Week 9 - Major Project Proposal...

As you will see in my week 7 blog, I have been researching potential fonts and type design for my website. This weeks lecture reinstated the importance of copy and how it is often overlooked as a design element. I have highlighted this in my 'to do list' as a priority topic as I agree that it is important to give word design careful deliberation in order to utilize the effectiveness of implementing this powerfully.
 We have also been asked to put together a Major Project Proposal. This is more or less what I had been doing last week in my Project Planning 

Major Project Proposal:

1. Lift Pitch: 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 interactive website instead of having various sites offering only one or two of the above and re-directing people to another site for the other pages of information, images or tutorials.
   
2. Summary: 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.
   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.
   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.
   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.
   
   Sections and features that will be included -
   
      1. Five main pages: Homepage, History, Tutorials/Blog, Gallery, Shop
      2. Members log-in area (PHP)
      3. Video tutorials
      4. Photo gallery
      5. Online shop
      6. RSS Feed
      7. Email subscription
   
   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 chat about the subject.
3. Research Outcomes: 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 wanted to know if other fans agreed with this so created a survey with appropriate questions regarding this. I also want to ensure that I am not regenerating a website that already exists and therefore asked questions which would help me decide wether or not my concept is unique enough to be considered a new, exciting website that will attract a lot of users. I added  second page to the questionaire to find out which functions (chat, online shop, tutorials, blogs etc) people enjoy using within a website. My findings from this questionaire will enable me to produce a functional, aesthetically pleasing, useful and contemporary Pop Art website. 
   I distributed the survey to a panel of 20 people. The results of the survey are as follows...
   
   Over 60% of the people surveyed do search the website for information on Pop Art via Google, PopArtUk, tate.org and moma.org.
   67% of the panel said that they found they were often redirected from one site to another when researching this topic and 17% said they are always redirected.
   From the given 5 artists, Andy Warhol is the most researched closely followed by Roy Litchenstein. Images of Pop Art are the most searched for aspect closley followed by tutorials and products for purchase.
   
   From the results, I can see that creating this site is worth while as the main goal is to provide Pop Art fans with a website that contains the main things they want to know and see about the subject in the one place. As Andy Warhol and Roy Litchenstein came out on top for the most researched Pop Art artists, this allows me to make them the main priority when it comes to uploaded the content about the artists. I am certain that
   an online shop would also be a good element to add to the website as this ranked second for the most researched item regarding Pop Art.
   
   
   With regards to the design of the website, the majority of the panel expressed that they enjoy Flash intros. It may be a good idea to include one before the a user enters the site, similar to the one used in Roy Litchensteins own site.
   Two thirds of the people surveyd agreed that it would be really useful to communicate with other fans through an online forum, while 100% said that tutorials would be very helpful.
   Some of the comments made when asked if an online shop would be a good idea are as follows:
   
   "Yes. It would render some revenue for the website as well as for the artists, whilst getting their work out into a more public domain at the same time. Consider pasting the images on to cups, keyrings etc, rather than selling the work as a canvas art (if the artists were happy with this)" and, "Yes, would give ideas also when creating your own".
4. Conclusion: I feel a fresh, quirky Pop Art appreciation site combining all the things people want to see/know/do/buy regarding the subject in the one website is a good concept for my Major Project.
   I will aspire to create a website built up of 5 main pages and incorporate an online forum/blog, members log in area, online shop and video tutorials. Images will be my main content priority, followed by information on the artists. I have created a gantt chart to breakdown the workload week by week and ensure I have time to design the website and compile the technical elements.

After reflecting on the one to one time with Gabriel last week, I started to analyse my design choices for the site. As you will see from previous blogs, I hoped to base the design around benday dots and the comic book style Pop Art. As the website will showcase various Pop Artists, the design would not be suitable as the whole layout is designed around Roy Litchensteins style of Pop Art which would make it appear like a tribute to his work instead of a site about various artists. So it's back to the drawing board for now...


He also suggested that I make clear exactly what content I intend on using as this will make it easier when it comes to adding it and help the lecturers see that the website is not something that has already been done. I have briefly touched on this in my project planning but have drawn up a design document and extracted the more detailed 'Content' section to show what I intend the site to contain. 

Content:

Home Section (start-it):
A main homepage image
RSS Feeds
Links to other pages
News items
Bulletins and important information

About Section (learn-it):
This section will include information on the history of Pop Art including a brief showcase on the main influential artists (a pick of my favourite 5 which include Andy Warhol, Roy Litchenstein, Robert Rauschenburg, Richard Hamilton, Jasper Johns and Jim Dine).

Tutorials (do-it):
Video/flash tutorials for creating Pop Art by hand or by using computer software. 

Online Forum/Blog (share-it):
A members log-in area where users can upload their own work, an interactive blog where users can give each other hints and tips on how to create their own. (RSS feeds from members blogs will appear on the homepage)


Online Shop (get-it):
Members can sell their own work and pre-owned/new merchandise to each other.