Monday, July 23, 2012

Logo Options




Concept Statement Project


  • Create a list of all users that may visit your site (not from the WWW but those you’d invite). Family, friends, my models, and potential clients. I would basically invite anyone I know so I can get myself more out there.

  • What will each of those users want to see in order to enjoy their visit to your site? 
    All of my users will want to see my work. This is the most important item to go on my web site. Next they might want to see a biography about me and be able to contact me so I should have a contact link.

  • Name your intended audience (the person(s) you need to persuade.)
    Future clients, right now my focus is product photography so I would need to convince product photographers and catolog companies that I can do the job.
  • Describe what you need to inform and persuade them of:
    • Promote my: website and portfolio
    • Goals of the site are: To show future clients what I can do and at the same time get my work out there so more people can learn about me and visit my site.
    • My ultimate message/philosophy (about who you are): I am a product photographer seeking a job and I would love to work for you. Here is what I can do, this is what I want my site to say.
    • What is the story you are telling? I am telling future clients that I can shoot product I will also include other images so that they may check in and see what else I can do, I am good for more than just one thing!
  • Write a 200 word concept statement based on the user, your persuasion, navigation and the assets.
    My website will be a way for me to show future clients what I do. I'm mainly a product photographer but I have recently been branching out to more modeling so that I can say “ya, I can do that”. The plan is for my website to have 4 main categories, I really don't have that many so I want to limit it down to the four good ones I have! The main one will be of my portfolio which is still in progress. After that I would like to add a few more just to show my viewer that even though product is my main thing I can do other things as well. Besides my portfolio I think I will have a link for food, people, and nature. I might even find a way to add another for product! The website I want to use show's a picture from each category along with the categories name below/above it. These are each links that take me to more photo's of that category. My website will be easy to handle and will be able to load fast.

  • List the assets you need to persuade the user: Which 7 (minimum) projects? scans of what?, photos of what objects? images from what computer graphics program? what descriptive text? list them. I will have 4/5 categories for my photographs showing the viewer I can do more than just product and I will post my logo. I might add a picture of myself so the viewer can get an idea of what I look like, Then I will add a bio page just telling them a litttle about myself. Finally a contact me so that the viewer has a way to get in touch with me.
  • For the purpose of structuring your website portfolio pages, list the categories of work you will show. (for a Photographer, for example, it may be portrait, product, sports photography categories).

    Portfolio
    People
    Food
    Nature or Product

Concept Statement:

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Good/Bad Design Corrected


Good Design

Design features:
Text: Summarize the qualities of the use of type that make a website successful.                                    
The background shouldn't interrupt the text and the text should be big enough so it's easily read but not to big. The hierarchy is perfectly clear and the columns are narrower than a book.
 
Navigation: Summarize the qualities of the navigation that make a website successful.
The buttons are easily understood and consistent throughout the website. The bars give a clue to where the viewer is. If there are frames they shouldn't be obtrusive. And if it's large it has an index or site map.
 
Links: Summarize the qualities of the links, and their behavior that make a website successful.
 Links color coordinate with the page and are underlined so they're clear to the visitor.

Graphics: Summarize the use of Graphics, vector and raster, that make a website successful.
 Buttons shouldn't be to big or dorky. All the graphics have an alt label and a link matching a text link. The graphics and background have safe colors and all animations turn themselves off.        
 
General Design: Summarize the aspects of the overall design that make a website successful.
 The page should download quickly and the homepage should fit in a 800x600 pixel space and all of the other pages have visual impact with the same pixel size. And finally every page should look like it belongs, use repetitive elements to achieve this.  

Notes: Basically for a good successful website you need to have the appropriate text, navigation, links graphics, and general design.

Bad Design>>>
Design features:
Text: Summarize the qualities of the use of type that make a website unsuccessful.                                
 A lot of things can look bad for text such as to small to read, crowding the left edge or stretches across the page. Centered type over left body, copy is also a clue to bad text. Also, big no no's would be text in all caps, bold, italic, or maybe all together. Not text should be underlined unless it's a link
 
Navigation: Summarize the qualities of the navigation that make a website unsuccessful.
 Is unclear or complex, complicated frames, to many frames, orphan page (no links) and useless page titles that don't explain the page.

Links: Summarize the qualities of the links, and their behavior that make a website unsuccessful.
 You shouldn't let links be the default blue or have a graphic component. Links that are not clear to where they lead or not underlined so you can't tell there links. And links that are dead, lead to no where.
  
Graphics: Summarize the use of Graphics, vector and raster, that make a website unsuccessful.
Large files that take forever to load or are meaning less. Thumbnail images that are nearly as bad as full sized images. Graphic with no alt labels or missing graphics. And graphics that don't fit on the screen. 

General Design: Summarize the aspects of the overall design that make a website unsuccessful.
Homepage that's bigger than 800x600 pixel, frames that make you scroll sideways, no focal point or to many focal points. The navigation is the only thing of interest, site is cluttered or lacks contrast and pages that look okay in one browser but not another.

Notes:
Over all there are a lot of things that can go wrong with a website's design you just need to make sure to avoid it all.


URL of site #1:http://www.mitchellkphotos.com/
Design features:
Text: Summarize the qualities of the use of type that make this site successful.                                       
 The text is at a good size it's easily read the titles are different colors but I think it's easier to find a title that way.

Navigation: Summarize the qualities of the navigation that make this site successful.
 The mouse changes when you hover over links and the link will also change colors. It's not underlined so I have to go around looking for links but over all I like it.

Links: Summarize the qualities of the links, and their behavior that make this site successful.
 The links are easy to find and quick to load.

