Thursday, April 21, 2011
Concept Statement Project
Create a list of all users that may visit your site (not from the WWW but those you’d invite):
Potential employers, current employers, friends, family
What will each of those users want to see in order to enjoy their visit to your site?:
I think the majority of the viewers who visit my site will be interested in seeing my portfolio pieces so that should be the main focus of the site.
Name your intended audience (the person(s) you need to persuade.):
My intended audience would be potential employers. My site will need to persuade employers that I am a great fit for their company and that I am skilled in the various areas of graphic design. The site itself should also reflect my abilities in graphic design and be easy to navigate so attention will not be lost.
. Describe what you need to inform and persuade them of:
Promote my: self and my work.
Goals of the site are: to display my work in an interesting and different way to various audiences. My main focus will be on my portfolio and showing my skills in graphic design.
My ultimate message/philosophy (about who you are): that I'm a fun person, but who takes their work very seriously and works hard to design the best of my ability and with a wide range of abilities.
What is the story you are telling?: The artistic theme of my website is based around playing cards. I chose this because I have always been drawn to the design of a playing card and I love using them in my designs whenever appropriate. It appeals to me as well because they are one of the earliest forms of design and coincide with my life as playing cards were very prominent in my childhood as I used to play cards with my family a lot.
. Write a 200 word concept statement based on the user, your persuasion, navigation and the assets.
The goal of my portfolio website is to display my work in a fun way that is different and not like anything that has been done. I believe the use of the playing cards will be a fun way to show my work because it is interactive and portrays my fun side, while still including elements of design and makes for a nice layout. It also keeps the navigation to the minimum since I can use the four different suits to display the different areas of my site. I want the website to be something that will keep attention and that people will want to spend time perusing for awhile. I want it to be easy to navigate and fun to use. The navigation should be simple as there will be four main areas to navigate: portfolio, resume, blog and contact me. The only two that will have further navigation will be portfolio and resume. This increases the ease of use. I'm putting my portfolio first because that should be the main focus of my site. Under portfolio there will be four navigations as well: illustration, identity, print and web. Each of these sections will have my strongest work in the area so as to show my wide variety of skills depending on who (or which potential employer) is looking for. It will show that I am able to design for many different aspects. My resume section will feature my readable resume online as well as be downloadable in pdf and word format for employers. My contact me page will go to a link that users will be able to click to send me an email and my blog page will go directly to my blog. My site will be simple, but strong.
. List the assets you need to persuade the user: Which 7 projects?: The assets I will need to persuade my users will be a fun interface matched with displaying my best work. At this point, I'm not sure which seven projects will be my strongest, but I definitely want to include a variety to show my range. I think I would like to include parts of my identity project where I created a brand. My strongest pieces from that are the advertising designs. I would also like to include a couple illustrations from previous courses.
. What projects which do not exist yet will you want to show?: I will definitely want to show a multi-page document to show I can do layouts of important documents.
. What categories will you depict in your mockup?: I'm including illustration, identity, print and web in my mock-up. I believe I can provide strong pieces for each category.
Potential employers, current employers, friends, family
What will each of those users want to see in order to enjoy their visit to your site?:
I think the majority of the viewers who visit my site will be interested in seeing my portfolio pieces so that should be the main focus of the site.
Name your intended audience (the person(s) you need to persuade.):
My intended audience would be potential employers. My site will need to persuade employers that I am a great fit for their company and that I am skilled in the various areas of graphic design. The site itself should also reflect my abilities in graphic design and be easy to navigate so attention will not be lost.
. Describe what you need to inform and persuade them of:
Promote my: self and my work.
Goals of the site are: to display my work in an interesting and different way to various audiences. My main focus will be on my portfolio and showing my skills in graphic design.
My ultimate message/philosophy (about who you are): that I'm a fun person, but who takes their work very seriously and works hard to design the best of my ability and with a wide range of abilities.
