week 10 P3 Prelim crit notes

Critique with David Berner and Eva:
-Different app name ex: Toury
central thing of the app
make it a toury app then it starts out with pikes place
-start out with lets take a tour
-gradient it, suddle kinda flatish
-make a bubble like he is saying the text
-dont know if you need the wikipeida thing
-keep it your own
-a safely concern because of cars being very dangerous (like place one headphone in one ear)
-*possible reservations part of the app

Unit 9 Reading response

This week for our reading we were to read "Designing a mobile app? Dont make these 10 mistakes". In this article it tells you the things you should not do while designing a mobile app, for instance like  not bringing wireframes to designs without a flow map because you need a well thought out plan to start the process.  Also not disregarding the development budget as that can lead to problems. Never starting out with low resolutions is not a good idea, it would make your project lessen in quality. Not leaving the users hanging is an important one to me because often apps can tend to go in that direction. Not assuming everyone will read your app the way you do is also something to deal with while making an app, Usability testing is a must for all projects like this one. Organizing is key to making your app more user friendly and easy to use, even putting an ad on craigslist for a testing group. Gestures are always key when designing an app and not everything on an app has to be seen fully visible. This will help alot in producing our final project for next weeks class on what not to do with our app.

3 logic flow resources:
This was useful to know on recording:
http://www.apple.com/logic-pro/in-depth/#recording
and a nice tutorial:
https://cloud.google.com/developers/articles/how-to-build-mobile-app-with-app-engine-backend-tutorial
this can keep you in check and alot of info:
http://www.logicsolutions.com/services/resource-management-and-consulting.html

app definition statement

1. List all the features you think users might like:
The features the users would like that its easy to use, reliable and informative. We will be doing an app on a virtual audio tour app where they walk around pikes place and receive information through the app navigation system.
2. Determine who the users are:
People who are interested in having a tour at pikes place for a reasonable price.
3.Filter the feature, list through the audience definition 
Selective languages, history link, navigation setting, play back system (repeat, forward etc)

Week 9 Team Feedback

Project 3 feedback
Sam  Gavin
There idea about farmer markets  and fruits and vegetables, freshly picked.
We didn't have enough information to go on about but liked there idea.

We needed more information on our app since we had literally just gotten our idea that day.

http://support.sas.com/rnd/base/ods/templateFAQ/links.html
This shows you how to use a hot link template.
https://placeit.net/
This one is really cool. One each image you can see exactly what to do with your app.

Unit 8 reading response

This weeks blog was about reading two links provided. One was the top ten apps part 1: Idea and Design. This talked about a college student and his experience working with apps. He had designed one called grades,but wasn't successful with the profit it gave him. He then proceeds to tell us the steps he took while trying to layout and app, for intense, a lot of research, competeve landscapes,mapping things out and many more! It was interesting to weird this from a stusends point of view. It also talks about personas and that you should define then to fit your app. Brainstorming your apps are key to an successful app as well. Sketching, thinking, exploring are great ways to look into apps and well help alot with projects!

Unit 7 Reading Responce

This week we were to read about Chapter 10 of our book. Chapter 10 deals with mobile devises and websites on there which is perfect to learn about, right before we deal with project 3. In dealing with mobile devices, its way different to design then, unlike regular computer websites. Usability problems are the worst case when designing something for mobile devices. When reading something on a mobile device  is easier to put text in smaller chucks rather than a whole bunch at one time.  The smallness of a mobile device tends to make you want to leave out things, a subset of the full site. Dont just make the full website on the mobile, gradually start your way up leading your mobile site to look like the website but not exactly the same. Scaleable design can be a lot of work and its hard to do well, you have to try and make it usable to any fit screen. Things to know when building a website is  allow zooming, dont make the person hunt down a lot, always provide a link to the full website. The apps in which you create need to be learnable and easy to access. The apps also have to be memorable and not confusing. When you get on an app you should know how to navigate it and come naturally, like a website on a computer. It was really interesting to read all this information about mobile devices. It definitely puts things in perspective for my next project.
3 links to responsive design testers/articles :
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/07/how-to-test-responsive-designs-for-free/

