Process
this is the start of the second one. I’m going with this idea.
Taylor Hood's Archive
User Scenarios
Name: Lizzie and Phillip
Age: 22 & 24
Location: Austin, TX
Occupation: Both in finace
Hobbies & Interests: running, hiking, cooking together
Lizzie and Phillip are a newly engaged couple looking for a restaurant to cater their wedding that is coming up in June. They want a place that has similar foods to the food Lizzie grew up eating at home. She always dreamt of her Grandmother catering her wedding, but with age, she is finding that to be a bigger task than needed. They came across Poppy’s in an article about up and coming restaurants. The “home cooked with a twist” slogan is what pulled them in. Phillip wants some type of red meat and Lizzie wants chicken. Both of them want some fun sides and a couple different cobblers for dessert. They visited the website to see if there was an easy option for catering, they found that they could apply online and have a complete menu ready and even printed out with in minutes!
Name: Mark
Age: 49
Location: Austin, TX
Occupation: Professor
Hobbies & Interests: fishing, teaching, reading, vacations
Mark is a single father with two daughters, 15 & 13. One of his girls takes after him and is incredibly adventurous with everything, including her food. The younger one, however, is much more picky. She enjoys more simple food and pretty much just five different things. Because of this situation it is extremely difficult for Mark to find a place that both of his girls would want to eat. He heard of a new place in Austin called Poppy’s that was said to have “home cooking with a twist”. This place marketed themselves as having something for everyone. Now, most restaurants claim this and few prove it to be true. While looking at the menu online, after finding it particularly easy to navigate, Mark realized that this place did have what he needed. Also, found that he could make a reservation online as well without any hassle.
Project 1: ImPrint Refelction
With this project came a lot of new things. This was my first time to really even think about doing something with web design or anything other than print design. Coming into this project, I was expecting things to be a lot easier than they actually were. How hard could it be to simply lay things out on a web page, right? I never really struggle with starting at a blank screen and not knowing where to start, but for some reason the fact that this project was so different than anything I’ve done, I was super intimidated and felt super clueless as to where to go. I felt like my head was flooded with ideas, but I couldn’t figure out how to execute them at all. This entire process was a lot more mentally taxing than any other design assignment I’ve had to do. There were just so many elements and restrictions to consider. All of the crazy factors: being limited in the fonts you can use, the colors you can use, the grid, the size of text, and hierarchy, all had to come together and make a solid and readable design. In most of my design work, I tend to try and push myself in a direction that hasn’t been done yet and in a way that is unique and appealing. My biggest pet peeve is seeing things that I can name where they came from. This also brought to surface a new challenge. I found myself for the first time wanting to push the design direction in a very simple way. I ended up wanting to use as little embellishment as possible. Which if you know my style is a big deal! I feel like this realization is a positive thing though and will continue to improve my design in the interactive area for the years to come. Like I stated before, this type of work is really different than anything else and with that is a lot to learn. I already feel like I’ve learned so much with just one project. I want to continue to work on seeing websites as a whole and being aware of all the small factors (negative space, shading, type size, ect.) that make a great website a great website.