Interactive Environments - Individual Appraisal

Individual Appraisal:
This is what I have contributed to this task.

Usability for touchscreens:
I have researched the internet on the use of touchscreens and what the best kind of techniques are when starting a new project. I found two websites which in my opinion showed the best kind of information in a small way which was straight to the point.

The websites are as followed:
http://www.vissumo.com/blog/?p=266
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/tsdesigngl/Ergo.htm

Here is some of my research for touchscreen usability:
Touchscreen should be eye level if the user is going to be using it for around 1-3 minutes.

Touchscreen below eye level is better for using in a longer period of time.

There is no mouse to move.

There are no mouse clicks - pointing and initiating are combined into one step

It is better to not have a mouse pointer on the screen as users never lose control of their fingers but may loose control of a mouse pointer.

Users cannot confuse different types of cursors.

Finger-operated touchscreen is best in speed but poor in accuracy

Stylus-operated touchscreen is better than the use of the finger as it has better speed and better accuracy.

Touchscreens can be used by everyone and the main target audience for the software tool is a novice.

Muscle strain happens if the screen is high and the user has to constantly use vertical movement.
The user has to sit/stand close to the screen.
Screen gets dirty from finger prints so cleaning regularly is essential
Pen/finger may obscure parts of the screen so it is best to have the main menu at the bottom.
As soon as the user touches the screen the software should activate.

Painting Tool:
In one of our lessons with James Field we had a tutorial on creating a paint tool, which was very useful for what we need in our flash piece. It enables the user to be able to draw effectively and also we are looking at the possibility of having a palette tool which will change the colour of the paint tool.

On-screen keyboard:
Also a tool which we planned on using is an on-screen keyboard. This function would let the user type in their name and submit it with the photo, enabling them to search on the website for their name without just adding a photo ID and making it a lot easier.

http://www.dncompute.com/blog/2006/06/21/on-screen-keyboard.html - This was the first on-screen keyboard that I found which was easy to edit but once this had edited I then realised the file was in Action Script 2 which we weren't using.

Due to this problem I then had to find another keyboard but this had to work in Action Script 3. After searching around google I found a fairly basic keyboard which had the requirements that we needed. Here is the link to our successful keyboard. http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/711/1/AS3-On-Screen-Keyboard/Page1.html All that keyboard would do is show the users name and then by clicking enter it would send it to the database within the website database then to be published on the website after approval. We had a final problem as the keyboard wouldn't rotate meaning we had to change this and Andrew Howard rebuilt a similar one in a rotated format.

Skin Tones:
My next task was to find a suitable set of skin tones which would be placed on our colour palette. I felt that the links below had the right sort as we had to consider every skin tone throughout the world, as anyone could be using this tool.

http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/skin_tone/skintone.html
http://kuler.adobe.com/#themeID/1088316

CATs Log Book

26th January - Group Lecture
For this CATs lesson we received handouts which gave us help on Havard Referencing. This I feel will help me when needing to write an essay in the future as I feel that my Ethics essay lacked in HR which may have cost me quite a lot of marks. With these handouts though I can now work to a better standard when essay writing.

18th December
Unable to attend

8th December - Group tutorial
For this CATs lesson we had a group discussion about our ethics essays. This was helpful as we recieved a plan of how our essay showed be layed out i.e. introduction, main body, bibliography and conclusion.

1st December
HSAD closed.

24th November - Individual tutorial
For this CATs lesson we had a discussion on the progress of our individual work. I have completed my portfolio website and I am also waiting on some free samples I ordered from a mint/sweet company which has my designdave.co.uk logo on.

17th November
Tutor was ill.

10th November - Audiences and Clients
For this CATs lesson we had a presentation on Audiences and Clients. This presentation I felt was very helpful as it showed us what to expect from a target audience. We looked at age demographic which I feel will be vital for me especially when I'm working with a client in the future.

