to contribute to. That if need be, I’m willing to learn something new to improve my skill set for the company.  

Projects that will show in the future:

I will like to show my 3-D artwork in Maya and my video editing in Adobe Premiere and After Affects. This will show that I have another dimension to bring more to an employer and not just the traditional thing they would see with other web designers. 

Categories in mockup:

• Web design
• 3-D animation
• Drawings
• Typography
• Process of projects

200-word concept statement:

The user will come to the site looking to see what I have to offer as a designer. They will like to see what different kinds of projects that I have done and been a part of in the past. They will like to see how I got to the end result of those different works. They will get to see that and more as they get to see works in programs not know to be used by web designer. This will show my wiliness to learn something new in the field to further my skill set.

The navigation is very simple layout for the website. There will only 3 links to the site. One will be a Profile/Resume link that will have all the information about me. That will include my work history, education and resume. The 2^nd will be will be a Contact link that will have a way to contact me about employment and questions one my have.  The 3^rd and last will be a Project link. This will have all of my past and present works and projects that I have been apart of. As time goes on, I will expand my categories for my artworks. I will have something for Photoshop, Maya, Illustrator and so on.   

Unit 2 Reading Response – Chapter 5 “Omit needless words”

Unit 2 Reading Response – Chapter 5 “Omit needless words”

Rambling on in English is never good and doing it in website content is not any better. When there is too much content to read on a web page people will just start to skim it and just do a quick once over. That is not always a good thing to do while reading something important on the web. Content on the web should be kept to a minimum to keep the reader’s attention. The content should hit the importation information right away without having a lot of side tracking going on in the reading.

When there is a lot of content on the page, the reader will start to get tired of looking at what is on the page and start to let their eyes wonder into different parts of the page or even off screen. If there is too much content, a lot of time the writer will run into staying the same thing over and over and not even realize it is happening. So the least amount of content on a page the better it is for the writer. If it can be said in one sentences then that works out fine. That just means more pictures can be put up and people like to look at pictures.

Link to content on websites

http://www.readyartwork.com/2013/05/08/how-content/

Unit 2 Reading Response – Chapter 4 “Animal, vegetable or mineral?”

Unit 2 Reading Response – Chapter 4 “Animal, vegetable or mineral?” 

This chapter is all about keeping things clear and easy to understand for the reader. When the reader is looking at a web site and they have to answer some questions. They want to make sure that they don’t have to second guess themselves and wonder if they are making the wrong decision in their selection. The choses that the user is being given need to be easy to understand. The user should not have to do research on what they are making their selection one. It should almost be section nature to them in their decision making. It should not have to be dumb down for them to understand what is in front of them. Just smarten it up for the read.

As the user starts to click from one link to another, they want to feel like they are getting somewhere with their decision making. For them to get to the information that they are in search of, it should only take a few or a hand full of click for them to reach their destination. The max clicks should be no more than 5. If it takes more than that, the user will get frustrated and just randomly start to click. Almost like button smashing when a kid is playing a video game and starts to panic because they are losing and start button smashing in hopes of something good happening. That’s something that should not happen when looking for information in the web.

Link to clarity in web

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no8.htm

Unit 2 Reading Response – Chapter 3 “Billboard Design 101"

Unit 2 Reading Response – Chapter 3 “Billboard Design 101”

This chapter talks about the importance of hierarchy in a design. One of the more noticeable ways we see hierarchy at work is on letters size. The more important the section is in a layout the bigger the letters size will be. This helps to guild the reader to the most important part of the page.  It gives them a start point to begin their reading. If all letter fonts were the same size then the reader would just scan the page until they found something that caught their fancy on the page. So the large font helps to prevent that and keep the “noise” down from distract them. This hierarchy could be compared to blinders for horses. They are places on the horse to cover up there peripheral vision to keep them from getting distracted and help keep their eyes on the prize.

Without this hierarchy, the reader would just kind a wonder from page to page without any order of what was important and what has the best information for them. This technique making things very clear to understand the information on the page and shows how important it is to make things simple and clear to understand.

