I spent some time
with Gabriel on Friday. He asked for a quick recap on the concept
behind the website and what I was working on at the minute. I explained
that I had been mostly concentrating on the design of the site and
hadn't given much thought to the content or anything else.
I created a basic site map in one of my earlier blogs but he explained that a more detailed version would make it a lot easier when it came to the technical implementation and would provide him with a better understanding of what it is I am aiming to achieve by creating this site.This gave me a better perspective as while we went through the content of each of the pages we spotted a few flaws.
Firstly, I am expecting my first baby in a few weeks so had been blogging weeks in advance to ensure I had work to upload during my time off. Gabriel advised that I shouldn't do this as my thought process becomes unclear with jumping back and forth to things and that the lecturers will understand that I have to take a bit of time out. I have been researching relative topics regarding my website but agree with Gabriel that blogging ahead is a bad idea as I feel I have started to loose focus and forget what it was that I wanted to experiment with next. So, I thought it would be a good idea to go over each of my blogs and give them a bit more structure to clearly show the stages of development for both myself and the lecturers.
I also think project planning is vital to ensure nothing minor or major is overlooked and forgotten about. I have been referring back to a design document I used in a previous project as I think it's a great way to make sure I have everything covered regarding the design and technical implementation. I probably should have started by doing this and working my way through all the sections but my ideas haven't came in a specific order so I think it would have been hard to stick to completing it section by section. I've just documented my thoughts each week and decided to do this now by way of a checklist. This seemed to be taking forever though and some sections were getting a bit repetitive. So, I searched for checklists that a web designer would use and came across an excellent 10 point checklist on smashingmagazine.com. Anything that wasn't asked in the 10 point checklist that I wanted to make note of is included in the 'Other Factors' section.
I created a basic site map in one of my earlier blogs but he explained that a more detailed version would make it a lot easier when it came to the technical implementation and would provide him with a better understanding of what it is I am aiming to achieve by creating this site.This gave me a better perspective as while we went through the content of each of the pages we spotted a few flaws.
Firstly, I am expecting my first baby in a few weeks so had been blogging weeks in advance to ensure I had work to upload during my time off. Gabriel advised that I shouldn't do this as my thought process becomes unclear with jumping back and forth to things and that the lecturers will understand that I have to take a bit of time out. I have been researching relative topics regarding my website but agree with Gabriel that blogging ahead is a bad idea as I feel I have started to loose focus and forget what it was that I wanted to experiment with next. So, I thought it would be a good idea to go over each of my blogs and give them a bit more structure to clearly show the stages of development for both myself and the lecturers.
I also think project planning is vital to ensure nothing minor or major is overlooked and forgotten about. I have been referring back to a design document I used in a previous project as I think it's a great way to make sure I have everything covered regarding the design and technical implementation. I probably should have started by doing this and working my way through all the sections but my ideas haven't came in a specific order so I think it would have been hard to stick to completing it section by section. I've just documented my thoughts each week and decided to do this now by way of a checklist. This seemed to be taking forever though and some sections were getting a bit repetitive. So, I searched for checklists that a web designer would use and came across an excellent 10 point checklist on smashingmagazine.com. Anything that wasn't asked in the 10 point checklist that I wanted to make note of is included in the 'Other Factors' section.
Project Planning
Audience:
- Why is the site needed? The overall goal of this project is to combine all of the things people want to see/know/buy/do regarding Pop Art within the one website instead of having various sites offering only one or two of the above and re-directing people to another site for the others.
- Who is the audience? What are the age ranges and interests of the potential site visitors? With regards to the target audience, a specific gender/age/marital status etc is hard to determine so the primary target group are those of all ages/sexes with an interest in all things Pop Art.
- How will they use the website? The project aim is to create an innovative and functional website for lovers of Pop Art. The content concept is a Pop Art appreciation site which will contain five pages on the history of Pop Art, tutorials on how to create your own, an online shop where people can buy other users of the sites work and famous pieces and a gallery/interactive blog where users can offer hints and tips to one another and view each others work.