2nd November - Ethics
For this CATs lesson we had a presentation on Ethics such as things as controversial artists, photographers and any other work that has caused controversy. During this lesson we were told that we would have to write a 2,000 word essay based on our own subject with reference to an ethical background. I have thought of an idea for my essay but I need to find the artist I feel is relevant for this essay.

27th October
Unable to attend lesson due to illness.

20th October - Project Ideas
For this CATs lesson we were asked what things we would be doing during this semester of CATs, I decided to go with the idea of promoting myself via a blog and a portfolio website. I also decided that I would advertise myself by purchasing merchandise for future reference when I meet a client to give as a friendly gesture.

13th October
Unable to attend lesson due to family funeral.

6th October - Evaluating and Planning
For this CATS lesson we had to come up with a plan as to what we would do in our projects. We could do anything from promoting ourselves to writing up a blog or creating a website. This was really relevant to me as I felt that doing all these things would help get my name out in the world of today.

CATs Promotional Report

For my CATs assignments this semester I will try and promote myself as a freelance web designer. This could be such things as buying merchandise, creating business cards, buying domain and web hosting, making a logo, creating a website etc.

The first stage that I have had to do for my promotional work was to come up with a name for my website. At first I went with the idea of calling my website DJ Design but after researching this on google, ask, bing etc I felt that this wasn't the way to go. This was due to research as when searching the search engines for DJ Design a lot of the time I got things that related to musical equipment and this didn't really have any relation to web design.

When thinking of another name to promote myself I thought of Davey Jay Web Enterprises, as I felt that this name was very internet savvy for my age demographic and what I am aimed to show off. When consulting fellow students and tutors they felt that this idea showed off my personality well with the young sounding name but it wasn't very professional for the career I was trying to get into. Due to this, I once again decided to leave this name and start thinking of a more appropriate professional name.

 

Before designing my website I decided to purchase the name of http://www.designdave.co.uk/ for $29.96 in total for two years and having the domain name certified. I went with Godaddy as when browsing for domain names this had the best rate in my opinion and I was recommended to use them by a fellow student.

I then had to purchase hosting, this keeps all the work which is uploaded in a folder and then adds it to the website of http://www.designdave.co.uk/. I used a website called Bluehost as they have a lot of tools within the website itself that can help with setting up any sort of website. I was recommended by a former student to use Bluehost as he felt that this was the most easy to use and had the best results. I paid $6.95 a month for a one year subscription to use Bluehosts service which I felt was a good price for a unlimited web upload space.

Once I completed all the important things for setting up my website I then started to think of ideas of how it should look. I researched a lot of web design companies and freelance portfolio websites to give me an ideas on how I should go about creating and putting together my website.

Here are the websites that I viewed:

http://www.dselva.com/

http://www.lebloe.com/

http://www.amazeelabs.com/

http://www.ngenworks.com/

www.emotionslive.co.uk/portfolio.html

These websites I felt helped me realise that my design needed to be something that related to me. I struggled with thinking on any ideas that showed my personality off as I like bright colours and wacky designs yet I couldn't figure out any sort of colour scheme to use. I was using colours such as navy, black, dark toned colours which aren't really me so after a long look and research I chose a colour which was a bit similar to the colour scheme of Emotions Live. This colour I felt portrayed myself and my love of bright colours which is essential when having a portfolio website as it is all about you.

Once I got an idea of what kind of colour scheme I would use for my website I then had to think about a logo which would be recognisable and individual to myself. I decided to browse the free font website http://www.urbanfonts.com/ which gives you the use of an downloadable font which is either created by a user or already exists on most pieces of software. For my logo I decided to go in the retro section of Urbanfonts and chose the font Uptight. which is key to the creation of a portfolio website. This logo shows off my personality quite well as it has the retro font and a bright colourful background which I rather enjoy viewing as I'm into anything that is eye-catching which in my opinion fits the criteria.

