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)