Knowing my target audience

To create a website that will work for my audience effectively, it is vital that I truly understand them. While I consider my audience to be between the ages of 6-12, in a matter of fact it should be defined into smaller categories as the knowledge and abilities of the ages 6 and 12 are completely different. Therefore the categories should be split up into the groups 6-8 and 9-12.

6-8 Age Range

It is important that the user will not always understand the language used with adults site, therefore it is vital to change the language so that they understand. An example would be instead of using the word “Submit” instead use the word “Start” or “Go”and instead of “Username” it shoould say “Nickname”.

9-12 Age Range

By this age, the users will be very accustomed with using a website, and they will be able to scroll through content very quickly but will have difficulty differentiating between adverts and content.

What I learnt

The use of big, bold, bright colors and pictures for both age ranges is vital as it help the user understand how to navigate the website. Using gestures on mobile platforms is too complex for the kids and ui should consist of tapping and scrolling only, instead of pinch and zoom features.

Icons that match the functions of buttons should be present to allow the user to understand the context of what they are seeing. A home icon should be present throughout the site as to allow for easy navigating.

Referencing nature in the site will be vital as it’s one the things they know the most about at such a young age, and find these references visually stimulating.

Design elements, like buttons, should be made to appear in a large format on the screen.

Depth should be implemented into the design, so that the user can use their imagination to believe it is real.

Kids don’t enjoy large amounts of reading, even the parts where kids learn about other cultures should contain as little text as possible.

Changing the mouse to be another animal, perhaps the food of the frog, a fly in my case, could grab the attention of the user.

Not using a grid format makes a website more exciting for children.

A section for parents is vital to allow the parents to understand tyhe concept of the site.

References:

https://www.usertesting.com/blog/2015/04/29/ux-for-kids/

Designing Websites For Kids: Trends And Best Practices

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Defining my Project

I have a lot of research at this stage so I think it is relevant to do a sitemap of all the planned content for the site and how it fits together, this allows me to determine what is most important, and the hierachy of the content, seeing the content in this way will allow me to pull sections together in new theories and solutions that weren’t possible previously.

The Sitemap looks like as follows;

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;

OTHER FESTIVAL SITES – Lollapalooza

Lollapalooza is a great festival site that already uses flat design. Not only do they use flat colours but they seem top match what google use in their material design.

The home screen again has announcements about the festival;

The tickets page gives the uses colour to make the different tickets stand out the best;

The lineup page is again, just like most of the others, just a list of names, lacking any interaction at all;

There is a page about the festival and it’s history, it is basically a blog with articles on it;

The Current Coachella site

The current site, while isn’t terrible lacks a certain quality that would be associated with such a big event. The homepage that the user is immediately presented with is this;

This is a video background with an image of the lineup in the centre of the page, this is great if you only went to the site to check the lineup but slows down every other function on the site. To access the main site you must press the arrow, you are then presented with this page;

When you arrive at this page it appears to be quite a simple layout, but perhaps too simple with only iconography.  I will research what the purposes of visiting the site are and then use those as the building blocks for the site. When you click on the passes, you are offered a list of the options;

This could be made much simpler and easy to digest for the user.

Finally, one of the most important pages for the user is the lineup, In my opinion it is not very good doesn’t offer the user much information about the acts. Below is the screen that lists the lineup.

As you can see it isn’t very appealing and when you click on an artist you are then presented with the screen below;

 

References;

https://www.coachella.com

Acorn roofing – finished site

This is the link to my finished website:

http://newmedia.artdesignhull.ac.uk/akenyon/index.html

Current interactive experiences

I am creating an interactive experience online for the user too learn more about the lesser known facts about war. To help me in the process of creating this I am going to research and try to understand how to best capture the user within an interactive site. Parallax scrolling is what we have been told to focus on so I will be looking for mainly interactive parallax scrolling sites but I will also look at others.

http://www.thisisnowexhibition.com is a great example of parallax scrolling being used for a an exhibition website.  It uses images with a flat colour overlay to create a texture on which text is placed upon. The texts itself is kept to a minimum and maximises the potential effect white space can have,  this creates intrigue into the content. There is a section at the bottom of the page where you can select the different designers so that you can see you can see one of their pieces of work and the option to buy it. Again this causes the user to want to see the exhibition so they can see more of the art. This is almost what is required for my brief for creating a interactive user experience, and a very good inspiration for me to start my research.

http://cyclemon.com This website is making good use of modern design techniques and that’s what makes it stand out the most. Flat colours, parallax scrolling make it simple enough to use, there are different sections which all have different bikes and colour scheme. The purpose of the site is to actually sell the artwork which they feature on the site, and this isn’t actually obvious when you are looking at the homepage, it’s only when you click on the shop i con you realise they’re for purchase.

http://www.beatboxacademy.ca/ Is a brilliant sales site for basically a box of stuff to help you learn beatboxing. The entire site can be navigated with the keyboard as it is also parallax scrolling. It’s main interactive feature is the one which you are greeted with as soon as you land on the site, a virtual set of beatbox noises which are linked up to an image of the instrument they represent and they can be clicked on or there is also a keyboard button that represents them. The target audience would be captured by this experience because as a music lover they would be able make the beats themselves with the keyboard and then if they are sold can go and buy the DVD.

http://graphicnovel-hybrid4.peugeot.com/start.html Is another excellent site that tells a story to it’s users with video, sound and parallax scrolling. Story makes the daily lives of many much more interesting finishing at the office and driving home, but instead it’s a spy mission to steal some documents from an office and get home safely.  It’s a completely immersive experience that allows the user to actually get lost in a story rather then just viewing the webpage, it’s a clever sales technique that helps to connect emotions with a product which is what Sigmund Freud started back in the 50’s.