Here is the final design logo:

After my logo was complete I then went on adding it to the design of my website. My website has a lime green block going across the top as I felt that this gave the viewer continuity and a sense of what I was about. I made the navigation on my site vertical as I never have really used this technique before but I felt that it was a bit different to what a lot of other designers are doing at present, so I felt this could give me a special edge when somebody views my website.

The navigation is shown below:

Once I was happy with the header of my website I then had to consider what the main body would look like. I went for a basic design with a white background on black text which I felt was straight to the point and didn't have any unnecessary items within. The jquery slider which was added at the top of the body made the website look very nice visually as it showcases recent work by myself. After I was happy with the outlook of the main body I then had a thought of what would make my website look appealing towards the bottom end of the site. I created a footer with a top border which signalled the end of the main body and this just displayed links to my email, facebook, twitter and blogger accounts.

Here is the final website design:

Once I completed my portfolio website I felt that another way to promote myself would be to purchase some merchandise. My first idea was to look around for merchandise companies that did free samples, unfortunately after viewing quite a lot websites none of them ever really gave you the option of a free sample without placing an order for around ten items first. After consulting my father about free samples he told me about http://www.creativepm.co.uk/ as his company has used their services before and highly recommended them. They sent me two mint cards which have my logo on them which I felt was a good start for a free sample. Due to the lack of companies who gave out free samples I then viewed a website called http://www.zazzle.com/ who specialise in merchandise but one of the main reasons I used Zazzle was because I was allowed to order one item instead of most websites which require a minimum of ten to twenty items which isn't always what is wanted. I ordered a t-shirt which has my logo on it which cost £12.50 and also twenty stickers which cost £4.95. These items are very good quality for what I paid for them and I will use Zazzle in the future for any other merchandise that is required to showcase myself to the world.

Here are photos of the merchandise:

Conclusion

My overall thoughts on promoting myself as a web designer are that I am improving every time I build a new website, and that all the merchandise that I have obtained can be used for clients in the future as giving out mint cards, stickers, key-rings etc will be a nice gesture and will surely make the client feel a bit more comfortable with my service.

I feel that I am promoting myself quite well as I have already created a website for a rock band based in Hull and currently working on a project for an freelance electrician also based in Hull. I don't think I would of obtained these clients if my website wasn't up and running and I feel word of mouth has helped as well, as I have been able to show my designs from university on my official designdave.co.uk website which has given the client a real feel for what I can offer them.

I feel that I am slowly getting my name around and this can only be a good thing for the future.

Five Website Reviews

nGen Works
http://www.ngenworks.com/

Description
nGen Works is a web design company based in Florida, USA.

Design
This website has a really smart use of design in my opinion. The header of the website looks fantastic visually as it is something different with the diagonal look. This goes for the navigation as well being diagonal which works with the header. The other good point about the design is that on every page the diagonal header changes colour each time which I thought was a nice effect. The use of comic book like images was also a nice touch when promoting each member of staff.

Content
This website has a bit more content/pages. I think this is down to nGen Works being an actual agency and not just a freelancer as they need to promote each member of staff and what each person does within the company. The content used to promote clients they have worked for was very effective also as they display screen shots of the processes they have undertaken when developing work and also displaying info about the work.

Overall Opinion
This website has a really nice design and the content used is perfect in my opinion. Of all the websites I have reviewed I would say this was the best for design and content.



Emotions by Mike
http://www.emotionslive.co.uk/portfolio.html

Description
Emotions is a website showing work from a freelance web graphic designer called Mike.

Design
I picked this design mainly because the colour of the website is very extravagant and different from other websites. The colour may not be to the taste of some of its viewers but I felt that it portrayed this persons personality as you can tell from the design that he is a bit quirky and likes to try something different which I feel works. Most of the text is to a small size which I feel also works very well with the overall design.

Content
The content is very straight to the point as website only has three pages consisting of home, portfolio and about me. I think this is a good idea as some websites try adding to much content and this is very easy to get through which is always what the user wants. The portfolio work is also very clear to see.

