Wireframe Measurements

Here are the measurements for the site in wireframe form. I am now going to take this into Dreamweaver and sgtart to determine the page division and start to think about my content.

Final Design...... Minus the Logo

Here is the latest version of the Photoshop design of the site. It contains that latest design minus the logo which is currently in production.

Final Sketch

Here is the final sketch of my Web-site. I am now going to take this into photoshop to finalise a design layout and also create the measurements for my wireframe that will allow me to set up all my division inside Adobe Dreamweaver.

Feedback.....?

After presenting my idea in front of my peers I came to realise that one of the things people felt could be improved was either through losing the exterior edge smoke; or by changing the shape of the sides so it didnt have a flat edge. I am going to go back to the sketch board and try to think of another element to introduce that can fill the white backdrop I am using.

New Design in Photoshop

Here is the new design mapped out graphically inside photoshop. It carries the colour scheme that I decided to use and also uses the smoke well. I believe it has a professional feel and I am much happier with this design. I am going to use this a basis for my site and am going to start thinking about the other pages and how I can encorporate the colour scheme in a intuitive way but also paying key attention to the element of professionalism.

New Sketch....

This is the sketch of my latest design idea. It encorporates the element of smoke that I initially spoke about and also contains

a change in the format.

Change of pathway....

After doing some reseacrh and listening to some of the feedback given on the one day project, I wanted to ensure my site contained an atmosphere of professionalism and definitely not a claustrophobic feel. I decided to change the concept based around choice to one based around colour. I have chosen Black, White and Purple as the priority colour scheme for my site. I am going to encorporate smoke as well as water to add another element to represent versatility; and also try to bring in another element of flow and movement.

I am going to take these new ideas to the sketch book and see what ideas I can develop.

Research - Choice

During the research for the designing of this site I tried to gain an exact definition of choice and its link to behavior and overall outcome/user experience.

In life you are often met with choices; in-fact you have to make choice all the time: to walk one way, to order hot chocolate instead of coffee to make a blog as evidence of your thought process?

Choice is a key part of life. If in my site I offer a choice will this be a useful tool? A choice in a site represents a choice within a choice and could deter users from experiencing a site. I am going to do some research into the role of Choice; and how it is related to user experience a key aspect of web design.

Choice

Definition: In the personal development sense, choice refers to the act of choosing from among alternatives of beliefs, lifestyle and behavior.

Example: After realizing that his whining and complaining behavior was alienating his friends, Jeremy knew he had to make a choice between his habitual behavior and his friends.

Taken from: http://personaldevelopment.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_choice_#ixzz0UTsMcgR3

It would appear that the 'role' of choice has immediate implications which I personally relate to user experience. The option of choice could be appealing to many, but to some it may promote something that a passive spectator will not digest, and, will therefore not continue to progress through the site. I am going to continue to research this topic and based upon my findings my design will take shape. I believe the option of choice in design is a good one. But is this a universal belief? and if this is not, then are the symbolisms of shapes also read in the same context regardless of social background, age, sex and political beliefs?

This is a rough photoshop sketch of my logo design. I wanted to include my initials as a hallmark, and, the water behind represents flow and movement, which are essential to success in the interactive media industry.

When thinking about the colour scheme to use for this design I cannot just choose one colour scheme thats is fitting to the symbolisms of one particular shape, if it then clashes with another. I have found an image of a colour wheel; and taking my knowledge from the lecture on design I have learnt that 'Neighbours are friends & Opposites attract'. I am going to be very carful with my colour decisions as they can inflict emotion and feeling immediately and can also determine where the eye is lead too.

Here is a photoshop document of the design scheme I have in mind for my homepage. Disregarding of the colour scheme I am going to split the black section with the shaoes in into thrids and each third will take a different approach to design to see if one is more popular than another. This will not only help me with future designs but is in a way a small test to see if a consumers user experience can be made influential by the shapes used in a web design.

Research for my Portfolio Website

Monday 19th October, 15:59pm

Following a lecture given by Mark Shufflebottom, I took a real interest in the elements of design, and particularly, shapes. With my site in mind I started looking at some information on the symbolisms of shapes. A basic site I found that described these symbolisms was:

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/simple-symbol-meaning.html

It presented me with what could be described as a stereotypical representation on the symbolisms basic shapes such as Circles, Squares and Triangles carried. When looking at this site I wanted to use my portfolio site as a test. I am going to use my homepage as a choice; by splitting my homepage into thirds I could use these fundamental shapes to determine a design and colour scheme and offer the user a choice. This should enable me to maximise my target audience and also show my versatility with regards to web design.

I am going to try and produce a basic sketch of the sites homepage and hopefully a photoshop document with the layout and a general design for each of the three sections.