Researching luxury brands

What sets luxury brands apart from the rest? If I want to give the impression my design brand has a luxury, very good quality service then I have to do some research into what people consider to be luxury brands and what sets them, apart from the crowd. In 2012 the US the luxury fashion market was estimated to be a value of $274 Billion with predictions of the value reaching $290 Billion by 2015. This would obviously prove that it can be very profitable to advertise your business as an outstanding service with a certain luxurious feel to it. Obviously, to come across as a luxurious brand you must offer an extremely good service, but a lot comes down to the branding and advertising, and this is something worthwhile knowing for my self-promotion.

Something that should be noted here is the work Sigmund Freud did  when he completely changed the way we consume, he was the one who had the idea to promote things so that the customer had an emotional connection to the product. Due to Freud, we now connect certain emotions to products, so power would come with expensive cars and watches, nice clothes would make someone more attractive, drinking expensive champagne would make someone classy and so on, this is partly how these luxurious brands manage to charge so much for their products, they simply appeal to consumer nature with emotion and psychology.

Chanel – The colour black is relatable to elegance, mystery and prestigiousness and the logo is symbolic of the luxury products they sell

The famous interlocking C’s were originally in chapel which had stained glass windows which featured them. You can see the window here:

Their website is full of attractive, well off people advertising their product in the best possible light, thew website itself is a wonderful experience complete with white space, nice hierarchy and beautiful design. When shopping their products section they keep it really simple and they actually have no models but instead show the product against a white backdrop, this means the entire page is entirely white other than the menu and the products themselves. Even after selling the customer this lifestyle of beauty, extravagance and wealth, the site then sells the product itself rather than an image. It used the image for the basis but then relies on the quality of its products to do the rest, so mixing the quality of the product with a vision of a certain lifestyle is how Chanel brand themselves. You can see the two different screens below;

Burberry is another famous brand given the luxury label – it has a value of $4.1 Billion and is rated 8th most valuable brand in the world. Again their logo;

is in black which has the same connotations as Chanel, these are of elegance, mystery and prestigiousness. The logo, designed in 1901, features an equestrian horse and is one of the most iconic logos in modern fashion. The shield of the rider is a symbol of protection but also the equestrian stands for pride, purity and grandeur, these things give the brand a certain luxurious feel before you have even stepped into their shop or looked at their product. The same can be said for Burberry’s website as Chanels, they feature images of attractive people on the homepage wearing their products but then when you click on the indivual products is ore about the quality of the product than the experience that goes with it and as you can see they have cropped out the models face for this reason.

Rolex is an expensive watch brand which has a market value of $7.9 Billion and is the worlds 5th most valuable company.

Their logo is also in black, which has the same connotations elegance, mystery and prestigiousness. To add to this though their symbol is of a crown which is recognised to be worn by royalty, so again, the logo gives the brand a certain feel of luxury before they have even looked at their products, this is something my logo doesn’t do so would have to make up in other ways. The word ‘Rolex’ is mean’t mean’t to have some french relation to the word exquisite.

The Rolex website is a bit different to the two previous sites, the homepage simply features the product with a small amount of text. Then when you click on the product you get lots of images with more text, there are no models, no impression of a certain lifestyle if you buy their product, simply just shows the quality and detail of their product in all its all glory

Finally, the Bugatti logo depicts the initials of Ettore Bugatti who invented the company in 1909 in the oval which is meant to represent elegance and technology.

The Bugatti website like Rolex amplifies the quality of their product rather than likening them to a certain lifestyle, while their products are things of beauty, even when you click on the different sections of the site, all you see is the car itself. Therefore you don’t need to show a certain lifestyle too become a luxurious brand, just present your product in the best light possible. You can again see their website below:

So, what have I learn? I believe to come across as a luxurious brand, you have to consider who your target audience are and allow them to relate to your product. Everyone wants nice things, and they want to come across well, and just like Freud’s early ideas about connecting emotions and feeling with products, you can very easily make people think in a certain way. By showing respectable, good looking person using the service, then the consumer will almost look up and aspire to be like him. By putting this image in their head of what they could potentially be and look like is enough to drive them to believe that your service/product would do that for them. I need to take full advantage of this psychological manipulation to make my audience perceive my brand in a certain way. I need to focus on being seen as a luxury brand but not forget about still having really good quality products to back up the psychology.

References:

http://www.therichest.com/expensive-lifestyle/fashion/10-most-powerful-luxury-fashion-brands-in-the-world/3/

http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/

http://fashionista.com/2011/11/the-origin-of-chanels-interlocking-cs-logo-and-six-other-cool-things-we-learned-about-the-history-of-chanel

http://famouslogos.net/rolex-logo/