OUGD504 - Design Production: Design For Web (Primary Research)

Having been appointed as a student ambassador, I have been fortunate enough to be able to be a part of a focus group meeting concerning the redesign of the college website. I found this meeting was extremely beneficial to me, as I was able to meet students from other disciplines and share our views on how to improve the design of the site. I was also fortunate enough to meet two working professionals from a local web design agency called enjoy digital. During the meeting I was able to give as much feedback as possible, having previously analysed the positive and negative aspects of the site before the session. I was also fortunate enough to be offered work placement alongside this meeting. At the moment I am currently in talks with one of the designers, organising a suitable time to visit the studio.

In the meantime however, I have been fortunate enough to gather some further primary research via email. I was interested to see whether it would be possible for me to gather some first hand knowledge on web design in general and perhaps get some helpful tips.

Alongside this research I was also directed to some useful websites. I will be using these websites to collect any relevant research I may come across. I feel as though making more and more connections is helping me on a daily basis, as I am able to contact a variety of people now for some first hand information which can't simply be found on the internet or reading a book, but instead comes from experienced individuals.

I found the website below as it was featured on the Very Nice Sites website. I quite like how this website doesn't actually have a navigation bar along the top, and instead the illustrative images on the main page link the user to various different pages. This is something I would certainly consider when designing my website as it is a bit different and certainly more memorable than having a standard navigation bar along the top or down the left hand side of the website.

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In a similar sense, the navigation on this home page is also demonstrated through the use of illustrations and text, however the format is radically different. I am not overly keen on the design of this website as I feel it is a little bit too cluttered and disorganized, however I do like how the hand rendered text has been developed into links and it has quite an organic feel to it. This is something I would also love to explore within my work, however I am not sure how appropriate the application of this style of design would be. I would simply have to try it and then make a decision. 

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This is another example of a website I quite admire. I like how the designer has decided to slice the home page in to these sections as an alternative and unique way of navigating around the website. Once each section is hovered over, the column is highlighted to give the user an indication that they have selected the right area. I would love to take this idea and apply it to my own work as I think it is a simple, yet effective feature to have. I would however like to try and incorporate text as well once the user rolls over each area, to give a brief introduction in to the information which is about to be revealed.

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