P3 Sketches

P3 Project Statement

Client:

Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake

Background:

Oryx and Crake deals with an apocalyptic narrative in which bio-engineering and medical experimentation have led to the almost complete annihilation of the human race. Many of the science experiments remain in the form of strange animals or plants. The story focuses on a single surviving human who is trying to deal with his situation as best he can without dwelling on the past events that brought him here.

 

Objective:

Create a website to promote the book, the styling of the cover, and to be informative. The website should capture the design of the book so there is no question of their relation.

 

Target Audience:

20's and up. The book deals with some serious and mature issues.

 

Obstacles:

The book was first published in 2003 and has had multiple cover designs published since. They are very different from each other, and the story is very dynamic, which makes it difficult to choose a style for the website. The cover chosen for this is a collage and unconventional, which is not friendly to web coding. 

 

Tone:

Moody, colorful, serious

 

Media:

Web, option of responsive design

P3 Research

-->

Possible Book Choices:

The Elephant Keeper’s Children by Peter Hoeg

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

And just because I really want to do this book because it’s one of my favorites, but it wasn’t published in the last year.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

 Existing Promotional Websites:

http://www.yearoftheflood.com/us/

http://www.gladwell.com/

http://www.jkrowling.com/

And just for Scott again…

http://www.eljamesauthor.com/

Unit 6 Reading

Web design is like designing for function A but really you want it to do function B. Websites are meant to do A, but you have to design them to do B, which is what people expect them to do. Somewhere along the lines you have to sacrifice purpose to expectation or toss expectation out the window and say here is what you get. As of right now web is more impersonal than many mediums so it is tough to cater to those without certain abilities, such as sight or hearing.

The Steve Krug brought up a point that I found rather amusing as I have experienced it first hand. Designers or developers or whoever is working on a website designs it in such a way that they prefer thinking that everyone prefers it that way. In class small details like drop-down menus or logos going to home have been debated, but each side was adamant that their opinion was the most common. But there was really no basis other than personal preference. I think it’s easy to gloss over details under false impressions that one’s own opinions are common across the board.

I think this site has a lot to offer you just have to dig around a bit through the many navigation tabs.

http://usability.com.au/research/site-structure/

Do I need to justify this? It’s like a never-ending pot of useful information.

http://www.aiga.org/web-design-that-puts-engagement-first/

I haven’t used it, but I’ve used other html testing websites. I would assume they work the same. I’ll have to check it out someday.

http://wave.webaim.org/

A Few Fireworks Redesign Sketches

Unit 5 Reading

What I have come across while learning the basics of web design is not to design for the user but the client. Now, of course you should design for the user, but I mean that you shouldn’t design completely based on the user’s navigation and expectations. Conventions are useful tools for usability but not always the best choice design wise. The book brought up a great point that everyone creates what he or she prefers thinking everyone is like that. Last time I did a website redesign in a group of both web and graphic design students there was a lot of conflict initially because the web students wanted it to be all about function, but it didn’t look good enough to the graphic students’ standards.

I have also learned that testing is your best friend as a student and as a designer. I did that project that I spent hours and hours on and was the proudest person in the world, but it wasn’t actually that great of a web design. It had a lot of issues that were plain and obvious to another eye. Let’s just say it was a painful end, but I learned a lot form that project.

These are a couple sites with testing tips and good reminders.

www.hacktutors.info/2010/07/10-tips-for-testing-your-websites.html

http://www.intuitionhq.com/blog/2011/05/10-quick-usability-testing-tips/

These are a couple sites on designing usability in general.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/10-usability-tips-for-web-designers/

(This is not the prettiest site, but it makes some good points.)

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no4.htm