Designing for the User Week 4

Today we wrote down all the information we had found for the Parsnip.com website assignment we were given before reading week. We researched the organic market and competitors to see if the sites already out there were html or flash. What we noticed was most of the sites were html and usually in green and brown colours.

We also looked at a presentation on coming up with a branding/logo for the brand. We looked at good and bad logo designs and discussed why they were good or bad. After this presentation we went back to work on the parsnip.com assignment. Me and Andy brainstormed ideas for the logo and what the site would look like. We came up with a logo and then a rough wire frame for the site before the end of the session.

Designing for the User Brief

For my Designing for the User brief I picked out of the box National Park Tours Service for Seniors. I have chose to do a site on the Yorkshire Dales National Park because it is the nearest to this region and I can go and take photos there.

Needs of the End User

• easy access to the park
• Tour guide
• transport to get there
• organised group tours

Target Audience

60+ just retired with time on their hands.

Competitive Analysis

I am competing against other National Parks so I need to make people want to come to the Yorkshire Dales. I have noticed that other national park sites use natural colours like green, brown, blue and various shades of green. Below are links to National Park sites already on the internet.

http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk
http://www.traveldales.org.uk
http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk

http://www.yorkshiredalesandharrogate.com

How can I improve what's already out there?

• I could make the site more interesting to look at for the user
• Add more photos/pic of the park
• Add a map for the user to click on the area of the park they are interested in.
  

How to Design an Interactive Product

Today we learnt the ten steps to follow when designing an interactive product. When designing anything don't just jump on a computer. Before you even touch the computer plan what you are going to do down on paper. Think of the target audience and what the client is after. Research what is already out there and think how can I improve that?. Start off by researching the product or service and brainstorming ideas down on paper. We don't actually go on the computer and start designing it till we have a concept down on paper. Once this is done we can create a wireframe in Photoshop which we can show to the client in this case James our tutor. Once we have the green light we can go ahead and design the site. I will follow the ten steps when create sites in the future because its a helpful guide.

We also were given a Task to do in pairs me and Andy paired up. Our task was to create the Home page for a fictional online organic grocery store called Parsnip.com. We used the ten steps we had learnt today and firstly researched organic food and who the target audience will be. In our next session we will begin to come up with ideas for the site and the content we need to add.

Design for the User Week 2

Flash Websites Good and Bad

Good Site http://imakemycase.case-mate.com/

For our task last week we were asked to find examples of good and bad flash sites and present them in front of the class this week. I found a good example of a flash website on the fwa website this is a website for creating your own design for your mobile phone cover I like this site because there's so much going on for the user. It all starts when you launch the site the user can move the pointer around the screen and shapes and drawings appear where you move the cursor. So immediately you want to explore this site because its crabbed your attention. You then click on the Design Your Case text and this takes you to the menu screen with a selection of mobile phone covers for you to browse through. At the top of the page is the navigation with buttons for Artists, My Designs, Cart and Cases each page draws the user in. This site would not be as interesting to view if it wasn't in flash so that is why I think it's a good example.

Bad Site http://www.lingcars.com

In my opinion this site could have done without flash instead the designer or so called designer as used so much flash on the site it looks tacky. There's icons flashing up all over the place and the navigation bar at the top is different sizes. It is just awful the target audience for this site is supposed to be aimed at people who want to hire cars but frankly I wouldn't hire a car from them after looking at the site. They have gone over the top with the use of flash and colour scheme is bad to. This site needed more html in it than flash because the layout is all over the place there are no text containers which means it just all looks bad on screen. The less said about this site the better because whoever built this site doesn't have any web design skills.