Overall Opinion
I like this website as it has taken a risk with the colour scheme, which I think has paid off a lot. The content is very simple but what is needed and is an overall good easy to use website.



LebLoe
http://www.lebloe.com/?p=636

Description
LebLoe is a website which promotes the work of Gustavo Rodriguez who is a Canadian based graphic designer.

Design
This website has a really nice design as one of the main uses in the website is transparent boxes which works really well with the background image. The background image has a small amount of bright colouring but on a dark navy background it works rather well. The only downside to this website design is the background CSS as it seems to have a repeat and it has the logo of the site on each page TWICE which I thought was poor for a person who works in that sort of industry.

Content
The content used in this site is very similar to other graphic/web designers as it showcases all of the latest work, contact info, networks and other things such as a weekly/monthly blog and keywords which are very important in a site now a days.

Overall Opinion
I liked the look of this website as the design and content used were really good and to a high standard. The only downfall for me was the background CSS as I was unsure if they had done this effect deliberately or not realised, which would be very poor if it was the latter.



DSelva
http://www.dselva.com/

Description
Selvakumar Duraisamy is an Indian based web design and development professional with 6+ years of industry experience.

Design
The design has a good use of imagery as the background. The site also uses imagery of Selvakumar Duraisamy himself which is sometimes not a wise idea but this looks a very clear and fresh design which I enjoyed viewing. The site design has a black and white effect and with bright colours for the client images and important text within the site.

Content
This website has a good use of content as there isn't too much information and gets straight to the point. All the contact information, latest work, about and keywords are all on the homepage which is makes the website easy to use.

Overall Opinion
I really like website as it is straight to the point with all the content and the use of dark background and bright text works really work.



Amazee Labs
http://www.amazeelabs.com/

Description
Amazee Labs is a web design company, based in Switzerland.

Design
The design concept of this website has a very high standard as the use of bright colours is very appealing. The website has a grey background which looks quite dull and unappealing but the website has a fantastic use of bright coloured navigation, bright images and a good use of text containers.

Content
This website has a really good use of content. It says everything that the user wants to hear/see as a portfolio website advertising their company. All the information shown about what they have to offer is straight to the point which is very effective as not many people like reading a lot on websites. The client page is also very effective as they use an image slider of screen shots of the websites they have created and also a small part of information of what that site has to offer.

Overall Opinion
I really like this website as it is straight to the point and has a great use of colour on a plain background.

Personas

Name: David Jones
Age:20
Role: Web Design Student
Education: Second Year Student
Image Required

Personal:
In a relationship
Living with parents
Very web-savvy

Work:
Works for Sports Direct as a sales assistant
worked at company for a year and a half
works part time

Goals:
Wants to be in a successful job after university
wants to earn more money

Issues:
Feels under pressure to develop his career
Needs to justify training courses attended
has a very clear view of what he is looking for, and being web-savvy, is extremely comfortable with using the web to achieve this end



Name: Phil Batty
Age:20
Company: Force-7
Role: Director
Image Required

Work:
Works for Force-7 as a Director
Started company whilst attending school
Worked at company since starting it in 2006

Goals:
Wants to lose the 16-24 age bracket within the company
Wants to employ five head managers based in, research, marketing, office, new media and ...
Increase the skill of employees
Wants the company to be a national niche brand in six months times
Wants the company to be working for known brands in a years time

Issues:
Wants to leave the company in a high quality when planning to leave
Wants to work in social care within five years time

Client Related Practice

Professional Practice

Presentation Skills

Planning
Planning is essential when creating a presentation as the subject of the presentation needs to be well researched before it is put into words. Putting pen to paper is also a good idea with such things as spider diagrams and bullet points being a good start when thinking about what is needed.

