Portfolio Day Extra Credit

Book Promotional Website Issuu Embed

Unit 9 Reading

Summary:

On a starters guide to IOS design the author really went into great detail about every aspect of what you need to think about and do while designing for any IOS. This site really reminded me a lot about the book we read on web design. The author went into great detail about the difference between retina and pixel screens, from there he talked about the whole layout, like hierarchy, typography, were to get templates from. He knew it all from pre-production flow to testing in the end. This will be a great site to bookmark.

I really enjoyed the article on Mashable about the ten mistakes not to make while app designing. I feel like all of the suggestions are very handy and a good thing to keep in the back of your mind while designing for any IOS device. The author really hit home with how to make an app look clean and unique to be able to separate them from the rest of the junk out there. He talked about a lot of different things that I honestly wouldn’t have normally thought twice of until now.

App Definition Statement

App Definition Statement

Cole Kerby, Mefei

1. Things users will like:

- Calculator to determine daily calorie intake

- Healthy recipes

- Suggested alternate food items

- The record show what should eat for certain days

- Calendar to help document calories and meals for everyday

2. User audience:

- People who work out

- People who cook meals at home

- People who are on the go but still need nutrition advice

- People who want to become fit

- People who want to lead a healthier lifestyle

- People with money

- People who care about their well being

3. Definition:

- An app for people who are trying to be nutritionally healthy

4. Development:

- When designing this app we want it to seem streamlined and slim to give the feel of what the user is going for. We will probably use more saturated tones like bright reds and yellows because it is about fitness, health and diet. Those are just a few things we will be keeping in mind while designing.

Unit 8 Reading

Summary:

Chapter 10:

Chapter ten was on more usability testing, not so much on what a usability test is but what the jobs of a usability tester are. The first thing that comes along with testing people is that there is a job being a facilitator, which is the person that greets and tells the people getting tested what’s going on. The next job in usability testing is being the person who takes down data and pretty much watches the reactions of the people getting tested. Its goes into how important it is to treat these people and how to conclude your data. It talks about why and how you need to analyze the end results.

Chapter 11:

Chapter eleven was a good chapter that was about how to interact with your design team after you’ve gathered all of the data from your web testing. The author talks about what problems to tackle first, how to tackle them, and what to do with the major problems. I feel like this book has been a great read because it has kind of opened my eyes as the way I’m supposed to interact with a design team outside of school when working with the web.

Unit 7 reading

Summary:

This week for the in-class reading we had to go to a website and scroll down a page that was all about websites and the best ways to use and design them, this site was called What the Heck is Responsive Web Design. Although it was another refresher for me it was nice to be feed to latest and greatest in responsive web design out there. I like the fact that before I came to this school I was never really exposed to these cool sites that I venture upon today. The internet, for me, was just a tool to socialize and buy things. Now, I see it as more of a gateway into this new age that were peaking upon and it inspires me to keep designing and trying to see how far I can take myself, because everyone is always trying to find the new and great in things. I know that if I keep my head were it is and design with this responsiveness aspect in mind I can not only become a great designer, but it will be easier to make a name for myself with people knowing that I’m a designer who is thinking in the future and not so much in the past same generic way.

Smartphone app ideas

For my group we have came up with a couple ideas as of now. as far as i understand the app needs to have something to do with location finding. so we went off of that idea and tried to think of some places that people would like to have easily located on their phone or ipad. a couple of the ideas we have come up with are a food truck vendor locator to help locate good food in major cities, a trail finding app so you can find all of the good spots in the northwest, or even a fine restaurant locator with reviews so people can get exactly what they want to eat whenever they need.