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/responsive-web-design--webdesign-15155

http://www.cio.com/article/742592/Why_Responsive_Web_Design_Is_Here_to_Stay

Unit 6 Reading response

Design principles on andriod smartphones: In reading this website page I found it very intresting to learn about the principles about making an andriod. Since i have the Samsung Galaxy S3 I decied to chose the andriod since it seemed more fitting for me. Although I do not have a partner yet I will be willing to do any of the two. I learned that people like to touch things and not just press buttons. You want your user to be happy and play around with what app they have. Pretty defaults and customization is key to designing an app for an andriod because people love customization. I know I do!Keeping it brief and knowing what people like is key to setting up an app as well. Also when designing pictures are better than words. Do not post too much words, say what you need to say and make it creative. Knowing where you are in the app is key also as people do not want to get confused when using an app. Making the app easier so people can find things on there own and feel proud is a good thing. And make important things in your app fast and reliable with no crashes. All this is important to an everyday app user and should be taken in effect when building an app. what is a skeuomorph? Skeumorph is the way of designs that borrow a feature from the past even if it is not functional. It is a physical ornamet object copied from a form of an object when anther material that is made form other techinques.

Smartphone project brainstorm

Ideas for the smart phone project: Rain App: In Seattle you never know when it will rain and when it will be sunny. The forecast always lies. So with the rain app, you can hold your phone app outside and it will instantley let you know if it will be sunny or what percentage the rain will be. That way you would know whether to go out and plan your day because you will know what your weather chances are with the rain app. Anime to-go app: An anime app that lest you watch all your favorite animes seperated in specific genres. The thing about this app is that instead of like all the other anime apps out there you can actually watch anime WITHOUT wifi. It is all preloaded on there and updates on its own. It will even have a manga section to where you can read all your favorite manga on as well. Restaurant discount app: In this app you will have a list of restaurants in seattle that have special deals and discounts that will help you manage your money and spend less when you would like to eat out or just have a good meal cooked for you. This app ill list a bunch restaurants in the downtown/belltown area with deals like for an example: $5 off your next meal or by two sodas and get a free on your third soda.

Website that is inspirational

http://www.cabletv.com/the-walking-dead http://www.danbrown.com/inferno/ http://www.greenman.net/

Issu post

Unit 5 Reading response

This week we were to read both chapter 8 and 9 of the book. Chapter 8 dealt with why most arguments about usability are a waste of time and how to avoid them. I thought it was an interesting approach when you think about it, in being a web designer, you yourself also use the web so you can put yourself in a users shoe. Everyone has an opinion on what they like and what they dont. In working in a team not everyone has the same likes as you and tend to get in arguments. He states in this chapter that web users are all unique and use basically idiosyncracic. He states to not ask questions that aren't productive and ask the question "Does this pull-down with these items or if the content of the page is good or not. Which are valid questions in developing a certain website. In chapter 9 it deals with keeping testing simple so you do enough of it. This talks bout focus groups and usability tests. Focus groups are where a small group talks about things such as opinions and reactions to new concepts. They are good for getting samples of users feelings about things. While usability tests are watching one person at at time try q new design or something to a task so you can  fix things that frustrate the. I like how he said that of you want a great site you have to test, this is something I have trouble with. I usually tend to rush things in coding not taking a look back and that can lead to major problems. So i liked that read in this chapter. It then goes on to say how often you should text and how many users you need for your website and other details on participants and how you can find these participants. This chapter contained a lot of information that was helpful and answered many questions to what I had about problems, how to fix things, what to look for and how to do it in a website and remote testing. Very informative read.

Unit 4 Reading responce

This week we were to read  Chapter 7 of the book. This chapter is about the importance of getting people off on the right foot. It first starts off with the site identity and mission of the pages of a website. The home page must tell the user what this site is for an about. An ask yourself the question of why the person should be there. Things like the site hierarchy, the search, teases, content and feature promos and timely content are all talked about too in this chapter.The home page has to grab the users attention and hold them so they know what they are looking for in a site. Most often, people have opinions on the home page at first glance. It has to appeal to everyone no matter how diverse that persons intrest is. If the home page is interesting enough, they will want to continue to navigate the site. There is always a welcome page usually to the top left. There are also learn more tabs on like a business or products part of the homepage. This chapter also talks about using up as much space as you can, dont put anything useless in the site page, otherwise it would get to confusing. Dont use mission statement as a welcome blurb or dont use any space that is TOO unnecessary. The tag-lines should be clear and informative and perfect length. They should display differentiation that are benefit. This chapter gave out a lot of information on a home page for a website and it was interesting to know all this knowledge in building up my portfolio site home page, asking myself the question on what the user will want out of this.

