Archive for ‘Project 1’

During this project I confronted several of my built-in expectations regarding web design and learned  a great deal about the way I work.

I feel that my biggest weakness conceptually at this point is my limited scope when pursuing design options. I opted for a conservative redesign of the site, but after seeing some of the other student’s rough comps in class I immediately felt that I really should have pursued more variety in the elements and in the overall designs. In the coming projects ahead I will be sure to explore any alternatives that come to mind. This stemmed directly from not sketching out my ideas on paper, and in turn it was more difficult brainstorming in Photoshop on a blank canvas.

Technically I need to work on creating dynamic shapes and playing around with shadows and gradients more in my design. It was hard for me to incorporate some of the subtlety necessary in making the final product stand out, and it was a little rough switching back to Photoshop after spending the last several months in Illustrator. In the projects ahead I will prioritize my work and communicate often to receive feedback at critical points in the process.

I have improved marginally from the beginning of this project with hierarchy and emphasis. Choosing how to distinguish links and headings and organizing content on a page are things I feel relatively confident about at this point, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I am looking forward to receiving feedback from the use cases in Projects 2 and 3, as I have had to conduct some for other classes. I need to improve on time management, experimentation and color on future sites.

Overall this has been a much needed and humbling opportunity to gauge where I stand as an aspiring web designer, and where I need to go from here. This is a very different approach to how I have designed sites in the past – and it’s actually a lot easier for scalability and saving everyone time in the long run. I have a solid idea now of what to expect, and will hopefully improve with sufficient time and criticism.

Web design is hard.

I’ve done a lot of work in Photoshop, so I didn’t have much trouble working with the software. It is still more tedious than working in inDesign or Illustrator.  It was a challenge because I hadn’t worked with this many layers before, and I tend to neglect organization until I’m looking for something, which is an extremely time consuming method.

The conceptual side was the hard part. I find that it is harder to separate myself from my work when I am working on the web than when I am working in print. I don’t really know why. I think the difference might be in the amount of work it takes to actually create the site in Photoshop.

I also found it really hard to introduce any variety into my site. I was easy to just start copying and pasting boxes on every page that all look exactly alike.

It was easy to forget the difference in user interaction to take it into account. It is more comfortable to be able to put the piece in from someone and let the decisions about what they get to see made up. With the web, I have to try to design for a user who can do whatever he wants. If i design a book, there are only a couple of ways to logically flip through it. I know that, and the user knows that.

On a website, there isn’t a defined order to look at it. They may have something they are looking for, or they might just want to look around. And they might have three or four other windows open that are messing with their focus. Figuring out what to expect from the user will take some practice.

Throughout the process I saw improvement in my attention to hierarchy. I notice mistakes in it, and sometimes I catch myself before I break my hierarchy or stray too far from the visual language I designed. I still think my work looks like student work, but I like to think I am starting to catch some of the details that put my work in the student category.

This project challenged was challenging in many ways. Technically, it was difficult for me to get used to using Photoshop (as I have never used it extensively before, especially for anything other than minor photo editing). I feel that my initial design ideas were limited by my knowledge of how to perform various techniques in the software. Most of the shapes, colors, and accents that I used were ones that could be performed with fairly basic Photoshop knowledge.

Conceptually, I feel like I limited myself in fear of straying too far away from the original design of the site – which makes me feel that my final design is a bit too similar. I had another layout idea that I eventually dismissed because I didn’t think it would keep the same “feel” – but now I wish I had spent more time trying out that visual direction. I also feel like I could have improved my design if I had been able to incorporate a stronger (yet still subtle) visual language.

Throughout the process, I can definitely see areas that I improved. At the beginning of the project I was using too much exaggeration in terms of shadows, line weights, color accents, etc. Pulling back on those elements (such as the line weight of the dividers and the borders of single posts, especially) made noticeable improvements in the design. I also feel like I got better at hierarchy and negative spacing – especially when it comes to the post preview elements. When it comes to Photoshop, learning to use folders for layers was an extreme step forward in terms for feeling comfortable working in the program. If I were to do this project over again now, I would be able to produce a more compelling final design.

Moving forward, I think that I need to spend more time looking at well-designed websites in close detail, paying attention to the subtle textures, accents, and use of hierarchy and color. I also think I would benefit a lot from spending more time in Photoshop to learn how to perform intermediate and advanced techniques. In the next projects, I will try to be less limiting in terms of design directions I explore, especially in the early stages of the process.