Visual Aids
Visual aids can be vital when planning and presenting. This can be such things as the content of the presentation such as wording as it is a known fact that people viewing presentations do not like seeing a lot of words. It also can be such things as the design and layout of the presentation as especially as a designer the visual aspect has to keep the viewer interested otherwise they won't take it seriously.

Rehearse
Rehearsing is essential as without this it can make your presentation laughable. A well presented presentation is based of confidence and by rehearsing this can help you have the confidence to realise which part you need to talk about instead of looking at the presentation and just going with it.

Answering Questions
Most people will want to ask you as the presentor, a question once the presenation has been complete. This can be sometimes tricky as they may ask something that you have no knowledge about but usually with it being a presentation about something you have rehearsed it should be easy when part of the audience ask a question.

Links
http://www.presentation-skills.biz/

What design means

Something genuine
This means that creating a design which is completely individual. It could be simliar to other websites but throwing your own ideas and drawing them out first can always help create a genuine design which no one else has. This could be things from design, logo, content and style.

Putting the pieces together

This can be things such as concept of the product, the message the product is sending out and also the feel of the product. These are essential as the product needs to look appealing and make the viewer want to stay, without this it may as well not exist.

Links
http://www.wisdump.com/design/what-design-means-to-me/

Generating Ideas

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is very important as this can always help generate an idea, it can be such things as spider diagrams, writting ideas down and sticking them to a wall etc depending on how you want to do it. When researching the internet, books, magazines etc will usually help massively when needing ideas.

Daydream
Daydreaming can help as it can take your mind off the subject that you need to be working on. By doing this you can relax your mind and think of other things which could give you a brilliant idea.

Carry a notepad
Carrying a notepad around can prove very handy as when being told something you can always write down an idea even if you don't end up using the thought.

Links

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol7/brilliantideas.htm

Project Planning

Project Goals

The project goals mean that planning first is essential as the client you are dealing with will want to know what they are going to receive from your service. Researching the client first is always a good step so you can get a background of what they do, what their interests are, how they want to be portrayed etc. Once the researching has been completed you will need to find out their needs and what they want from you on their product.

Project Schedule

The main part of a project schedule is working out which areas need more effort than others, planning out how long each part will take (days, hours) and also calculating a completion date.

Links

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/project-planning-step-by-step.html

Designing for the User

Week 1:

For week 1 in 'Designing for the user' we had a lecture which included a video which gave me an idea of what sort of website that I shouldn't be creating. I felt this gave me a good knowledge as this video showed that the use of far to much Flash can make a website pretty horrendous. We received a task from our tutor James to look at two Flash websites for our next week and compare them by finding one that has the right use of Flash and one that has the wrong use of Flash. Things we had to consider were such things as, design, use of flash, target audience etc.

Week 2:

For week 2 we had a lecture to discuss our two Flash websites, good or bad. For my websites I chose to pick a website called www.gettheglass.com which I felt was a fantastic use of Flash but also due to the factor of going a bit over the top with the amount of Flash they used this made it my bad website. It was very well designed but the whole layout didn't really have good navigation and as the user I struggled to really gain what this websites purpose was. My second website was called www.okaydave.com which I felt was a good basic website that used Flash to a good effect and didn't bore the user with a lot of loading time. This website was easy to navigate through which I felt helped as my first website didn't. Due to this I listed this website as my good website as you knew what the website was just by looking at the opening page and it also had the navigation bar which my first website didn't have.

Week 3:

For week 3 we had a lecture which was based on showing us how we should prepare for creating a website or any other piece of work. This came with ten steps which I feel will help me a lot in the future, they are listed below:

Step 1 - Research

• Needs of the client - This website is aimed at advertising ski resort holidays for young adults.
• Specific industry/product/service
• Target Audience (from client or brief) - The target audience for this website is young adults who have an interest in ski resort holidays.
• Market Research (competitive analysis - compare other websites, focus groups) - I have looked at a few websites that are based specifically on ski resort holidays. These websites usually show information such as text, images and videos. A lot of these websites are basic HTML as well. The websites I have looked at are: lineskis.co.uk, ifyouski.com and skiclub.co.uk