P2 Book choice and research

This is the book Dave and i deiced to pick. "The Chaos of Stars" by Kiersten White.
We both instantly fell in love with the beautiful cover design and could see our future website layout.
Client: 15- 25, mid twenties females
author has  few other series, here website here:http://kierstenwrites.blogspot.com/p/upcoming-books.html
No information on who designed the cover yet, looked everywhere.
See here: http://www.harpercollins.com/Srch/index.aspx?search=the%20chaos%20of%20stars
http://www.epicreads.com/books/the-chaos-of-stars/9780062135926/

Did research on other books that are from the same book places. Really interesting cover design on these books
here:http://bookcoverarchive.com/ ;http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/bookcover-archive
a logo design sites that have interesting book covers that are fantasy like:https://www.hiretheworld.com/

This book "Die for me" has the feel of typography as the book we just research. Down below are more books that have the same typography of the book we are researching on.

Unit 3 Reading response

This week we were to read unit 3 of "Don't make me think". In this was chapter 6 in which we had to read upon. Chapter 6 was about deigning navigation. In this chapter I learned a lot! On the first page of the chapter he was explain a scene from a mall and what a client would look for when entering it. A more precise way of lettering words that the client wants like "tools" and then when the client enters that section of a Sears store he would look through three different example of tools. You work the stores navigation systems in trying to find the item you are looking for.  It all depends on how familiar you are with a store and what you need to help yourself, which is what is is like for a website. Then in this chapter he shows charts or diagrams of what process you have to navigation. He then goes on to explain what type of web navigation users tend to do when on a website. suck as decide where to ask the browser first before attempting to find something. Browsing can be unbearable at times and have no sense of direction. If you visit a sits a lot then it because easy for you to navigate on. Then later in the read he talks about tabs and how they are good to use and then to try the trunk test asking yourself questions about the sites navigation and to test the blindfold theory. A great read on navigation and each time i read these chapters, I gain a lot more knowledge when trying to work on my project 1 assignment.

P2 Research

For a few book ideas for Project two I looked at various books that Might be interesting to be based on about.
For one a book about being devoted about Dogs, I saw this cover and instantly thought it was pretty unique.
http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Heaven-Cynthia-Rylant/dp/0590417010/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391114689&sr=1-22&keywords=books+about+dogs
If  doing a project on this our focus would be to people with the love of animals or business that deal with dogs and pets in general.
For the next one
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Video-Games-Pac-Man-Effect/dp/159962110X/ref=sr_1_sc_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391114952&sr=1-3-spell&keywords=videi+game+books
I thought this pac man design was cool as a cover then instantly was drawn to it because it was about the history of video games which is something I am fascinated myself already. Our clients would be people who work at game companies, Game businesses.

Ones that are current:

http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Stars-Kiersten-White/dp/0062135929/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391548608&sr=1-1&keywords=the+chaos+of+stars

http://www.amazon.com/Asunder-Incarnate-Jodi-Meadows/dp/0062060791/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391548744&sr=1-2&keywords=asunder

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Book-Novel-L-Kennedy/dp/0544027701/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391548818&sr=1-1&keywords=blue+book+a+l+kennedy

http://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Princess-Infernal-Devices-Cassandra/dp/141697590X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391548879&sr=1-2&keywords=clockwork+princess

Unit 2 Reading Response

Chapter 3 of the book we are reading is about Billboard design 101. This was an interesting chapter because it talks about signs to get the users attention when on a website. Hints like where its should be located on your page or how it works are talked about in this chapter depending on what site you are working on. Something I found interesting was the creating visual hierarchies, which is the visual cues of the page and how they portray with other aspects of the page. As he mentioned as well in this chapter is to make what you want clickable on your sight to be obvious which I find very true. For chapter 4, that was about why users like mindless choices. In reading this it had three main options that make a website and a user happy. For one it has to be brief, timely and unavoidable. That is something a website should be about if you want to make the user happy. Chapter 5 was about the art of not writing for the web. When reading this title I got a little confused but when reading it, it explains how in websites there are alot of words just taking up space. This book words things very amusing, for instant, "Happy talk must die" and "instructions must die" which were great reads on how to not be corny when dealing with the web and not to be to instructive on a website. Overall these three chapters contained alot of great information about websites, which will help me greatly on my project 1 assignment.