I really enjoyed creating my first interactive piece. It was more difficult technically than conceptually for me however. Most of the time I feel good about the technical side of our projects, but for this one It was difficult for me to manifest my ideas onto the screen.

When it was time to start thinking and conceptualizing what I wanted it to look like, I was overwhelmed. But after I saw some examples and figured out what I thought imprint should look like, it was a lot easier. I couldnt wait to put my ideas on screen!

At first when I started, it totally looks plain and much like the site. After I really spent some time on it I believe it got better. It took adding the details and even though my site is pretty plain, the small details really helped. I should have kept going though. After adding about 6 of my author boxes, I decided it was enough. I think adding more would make it look much more sophisticated. I also thought I should stay with a white background because of the nature of imprint and how it should be clean and not like a crazy blog site. Now though, Im starting to think I should have done something.

I think I need to add more detail and use the space that I am given for a web page better. What I mean by that is maybe not putting so much space beside the main page and to not put as much space in between vertical elements. I don’t want to smash things up against each other, just use the space better.

I really wanted to make the menu bar images like a flip book to where you would scroll over them and it would flip through hundreds of images in that section, but it would keep the name of the section there too. This was extremely hard to show on screen though. I also think it kind of look unfinished since I couldn’t put that part in there really. I also feel like I need to learn more about the actual interaction between people and the design. I think this would help in creating a beautiful and practical webpage.

I wouldn’t call myself an expert at Photoshop by far. I’ve dabbled with it and created a few projects in it, but I had yet to utilize it to this extent. Technical and conceptual problems included figuring out what tools to use and when or when not to drag something from Illustrator. I found pixels to have their pros and cons; pros being you can find a point very easily, cons being the clarity of the images and level of ease of tools. I know that sketches are paramount, but countless times I find myself comping on the computer before I’ve really nailed out some ideas on paper. It’s much easier to be creative without the limits of the software tools, and then making it work within them. I had trouble with negative space as well as using the grid. I felt very locked into each line, but once I laid out my boundaries I felt more free to place images and text within those limits. Typography was difficult as well. Sticking with web safe fonts was different and deciding to create a new logo or use the current one was a challenge as well. As I dove deeper into the project I found trying new things with the layout to be easier to accomplish. I felt like my hierarchy was successful, but could still use improvement in some areas. I became more successful at organizing my layers and moving through steps faster. I found the concept of wireframes very helpful although I wish I would have harnessed it more.

I hope to continue to improve my skills in photoshop, hopefully these techniques will become second nature soon. I also need to work with negative space and challenge myself more creatively. I need to remember the importance of sketches before I’m almost done with the project. Taking this in mind I need to be more organized with my timing as well as with the process. And not spill milkshakes on my computer.

This last project was probably the most time I have spent in Photoshop. By the end of it, I feel like it was a mutual love hate relationship. After working within the program for a few hours it became a little easier in the sense of shortcuts and comfortability. It also became a little more tedious the more put into it due to the chaos happening in the layers and folders. I had quite a bit of folders so it seemed to be organized but when you have 25 layers within each folder some of the organization becomes skewed. The one technical mistake that seemed to occur time and time again was being limited with the ‘command z’ key. I would press it more than once from habit and sometimes mess myself up with by redoing what I had just undid. For the future, I just need to spend more time in the program, learn patience, and not procrastinate. I’m sure this will help a ton.
Conceptually, I think this was a specific project with pretty loose  guidelines. There was a lot of freedom with the redesigning and it was personal choice to change almost everything on the site from the logo to the icons to the typeface. In one way I really liked this, because lets face it- that site needed some help. Overall website design is difficult and time consuming. I definitely need to pay more attention to hiearchy and the algorithm all together.
Seeing how this is the first assignment I have nothing to relate to on improvements, but I can say there is definite improvement from the rough comp to the final. I think it is simple to sit down and throw together simple text with a few headlines and images and call it a website. However, when I actually sat down for the final and thought about the site, the clients, and audience I had a change of heart and changed almost every direction. So again I think it would just be wise if I sat down from the beginning with these intentions and didn’t procrastinate.

This project was the first time I have ever designed a web page. At first I thought I wasn’t going to like it but as it turns out it is probably the branch of graphic design that I am most interested in now.

