A Brief History Of.....Website - Studio Brief 3

The Brief

Based on your research into ‘A brief history of....’ design a multi-page website that effectively informs a user about the interesting and informative facts, figures, observations and visual content that you have descovered. You will be supported throughout this project by a series of web development workshops, tutorials, crits as well as studio-based sessions.

The relationship between your content and design decisions should inform the tone of voice. Do you require humour, sophistication, authority, clarity or ....? You will need to demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the relevant industry standard requirements of designing for web based delivery.

Theses will include:

• Web standard fonts, image formats, websafe colours etc.
• Drafting interfaces, layouts and storyboards.
• Creating images and layouts for web formats.
• Engaging and user-friendly interface design.
• Usability and navigation conventions.
• Content management of both files and page elements.
• Designing for an online audience
• Costings and hosting fees.
• Managing website creation briefs.

Background / Considerations

You will need to explore the relationship between creative possibilities and the functional demands of the end user. These decisions and discussions should be documented and evaluated consistently in your design practice blog.

Consider the various functions of websites and how this will affect the visual reresentation of your selected conent. You should take into account the range of possible roles that graphic design plays in web based distribution. These include:

• The function of containing, organisinng, accessing and distributing information or products
• The marketing of the product as part of a multi-media age of access and distribution.
• The sales function and brand manifestation of conent, information or product at the point of delivery or interaction.
• Product identification and differentiation in amongst a visually competitive culture.
• A reflection of lifestyle, trends and behavioral patterns of consumers.
• Opportunities for adding value and stepping beyond the functional.

You should consider, recognise and reference existing modes, forms and formats of web based and interactive delivery where necessary.

We have been given a website project for our 3rd studio brief. Design for web is something we have never come across on the course yet and this is something which is developing more and more in the design world. Companies and people are always looking for web designers and developers to create websites and code them. There is a lot of things to learn and understand with web design. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this task and finding out about new things.

We had been set a task in class to look at various websites and determine their purpose and target audience. The first impressions on websites are very important as its the first few seconds that determine whether the user will or will not stay on the site. Websites need to be able to absorb the user into their interface and lead them onto what they are looking for in an efficient way. The aesthetics of websites are incredibly important as it is the main attraction to the site and helps guide the user to interact with it. If the website looks ugly then people are likely not going to stay for very long.

First Impressions: Confusing, Crazy, Busy, Cluttered,
Purpose: To sell cars
Target Audience: Car owners and people who want to buy cars
Audience Needs: To access information quickly. Be able to navigate easily.

This website must only get attention purely because of the novelty of that it's glittered in crazy gifs and images. It doesn't function very well at all and it's not clear as to what it's purpose is.

First Impressions: Over the top, busy, confusing, Hilarious
Purpose: Give information to people that go to church. Attract church goers.
Target Audience: Christians, people interested in going to church
Audience Needs: To find dates and information

This crazy website is probably the main reason why the church gets any real attention. If it wasn't designed in such a hilarious way, and was made more simple, it probably wouldn't be as effective. However it is too much and it doesn't function very well. People need to be able to navigate easier.

First Impressions: Clean, Simple, Easy to use
Purpose: To present art and design
Target Audience: Graphic designers, artists, people that want to view design
Audience Needs:

First Impressions: Interactive, Bold, Clear/Simple layout
Purpose: Attract Clients
Target Audience: People that are interested in the work/studio, Businesses, Advertisers
Audience Needs: Good work, point of contact

I like how the website is interactive, but the starting page is a little bit of a throw off, the text is a bit trendy and doesn't give off the correct impression in my opinion. There is no work displayed at the beginning and people tend to judge pages as soon as they visit them. So I'd imagine people would move on quite quickly as they wont see the content they want straight away.

First Impressions: Minimal, Simple layout, Confusing, Not very Clear
Purpose: Attract Clients
Target Audience: Businesses, Advertisers
Audience Needs: Make contact, see interesting/creative work

I like how this website looks but I feel that it's not very clear to what the website is about. I think that there should be an introduction or an about page. I haven't looked hard enough to find one, but it should be more obvious. If someone so happened to stumble upon the page, they wouldn't have a clue what they were looking at. They would only know that they were on Sim Smith's site because of the logo.

First Impressions: Bold, simple, clean, friendly
Purpose: To inform users of the latest art and design work
Target Audience: people who love Art/Design, Graphic Designers, Artists
Audience Needs: Interesting articles, Creative art + design work

I love its nice that and I often use their site. Accessing the latest posts is very easy. It's just a continuous scroll down the page, which leads on to an archive button that enables you to access their older posts.