Link on hierarchy

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/understanding-visual-hierarchy-in-web-design/

Unit 1 Reading Response – Chapter 2 “How we really use the Web”

Unit 1 Reading Response – Chapter 2 “How we really use the Web”

As we look at this chapter, we read about how the user uses a web site. The user almost never reads or pays and close attention to what is on the web site. They just scan the site until they find something that they like or catches there attention. A lot of times the user has no idea what they are doing when they are searching the web. They have a tendency to just click away until they find what they are looking for, or just get fed up. The reason for this is that the user is just in a rush and they don’t have time to take their time and read the whole page to know where everything is. So scanning and clicking away is the next best thing. Doing it this way can be fast if they manage to guess right and find what they are looking for right away. On the other hand this method does have its draw backs. Doing it this way can take way more time than just actually taking ones time and reading the site.

This is where having a simple and user friendly design is good to have. Make is so easy that a 5 year old can have no trouble what so ever using it and finding something without being told where it is.

Unit 1 Reading Response – Chapter 1 “Don’t make me think!”

Unit 1 Reading Response – Chapter 1 “Don’t make me think!”

This chapter talks about how important it is to keep the design and usability very simple and easy to you. There should almost no thinking at all when someone is using the site if app. It should almost be like second nature to them. Everything that is in the design should have a purpose and reason for being there. The kiss rule should be in the designers head at all time. The user does not want to have to spend a day and a night trying to find something that should only be one click away to find. Especial, if they just what to find out business hours or the food menu to a restaurant. All the links and navigation should be self-exploratory without having the user guess if they are clicking in the right link to get to where they want to go. If the usability is too hard to use and understand, the user will get frustrated with it and give up and find a better site or app that can provided the same information that they are looking for without giving them a headache in trying to navigate the other one. Simplicity will make or break the design of a web site and or app. 

Unit 1 Reading Response – Introduction Chapter “Read me first”

Unit 1 Reading Response – Introduction Chapter “Read me first”

This Chapter summarizes the hole book and what we will be going over from here on out. The author also talks a little about himself and what he does for a living. One of the points that he tries to get across is how important and valuable a site tester can be. The tester can easily help improve the function and the usability of the site. The problem is that not many companies have the money to hire tester to help them. So without their help, many sites go untested and are doomed to fail be not have professionals test every aspect of the site. This book is meant to help those people and companies that don’t have the resources to hire someone to help with usability and make their life just a little easier.

The author also discusses a few changes that he has made in the book, so it can be more relevant then the 2^nd edition. The intro also go over seven simple steps to keep in mind every time a designer is making a web site and mobile app to help us make a great looking and functional design. Those are just a few things that the intro chapter goes over. 

Wire Frame & Inspiration

Inspiration

http://gooddesignworks.co.uk/             (Long page layout)

http://azzoune.com/#/HOME               (Links start page)

http://kingandpartners.com/                  (Function of site)

http://www.theoldstate.com/                (Style of the site)

http://150px.com/                                (Home Start page)

Mood Board

I’m trying to create a professional feel to my portfolio site, but at the same time trying to not be boring and vanilla. My works and web site layout will show creativity to balances the professional feel to it. 

Unit 1 Reading Response

Unit 1 Reading Response Why Mood Boards Matter – webdesignerdepot.com

            A mood board should be looked at as the first step in the very long design process for a client. It’s very hard to tell the client what the end result is going to be without having something for them to get an idea of what it might look like. The mood board helps to visually tell what the look and feel of the projects end result is going to be. If the client can get a feel for the end result, that is going to be. They can tell the designer if they stand behind the feel of it or recommend some changes to it, so they can feel comfortable with the detraction the project is heading. The client will feel like they are be heard and everything they say is being considered and added to the design of the project.   

            The mood board is one, if not one of the best tools that a design can have to help communicate with the client. As a designer, the first job it to make the client happy with the design that is being presented to them. With the client happy with the design, will help make the project run a lot smoother and save countless sleepless hours down the road. With a happy client will mean a good reputation and more employment opportunities down the road.