What is the story you are telling?: The artistic theme of my website is based around playing cards. I chose this because I have always been drawn to the design of a playing card and I love using them in my designs whenever appropriate. It appeals to me as well because they are one of the earliest forms of design and coincide with my life as playing cards were very prominent in my childhood as I used to play cards with my family a lot.
. Write a 200 word concept statement based on the user, your persuasion, navigation and the assets.
The goal of my portfolio website is to display my work in a fun way that is different and not like anything that has been done. I believe the use of the playing cards will be a fun way to show my work because it is interactive and portrays my fun side, while still including elements of design and makes for a nice layout. It also keeps the navigation to the minimum since I can use the four different suits to display the different areas of my site. I want the website to be something that will keep attention and that people will want to spend time perusing for awhile. I want it to be easy to navigate and fun to use. The navigation should be simple as there will be four main areas to navigate: portfolio, resume, blog and contact me. The only two that will have further navigation will be portfolio and resume. This increases the ease of use. I'm putting my portfolio first because that should be the main focus of my site. Under portfolio there will be four navigations as well: illustration, identity, print and web. Each of these sections will have my strongest work in the area so as to show my wide variety of skills depending on who (or which potential employer) is looking for. It will show that I am able to design for many different aspects. My resume section will feature my readable resume online as well as be downloadable in pdf and word format for employers. My contact me page will go to a link that users will be able to click to send me an email and my blog page will go directly to my blog. My site will be simple, but strong.
. List the assets you need to persuade the user: Which 7 projects?: The assets I will need to persuade my users will be a fun interface matched with displaying my best work. At this point, I'm not sure which seven projects will be my strongest, but I definitely want to include a variety to show my range. I think I would like to include parts of my identity project where I created a brand. My strongest pieces from that are the advertising designs. I would also like to include a couple illustrations from previous courses.
. What projects which do not exist yet will you want to show?: I will definitely want to show a multi-page document to show I can do layouts of important documents.
. What categories will you depict in your mockup?: I'm including illustration, identity, print and web in my mock-up. I believe I can provide strong pieces for each category.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Reading Summary: Week 1
The first two chapters of "Don't Make Me Think!" cover the essential rules of usability of the web. It talks about the main points of how we use the web and what to do/not do when designing a website.
In chapter one, the author tells us what to consider when designing a website that people will have ease using and enjoy using. Basics are nothing important should be more than two clicks away, think in the language of the user, consistency, but most importantly don't make the user think. Web pages should be obvious and self explanatory. If people have to think to use them, then they will probably not use it at all if there are other options. It's a good idea to use simple words that are clear to the user as well as icons that are recognizable as clickable or not.
In the second chapter, the author explains how we really use the web. A key point is that no one really reads websites, we just scan them. It is important to know this so designers can remember to use key words that will attract the attention of the eye and hopefully it will be what the user is looking for. Users also don't choose the most optimal choices. Instead the "satisfice" and choose the first reasonable option. This is because users are usually in a hurry and there really isn't much consequence if they do something wrong. It doesn't take a whole lot to back up and guess again. Users also don't figure out how things work, they usually push through and learn as they go. We don't like to read instructions. But once we find something that works, we stick to it.
In chapter one, the author tells us what to consider when designing a website that people will have ease using and enjoy using. Basics are nothing important should be more than two clicks away, think in the language of the user, consistency, but most importantly don't make the user think. Web pages should be obvious and self explanatory. If people have to think to use them, then they will probably not use it at all if there are other options. It's a good idea to use simple words that are clear to the user as well as icons that are recognizable as clickable or not.
In the second chapter, the author explains how we really use the web. A key point is that no one really reads websites, we just scan them. It is important to know this so designers can remember to use key words that will attract the attention of the eye and hopefully it will be what the user is looking for. Users also don't choose the most optimal choices. Instead the "satisfice" and choose the first reasonable option. This is because users are usually in a hurry and there really isn't much consequence if they do something wrong. It doesn't take a whole lot to back up and guess again. Users also don't figure out how things work, they usually push through and learn as they go. We don't like to read instructions. But once we find something that works, we stick to it.
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