Over the past couple of weeks I have really been struggling with the concept of what my website was actually going to be. Yesterdays session relating to concepts completely threw me because I thought I was doing it about Dieter Rams but once I asked myself questions I realised there wasn't actually any point in creating it because I would just be regurgitating what is already out there in the form of wikipedia pages and the variety of website about him. The chat with the tutors helped but I'm still not 100% about it, I feel it could still be dull and after I went away to think about it more in depth and create a concept, everything just seemed dull and boring.
In todays session we were supposed to bring along our concepts so that we could start developing them in relation to the visual website design and how the viewer will interact. But due to me not having a solid concept I had to complete the tasks with my original concept and then just apply what I have learnt to a new concept when I think of one.
The first task for this session was to think about what content our website would have and how it would be split into pages. We had to think of 5 pages that our content would be split into:
- Homepage - Showing what the website would have on it, what it's about etc.
- 10 Design principles - Showing all of the principles
- Breakdown of principles - Explanation of principles
- Principles in context - Various examples of design that illustrates the prinicples
- About Rams - Short about section
As a group, we then discussed what we felt were the 5 main pages of a basic website. This is what we came up with:
- Homepage - Indicative of Content, Introduction
- Contact Page - E-Mail, Social Media, Inquiry Form, Telephone Number, Address
- Information/About Page - Ethical Statement, Facts
- Gallery/Portfolio - Image (Categorised only if actually helpful for the user)
- Forums/Posts/User Posts - Very common now that the technology supports it
Overall, websites are all about the user and ensuring that they are getting what they want is essential.
We then had to draw up a quick sketch of how we think our homepage may look. We then got into groups in order to critique each others ideas and visuals. This is my sketch and the feedback that I received:
- Simple
- Clean
- What do the dots represent?
- Very minimal
- Nothing really going on
- What's the topic, what's the point?
- Reflects the work of the designer
- Focus on important elements of his design
- Include interactive or motion element to create interest
- Presentation is reflective of topic
This feedback doesn't fully represent what it is that I am doing, when it came to the sketch I completely went blank because I hadn't even thought too much into the design, I had been thinking too much about the whole concept. I had in mind a style I would be going for though because of his aesthetic he made famous with braun products and the countless websites and prints that are circulating about him. I kind of just designed a simple template, following a strict grid and sans serif typeface, these aesthetics would probably apply to the end website when I finally decide on a concept, therefore I thought it would be helpful to receive some feedback on design of that style.