Graphics: Summarize the use of Graphics, vector and raster, which make this site successful.
 This site is about a photographer so he post all his pictures which are great graphics.

General Design: Summarize the aspects of the overall design that make this site successful.
Overall I like the design I love how it gives you glimpses to stories and then you can click to read more.           

Describe the purpose of this site in the notes. (Include whether it was easy to determine the purpose – why or why not?) This site I have used before and I love it. It's easy to tell that the goal of the site is to show off the photographers work. He also has a page that you can go an buy some of his images along with his blog and a way to contact him.

Notes:

 

URL of site #2: http://www.albertooviedo.com/
Design features:
Text: Summarize the qualities of the use of type that make this site successful.                                       
 Great size easily read, not sure if I like the color of it.

Navigation: Summarize the qualities of the navigation that make this site successful.
Its easy to get around and the you can always see a list of the pages, the one that you are on will be darker than the rest.

Links: Summarize the qualities of the links, and their behavior that make this site successful.
 The links are easy to access and load quickly.

Graphics: Summarize the use of Graphics, vector and raster, which make this site successful.
            The main graphics are the photo's on this site, they look well placed to me and are a good size

General Design: Summarize the aspects of the overall design that make this site successful.
 Overall I like to placement for all the photographs and they are nice and big so I can see them easily.

Describe the purpose of this site in the notes. (Include whether it was easy to determine the purpose – why or why not?) The purpose of this site is to show off the photographers work.

 
URL of a Poorly Designed Site: http://www.bottlebellphotography.com/
Design features:
Text: Summarize the qualities of the use of type that make this site unsuccessful.                                   
 The text is great and has a good color so I can easily read it.

Navigation: Summarize the qualities of the navigation that make this site unsuccessful.
 Easily to figure out has arrows to scroll through the pictures.

Links: Summarize the qualities of the links, and their behavior that make this site unsuccessful.
 The links work great and are quick to load.

Graphics: Summarize the use of Graphics, both vector and raster, which make this site unsuccessful.
 The graphics is where we have problems. She opens up with a little intro and it's to flashy, last to long and you have to skip to get to her main web page. Overall I dislike it and have a hard time viewing it.

General Design: Summarize the aspects of the overall design that make this site unsuccessful.
If you look at the website its overall in pretty good shape but for me the intro ruins it cause after watching it once I am waiting and waiting to see how it ends but it never does.

Describe the purpose of this site in the notes. (Include whether it was easy to determine the purpose – why or why not?) It is easy to tell that this site belongs to a photographer that is trying to show off her work, get it out into the world.

Notes:

Monday, July 16, 2012

Good/Bad Design

A good web design has big enough text that is easily read but not to big and the columns are narrower than a book. The navigation are easily understood and stay the same throughout the website. And if there is a frame it is not obtrusive. The links should color cordinate with the page color and are underlined to be easily seen. Graphics shouldn't be big and dorky and they need alt labels and matching text link. As for the general design is should download quickly be 800x600 pixels, and have good graphic elements such as pictures quotes and so on.

A bad web design has a default background of the color grey and a combination of colors for the text that make it hard to read. The text is most likely to small, crowding against the edge, stretches across the page. Maybe the paragraph form will be in all caps, bold  or all italic. No text should be underlined unless it is a link. Links might be left to the default of blue and have blue link borders around the graphic. There might be links that you don't know where they will lead and links that are destracting, maybe they are not underlined so you can't tell they are links. Or the link leads to no where. Graphics will be large and take over, they wont mean anythings, and sometimes the graphics will be missing. Blinking animations are a big no no, they can distract the viewers. Junk that no one cares about would be scattered around the web site. You shouldn't need to scroll side ways. The navigation is unclear or to complex, there are complicated frames or too many frames. And the general design has flaws, a homepage that doesn't fit withing 800x600 pixels, no focal point on the page, to cluttered. And they have pages that look okay in one browser but not another.


http://www.jturnerphotography.com/   ----    I believe this is a good website the only thing that I can tell that it's missing would be that when I back track I can't tell where I have been. Besides that it is easy to read, and I love the layout of the images.  The goal of this website is to show of the work that Turner has created and you can buy any ones that you like.

http://www.bottlebellphotography.com/  ----   This website is between good and bad but I am going to go with bad. I love the layout and how it works the one thing that really upsets me is when you click on her site it goes into this intro movie like thing and it gets on my nerves I keep waiting to see the site but I don't want to miss the video at one point I just skipped the video because it seemed to sit still and not really do anything. Of course having the volume off could have been why. The site is a photographer showing off her work.

http://www.yourbeautifulphotography.com/    ---- This looks like a good website everything fits on the page the text is easy to read and I know exactly what I am doing when I scroll through her images. The website is for her to advertise her work she lets you know she is available for work and I love how she has a section online that allows her clients to look at there images but only they can view it cause it is password protected.


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Skill's Inventory

My digital skills are limited in some area' and better in others. But the more I use digital equipment the better I become.

Digital Programs I am good with would include...

PC
Mac
Photoshop
Bridge
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Power Point
Open Office Word
Open Office Power Point
Wix
 
I'm a PC owner, I actually never even saw a mac until I started at AIS, now I see them everywhere. Since being a student at AIS I have learned how to operate the mac so I can both Macs and PC's. I started using photoshop years ago, but I had the elements version. After starting school at AIS I decided it was time to upgrade to CS5. I wouldn't say I'm the best at it but I do know what I am doing in it. I learned about bridge around the same time I got CS5 but it was pretty easy to pick up. As for word and power point Open office is pretty much the same as Microsoft but it's free. I learned everything I know in it and slowly branched out to Microsoft. Wix, I have been playing with for about a year now, I know my way around it but I'm sure that there is more to learn about it.