Step 2 - Brainstorming

• Start getting all ideas down on paper - I came up with a few names for my website these were: Skiplus/Ski+, Skiforyou/Ski4u and Ski 18-30.
• Any expected content
• Content will eventually inform the design

Step 3 - Technical Requirements

• This website has to be made in Flash. This is the main objective of Designing for the user. With having to use Flash I think it is apparent that this website needs some sort of animation in it. When viewing other Flash websites I have noticed that they tend to have the main animation at the start of the website so I feel I may do this by having some sort of person skiing down a slope then the main part of the website opens.

This is what I have come up with up to now.

Week 5:

In this task we had to carry on with planning our website and I came up with a few ideas which was based at the target audience. This is what I wrote below:

I need to look at what will attract young adults to my website and keeping them interested while viewing the website. I have to think about layout, content, colour scheme etc.

Websites such as bigskyresort.com show what I should be adding i.e. content into my site. This site shows pages such as Winter Skiing, Summer Skiing, Events, Booking etc. I think I need to add content like this as I think advertising an actual resort will be a more worthwhile idea and better than advertising a handful of resorts.

I feel that advertising this website this website in the right way will decide whether a young adult audience would want to carrying on viewing my site or wanting to leave it. I feel by doing this we need to add something into the website that will really attract them and make them want more. I feel advertising the resort as like a package holiday were you can obtain accommodation, equipment, food and drink etc will really lure the young audience in as a lot of young adults prefer to save money rather than spend big.


This week was a very important time when thinking about the design of the website. The designs that I came up with were all well designed in my opinion and had the right sort of content in them. When looking at my designs I then thought about adding them into flash. The design was changed a few times when creating the actual website. It went from having a black background with white font but this didn't really portray a ski resort. After considering this I went with a design that was a photograph of a ski mountain. This photograph was very eyecatching and had such things as sunshine, trees and snow which made the website design look very different but in a good way.
Week 7:
After adding the content I felt that this image was taking up far to much space and I could not really fit any content in what so ever. This was making my website look quite basic. When thinking of how I could create more space I went upon the idea of using images such as the facebook logo, msn logo, twitter logo, a housing logo, a food logo and a skiing logo. These at first looked very good but once they were reduced in size that is when the design started to look a lot worse. These images were gonig to be used as links but they were to big when full size and too small when minimised. After having a look at other websites and haing a discussion with Jay he recommended that instead of using images as links maybe use writing but having a question as the link. For instance something like "Where do we sleep", "Where do we eat", etc. I felt that this was a good idea and after adding this my website was looking a lot more clearer.
During this week I also joined a Ski Forum to see what people who are interested in Skiing would like on a website. The link for the forum I joined and for the answers I recieved on my topic is:
http://http//www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/8335.page
The replies I recieved were very helpful as a lot of people told me they look at accommodation, bars/pubs, equipment, webcams and weather reports. After considering all of these options I felt this helped me when coming to add my content in the future.
Week 8:
During this week I changed my complete layout of my flash site as I didn't like the way the photograph cluttered the rest of m website. After browsing a few other flash websites I went with a fairly basic design of white but the background had little squares within it, which after adding other images such as snowboard, skiis etc it looked really presentable.

