Evaluation

This project went really well. I feel like I was able to learn a lot from the learning curves I put in place. The only downside I can see is that I wasn’t as successful I had imagined I would be with the Polymer Ploject, failing to implement it in anyway into my final project.

The overall new design and layout is great and has good feedback, although there are certain techincal and design  aspects I could improve on, these include;

• Reviews in the lineup confuse some visitors
• Autoplaying music on both the homepage and artist pages are dislikes, and would require controls
• Chrome has a bug that only shows the left column figcaptions, which contain the artist names shown here;
• In Tickets, I switch from a grid view to a card view. There is no consistancy here, also the images also feel way to large and the indication of Standard & VIP is not distinct enough.
• Info about the venue, dates, tickets, etc. are hidden and the hierachy focuses too much on the artists and experience of being at the festival rather than selling tickets.
• Logo is based on the Californian Sunset, the design could reference the time of day the user is visiting the site and influence the colour pallete accordingly.
• Lineups are collectables, the traditional lineup format should be available to the user to download or purchase.
• The reviews are coded in, which means the reviews stay the same. Instead they should draw from a database and change everytime the page is refreshed.
• Allow user to click anywhere within the page on the enter page to access the site.
• There is no animation using the Polymer Project
• The artist pages music autoplays, in the designs I had iTunes style controls
• On the artist pages, I show the albums, I would like to be able to hover over each and have the option to automatically play via spotify or iTunes.

It is important to note that while there are some issues (based on opinion) with the font size throughout the site, it is important to note that Google Material Design has influenced the design massively, and by sticking to their rules, created debatable issues, like the font on the landing page.

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome, and if I were to do it again I would change very little apart these points.

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Old VS New

I think it is a vital part to note how far the design has come compared to the original! (Old on the lft, new on the right)

The hompage went from a then strange structure containing too much infformation and not structure to the site to a more boxxy format. I containtains a lot more heirachy and takes more importance on colour coding;

The lineup page went from being a list of names to an image of an artist complete reviews;

The artist pages were massively improved. They contained only an image and social links, the new layout gives the artist a dedicated page. It contains an image of the artist, an overall theme, imformation, albums and social links;

 

The website links

The complete website can be visited here;

http://caringforyorkshire.co.uk/

and the Polymer Project attempt can be visited here;

http://coachella.eu/

Mockup of the site

Since I am exploring Polymer Project for the first time, I decided it would be important to mockup my designs with the animation i wanted to implement so I can prove the clear differences between plan and end product. The mockup is something I made in Adobe After Effects. You can see it here;

Designs & User Journeys

These are the designs and user journeys that take place with them. This top one is the desktop version showing the order of the screens.

 

This second one shows the designs of the website but also the order in which the user would visit them.

Wireframes

The wireframes are a vital stage within the design process. I started with the list of vital information created from my research and set about creating a design that held of that information. It is vital to remember that the entire experience was streamlined as much as possible to create an easy to use website but also to allow the animations to work.

HOME

Starting in the top centre image you are presented with three updates, these are anything to do with the festival itself, new announcments or news of artists. Along with this information, there is a timer until the festival starts, videos and images of the previous years festival. This means new or returning visitors will have something interesting to see.

MAP

This is a great function that I will not fully be able to represent fully in my design itself because of it’s complicated and techincally difficult nature. There is a map of the entire site, with iconography and key to link up with to allow the user to see where the different items are on a map. This is good for users to get to grips with the location before they arrive, but it really would come into it’s own league when the user arrives at the festival and uses the mobile version of the site. It would allow the users to be able to pinpoint their location on the festival site, so that then they could see where they need to go to find toilets, the nearest food or bar stand. This is great, but another feature would be that the users could find their friends on the map. This means that the biggest problem of loosing friends is easily resolved!

LINEUP

This is my wireframe really shines, compared to the artist profiles there is a lot more information about the artist and a much nicer experience. Instead of a list of names, there’s an entire page dedicated to the images of the artist and their name. When on their profile  you will find a themed page with the artist details and songs playing in the background!

TICKETS

I wanted to streamline this as much as possible, there are currently 36 ticket variations including add ons, and the ui is difficult to understand. I broke choosing the ticket down into 3 simple stages which makes the purchase much more straightforward.

Redesigning the Coachella logo

The Coachella logo is well in need of a redesign it has remained the same since 1999. It was vital to remain key to it’s demographic and still keep its meaning while updating it with new branding. This describes how I have done it!!

 

Keywords

These words are the things and emotions that people associate with Coachella, therefore these need to be emphasised in my design! You can see these key words here;

The persona

After my research I found my target audience to be reasonably easy to understand, you can see the breakdown below;

Persona Research

The research was a vital step in figuring out who my audience was, and what they wanted from the website from a festival. Once I knew a knew about the subject I was questioning, I went on to ask the questions to provide the information I needed. Below are all the questions with the collective answers.

When you decide to go to a festival, what do want to see on their website?

Lineup

Dates

Tickets

> Packages

> Location

> Map

> Postage/E-Mail

Countdown

Video

Pictures

Travel

Personal quote on rough costs

A site map

If you know an already know an artist attending, what do you want to know about them?

Recent album releases

Social media links

Bio (Learn more, with quotes)

Stage & Time of performance

Who’s on the same stage

If you don’t know an artist attending, what do you want to know about them?

Image

Genre

What methods of transport would you use?

Train

Flights

Driving

Shuttle

What information/content would persuade you to purchase a ticket?

Highly visual

Tickets left

Previous Attendees Reviews

What type of festival packages would you expect?

Standard

Gold