Along the way i made man mistakes and have plenty of weaknesses, but I have also made progress and improvements throughout the project. First off, the biggest technical mistakes I made not knowing my way around photoshop. This caused me to spend great amounts of time doing simple things like making banners and boxes and stuff. One of my biggest weaknesses was my conceptual process.  I did my fragments incorrectly so when it came to put together my comps I had to arrange copy from scratch. This slowed me down quite a bit as the project went on.

Throughout the process I saw great improvement in m attention to detail. I found myself paying close attention to subtle shadows and textures that help make the website look smooth and easy on the eyes. I think this can really be seen in my header and rules throughout the page. I found myself looking at lots of webpages and saw that the rules were usually too heavy, and thought that I should defiantly address that in some way. i did this my making my rules gradually fade out to the edge of the boxes that they rested in.

I also saw improvement in my photoshop skills as this project went on. I am now much more confident in Photoshop and feel like I can make almost anything if asked. I know that, that is probably not true but I feel much more confidant. Seeing as how this was my first interactive piece ever I think that I started off great and am pleased with my project but have plenty of room to grow and improve m design.

Overall i think that I could spend some time improving my tracking throughout my piece. While I think that my copy is easy to follow and read, I feel like some of the tracking in some of the stories is a little bit tight and needs to be loosened up. I also have room to improve  on my sketches, I need to have more detail so I can better express my ideas to clients.

I think getting used to layers in photoshop again was difficult for me to try to get everything organized. I think that if I keep using photoshop, it will be easier to get used to and not take as long to get a project finished. I am so used to using Illustrator where things are easier to move and click and move, but with layers on photoshop it is a pain to find the right layer and edit, transform or to rotate takes longer to do.

I think my conceptual mistakes consist of having a mind set of the original imprint website that I can’t get my mind to think of ways to redesign the site. I feel like my website has the basic organization as the original site. A few changes were made visually but I need to learn how to step out of the box and design better.

The main things I could improve on is the layout of the website and have a wider range of designing rather than keeping a similar layout as the original page. I feel like I could of added more details and visual elements to this site design. However, I still want my design to look clean rather than cluttered with cramped text and images everywhere.

In Digital Graphic Techniques we learned how to layout out magazine spreads, hierarchy, and design. I think this project presented these same elements we had in Digital Graphic Techniques. I think I focused more on hierarchy than anything that I wasn’t thinking more of different directions of design and layout.

Overall, I think I was so stuck on the design of the original site that I couldn’t wrap my mind around to design differently and explore different layouts and fragment designs. I need to work on sketching out different ideas and looking at inspiration sites to design differently rather than redesigning with the same type of look. I think throughout this class I will improve on design and combining what I have learned throughout the years to create a great website design. Hopefully with the next projects, starting with a blank slate will help me come up with a different design.

This project was a very large test of patience for me, due to having to design layouts in Photoshop. After spending nearly all of last semester learning and designing in Illustrator, it was somewhat jarring to have to suddenly learn all those basic skills in a new program. Despite the learning curve however, now that I know what can be accomplished with the program, Photoshop is much less daunting than it had been previously. Because I was now working in pixels instead of vectors, it was much easier to perfectly align objects pixel to pixel. It was also a relief to know that the dimensions I was working in were exact, and at any moment I could view my website exactly as it would be viewed online. Apart from Photoshop, just designing for the web instead of print was a lot more liberating. Effects such as drop-shadow and embossing, which were hard to pull off on a printed piece, were simple in a purely digital spread. It was much easier to make links and icons more dynamic and visually interesting.

When it came to the design of the website itself, I was immediately drawn to a simple, basic layout that was very easy to understand. Now that I look at my design, I see it as perhaps being too sparse, and lacking in information. But I still agree with my initial idea of simplicity. I supplemented my muted background colors (grey and white) with small red icons and blue links. I didn’t want to overuse color or effects, and I think in that aspect I was successful. Looking back at this project, a part of me wishes I had gone with a more visual approach to the site. In my own experience of surfing the ‘net, I know that rarely is it the text of a page that keeps me hooked, but almost always the visuals. In future projects, I might want to veer towards a more visual language, though I would be sure to not over-emphasize a visual aspect, when the text (especially for an article based website) remains the essential piece.

Sincerely,

Evan Marks

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.