- What are the key reasons users may have for visiting the site? As a lover of Pop Art, when searching the topic on the web I noticed I was jumping from site to site when researching different aspects of it. I viewed it on several sites, found background info on it on another site, and to buy posters etc I was re-directed to another site. By combining all of these things and enabling access to them within the one site, fans of Pop Art have one main source for all the things they are looking for.
- What content will be needed for the site? A homepage introducing the site and what it contains, 5 pages containing general background information/history on Pop Art, artists information and gallery of their work, an interactive blog and log-in area for users, an online shop and 'how to' hints, tips and tutorials.
- List the sections and features that will be included -
- Five main pages: Homepage, History, Tutorials/Blog, Gallery, Shop
- Members log-in area (PHP)
- Video tutorials
- Photo gallery
- Online shop
- RSS Feed
- Email subscription
- What already exists and what needs developed? Appreciation sites, blogs, artists own sites, sites containing background information and video tutorials already exist online. There is room to develop an interactive site that combines all of these aspects within the one site.
- What should the site communicate? The website should effectively communicate a modern, clean and impressive design and layout. It should highlight it's main purposes through empathetic words and relative content.
- What are the primary objectives and goals? Design, develop and maintain a new Pop Art website that offers the users the opportunity to view, buy, learn about and chatting about the subject.
- Background - Benday dots
- Font - Badaboom for logo/banner, Verdana for main text
- Colour scheme - Typical brash/bold colours used in Pop Art (blue, red, pink, yellow)
- Navigation - Pop Art/ comic book speech balloons
- Layout - Comic book style page
As I was giving
Gabriel a recap on the concept behind my major project, he asked why and
how I came up with the Pop Art idea. I explained that I hadn't came
across a site that combined all of the content that I plan on including
such as how to create Pop Art, where to buy it etc all in the one site.
He then pointed out that I hadn't given any evidence of looking into
this and that a review of Pop Art sites was essentail in order to ensure
that I don't rejuvenate a site that already exists. While I have
researched different Pop Art sites such as popart.com, funkpopart.com
and popexperiment.com, I haven't mentioned what I liked/disliked about
them or how they influenced my major project concept.
So
to document my thoughts on these sites, I have decided to do a brief
review on a few of them including appreciation sites, galleries and PA
artists' own sites.
Pop Art Galleries:
This is the website for the Pop International Gallery in New York. I really like the 3 colum structure/layout and scrolling picture gallery. I think the content is great but could really be organised better. I also think the site lacks design.
This is the Taylor Gallery in Belfast's site. I like everything about this site. I love the simple contemporary design and how the content is displayed. In comparrison to the Pop International Gallery, I get more of a clear idea that this site is art based due to the design.
This is the website for the Pop International Gallery in New York. I really like the 3 colum structure/layout and scrolling picture gallery. I think the content is great but could really be organised better. I also think the site lacks design.
This website is more what I had in mind for my own. You can see from my previous blogs that I had mentioned using vibrant colours and bold font in the design. The London Pop Art Studio also utilizes these techniques and manages to avoid going over the top. I really like the use of the paint splatters by way of navigation buttons.
I like the orange, black and grey colour scheme used in the Pop Art Studio website. I also like the use of the Pop Art image in the banner. The sub navigation and content layout are similar to how I would like mywebsite to look. The site also utilizes some of the same tools that I want to incorporate in Pop-It.com such as an online shop and members log in area. This is a really useful resource for me to reffer back to.
Artists' Websites:
I didn't complete a full review of artists sites because there are so many. Instead I picked my favourite due to the content, layout, colours used and technical aspects.
All of these sites have things that I like and dislike about them, and they all offer inspiration. I have listed the things that I would like to take away from each of them, especially from The Pop Art Studio as it is my favourite. Although, after looking through each site,it thankfully reinforces the idea behing my Major Project as while the sites contain certain aspectsthat I will be using in my site, they don't combine the same content that I want to use which means I'm not reproducing something that's already been done.