Once I added this background I then started to add different links. I went with the same idea of having the questions as the links but I also added an image on to them as well. I made sure that when the image is rolled over it changes to a different colour which is also the same with the text.
Week 9:
This week was very important as I had to make sure all of the content was added. I had the content which was such things as updates and images on the homepage, which also had a link to Ski Plus' Twitter and Facebook page. The accommodation page which had information on how to book a chalet with images. The eat/drink page which gave information about the catering at Ski Plus Resort and also on the equipment page about all the equipment that is on offer.
After looking at my website I felt that it lacked a lot of animation and so with this I decided to add a flash music player in the homepage. This would act as a way for the viewer to click on the player and hear what people who have visited the resort have said about it.
After looking at my website I felt that it didn't really have much focus on the actual ski slopes but it mainly was focused on the actual resort. I was unsure as to whether this needed to be added as I felt that everything that was in my website covered the criteria very well.
User Testing
For my User Testing I asked a varied audience between the ages of 17-35 which in my eyes would be the audience I was aiming it at with the target being young adults.
I asked my friend Steph who is aged 18, my uncle Steve who is aged 33 and my other friend Craig who is aged 20.
The questions that were asked where to people who had different knowledge of web design. The questions are as followed:
Does this website fit its purpose content and design wise?Steph: Yes this website is about a ski resort and is shown well.Steve: Yes.
Craig: Yeah when looking at the website you tend to guess what its for.
Would you make any improvements to this website?Steph: Not really there seems to be enough information.
Steve: The content added is all right but could of added other things.
Craig: No the website looks very eyecatching.
Did the content make sense?Steph: Yes I could understand everything.
Steve: All the information that was used was easy to read and understand.
Craig: Yeah very simple but effective.
Does the music player work properly?Steph: Yes it plays and stops when the buttons are clicked on.
Steve: Yes
Craig: Yeah it works without any problem.
Is the navigation clear and easy to use?Steph: Yes I like the way the text changes colour.
Steve: Yes but I think once the pages have been clicked on the image should change colour or something like that.
Craig: Yes it is easy to use and works fine.
After reading through my user testing I changed the website so that the images would change when a page was clicked on and now they have a colour scheme for each page. After all of this my website is now completed so feel free to have a look around it :)
Evaluation
I feel that this task was very enjoyable and went very well. The overall website I feel had enough uses of flash within the site to be a succes. The pieces of flash that I used were the navigation that changed on every page and when the text was scrolled over, the other piece of flash was the audio player which was created by using the hand out recieved in one of the flash workshops over this semester. I tried adding a video into my website also but after trying to add a video from Youtube the code I used didn't seem to work so instead I just used a print screen of the chosen video and added a link. The overall design was a success I felt as every person I asked said they were impressed especially the target audience it was for as the layout was very similar to a lot of other websites that the young adults would look at. Overall the website was a success in my opinion.

Week 6:

Step 1 - Research

• Needs of the client
• Specific industry/product/service
• Target Audience (from client or brief)
• Market Research (competitive analysis - compare other websites, focus groups)

Step 2 - Brainstorming

• Start getting all ideas down on paper
• Any expected content
• Content will eventually inform the design

Step 3 - Technical Requirements

• Factors to consider - budget, timeframe, target audience, feel of product
• HTML
• 
  
• CMS
• Flash
• Hybrid

Step 4 - Written Outline

• Get your idea down on paper formally
• List each selection of the site/product
• Description of what content exists on each page/selection
• Product features such as; user accounts, commenting, social networking intergration, video, newsletter etc

Step 5 - Wireframes

• Simple line drawings of site/pages/sections layout
• Focus on placement of elements (rather than colours, fonts etc)
• Determine what content needs most focus on each page
• Provide framework design
• Easy to change

Step 6 - Design

• Static designs/screen mock ups
• Design presents the product content
• Do not over power the user
• Design consistent navigation
• Clean use of type and sparing use of fonts
• Use placeholder content if need be

Step 7 - Construction

• Turn designs and mock ups into actual pages of HTML of Flash scenes

Step 8 - Development

• Link pages/sections together
• Implement consistent navigation and navigational awareness devices

Step 9 - Reevaluate Design

• Based on issues encountered by your test users
• Categorise the seriousness
• Tackle problems with critical functionality first
• Re-test the product to see if you have it right this time

Step 10 - Promote

• Get your product out there

Week 4:
In this session we mainly carried on with our planning for our Designing for the user website. I started this by using my planning a website technique as shown above.