Concept Statement for project 1

Create a list of all users that may visit your site (not from the WWW but those you’d invite):

The people I would invite for my site would be people around the AIS community because once they start there business they will need someone to look to for a website. Users like people in Video Production, Audio Production etc. Even people who are around local in Seattle who are looking for a Web Designer. 

What will each of those users want to see in order to enjoy their visit to your site? The users will want to see a clean website that is easily  seen to look for information on whether to contact me or what kinds of projects I have done in the past. A website that is accessible and neat. Also I am very into motion graphics so they could as well come to me for that if they wanted to have something like a video on there website.

Name your intended audience (the person(s) you need to persuade.)

Small business, students who are just starting there carriers, video students,older people who need a simple website for there family owned business. 

Describe what you need to inform and persuade them of:

I would need to inform them on what I can do to make there website there own and try to design it the way they want it, give them ideas or options. 

Promote my: WebDesign, Motion Graphics

Goals of the site are: To be clean and easy on the users eye, to help promote my future business as a web designer. 

My ultimate message/philosophy (about who you are): Be honest, upfront about work, do it with care and dont rush things, These are all things I have learned form my experience at AIS. 

What is the story you are telling?

The story I am telling is selling myself as a Web Designer. I want people to see what I can do and be interested in it, so that I can get business from them and help them with there goals as well as mine. Not only with web design but I can also 

List the assets you need to persuade the user: Which 7  projects? 

To persuade the users I would show them past assignments I worked on in school and outside of school. 

What projects which do not exist yet will you want to show?  

Future web sites I will be working on with some Video production students and some portfolio assignments. 

What categories will you depict in your mockup? - even if you don’t have examples of them.

Write a 200 word concept statement based on the user, your persuasion, navigation and the assets.

Concept Statement: 

For project one I will be designing a project of my portfolio of what I am offering for people to  look at in reference to my web design carrer. My website will be a clean, easy to use design that people can look through and find what they are looking for easily.I can also incorporate some of my video edititng and motion graphics to the site and show the users what I can do for videos on there websites. The users I would like to attract to this site are freshly out of college students, family owned business, and anyone who just needs help in building a website. If the opportunity were to come up I would persuade these users on how I can make them a website with the assets they want and suggest ideas I have learned through my studies at AIS. My navigation on this website will be three simple buttons, A home page, a archive and a contact page. The assets will include a clean surface with upcoming projects and old projects if I can find any. 

Unit 1 Reading Response

In reading the book called "Dont Make me think revisited" by Steve Krug I thought it was very informational on the topics that each chapter fit. For the first chapter it started off with introducing the author and what this book was about. What I thought was interesting was that he put visual pictures in the book to help explain what he is talking about when reading this book. For example as simple as booking a flight and how the process of people have to think and then giving various other answers to help back up his topic on why people dont like to think with an "Why s it all important" summary at the end. The next chapter I read on is about how people really use the web. As of how web designers look at it and how every day people look at it.Also  it talks about what the users see when looking at a website and how the web designers build there sites. I like how he tells us id we find something that works to stick with it even if it is bad. I can see why this book is needed for this class, had it come in the mail sooner I would have looked through it before i dove into my mood board and laying out what was to be in my website, or how I wanted it to look.

Wireframes for Project 1

just project processing (notes) on what I want on my website

  Photoshop the layout 

 Mobilized the layout

Fist sketch of the website drawn.

Moodboard

This is my mood board that i have done in photoshop. I want to use teal,white and darker teal for my website to give it a good clean approach.Some of these images are inspirations as to why I choose this color pattern. The textiles in the front are some unique deign I would like to incorporate and the bird sample is calming to the eye as well.

Websites that inspire me

* http://flow.gs/

* http://samanthaarmacost.com/

*http://jackielam.ca/ (for this one I really like the style and layout, not so much the color)

*http://www.sarahpeterswebdesign.com/ (really like the fonts this site uses)

http://www.denisechandler.com/ (my favorite layout and color scheme)