Unit 6 Reading

Summary:

The first link that I tried to go to was the How to Create Your First iPhone Application. This link did not work I tried it on multiple web browsers but it would not load for some reason. The second link did in fact work. It was on the app icon design based upon the do’s and don’ts when designing the icon. It pretty much went into affordance of the button. The first thing that it went over was the use of type in the icon and how it isn’t really necessary. It said that it was good not to have words because people respond more to clear visual elements that they can remember, respond, and come back to. Having just an image and high contrasting colors it allows people to be familiar and remember it so they will come back; thus making your app more powerful and helping it succeed. The next thing that is went over was how not to use the typical shine that is on most apps these days. The author of the article said that doing that gives the app icon a similarity to all other apple apps that are in the apple store. This makes people just look over your app and not give it the affordance it deserves. Pretty much what I got from this article was make your app icon stand out and be something that people recognize over all the other apps that are currently out there. i also read the article on Skeuomorphism and how it is good to use old things in our new designs to give a familiar feel, which allows people to relate to something your designing; thus making it more successful.

Unit 5 Reading

Summary:

Chapter 8:

When reading chapter eight I came up with a few conclusions about it that I think will really help my design aspect while working with others in the future. This chapter was about keeping user experience in mind without clouding the mind with personal views on the way things should look on a page. When designing a website, just because you like something a certain way, doesn’t mean it should be that way. It should be able to fit along with the design flow of the page and be something a user doesn’t have to think twice about. Designers these days get too wrapped up in what they think something should look like and not about the whole user experience. We need to think more about this because if we don’t put the user’s perspective in our thought process were going to design something that no one will want to come back to.

Chapter 9:

Chapter nine was all about usability testing and why it should be done. I strongly agree with this chapter because I feel that anything needs to be tested, proofread, revised, whatever to be final and look as professional as it should look. I don’t think that any project can even come near its final stages without a little bit of testing just to see what can be fixed and make better. I really liked how it described the difference between a focus group and usability testing. It was good to just know how you can test and in different ways. Good chapter that will come in handy.

Unit 5 homework

High Res Cover Shot



Project 2 Statement:

For this project Tim and I are designing a book promo site for Stephen King’s book Joyland. It is a book that is based in 1973 at an amusement park in North Carolina. The target audience for this book would probably be people that are already interested in Stephen King mysteries, so probably 30-60ish. For the site I really feel that doing more of a 70’s feel to it because the art on the cover is exactly that style. I think we will be using a similar color pallet to the book cover as well to fit a common theme. Since it is a horror murder type book I think that we will need to spend some time picking out the correct typography and using hierarchy to our advantage. If we stick to this theme and do it right I feel as though this books promo site could get the book a lot of publicity and hopefully help them sell a lot more.

Sketches





Promotional Book Product Sites:

Site about a book on how to be successful in any situation.

http://the1thing.com/

Site about a true story of a four year old who claims to have gone to heaven and came back.

http://heavenisforreal.net/

Site about a book that is about a myth that the future of American can be told be certain omens.

http://www.theharbinger-jonathancahn.com/

Unit 4 Reading

Summary:

For this week’s homework we read chapter 7 in our books and it was on designing home pages for the web. I got a lot out of this chapter, not only from the designing aspect, but the subliminal marketing aspect. This chapter went into great detail about how important designing the homepage was for any website. I particularly like that this author goes into the thought process of the user through every step of the homepage navigation. It really put into perspective for me how much affordance I should give certain aspects of my homepage design, and what things to watch out for. The Main things that deserved affordance after reading this chapter are your navigation, your tagline, where you should start on the page, and ultimately what your site is about. Any user should be able to visit the site you have his just makes it easier for people to use your site and to have people return to it again in the future. The main things this chapter told me to avoid were, well the list is too long. Pretty much design with the user in mind and make sure that everything is very easy to use and navigate and don’t have too much clutter on the page. If we do this we will design websites that have a good ROI for our clients.

Books for Project 2

Books:

http://books.usatoday.com/book/john-green-the-fault-in-our-stars/l32382

http://books.usatoday.com/book/gary-keller-the-one-thing/l49661

http://books.usatoday.com/book/cheryl-strayed-wild/l46703

Book Promo Stuff

Book Promotion Sites:

http://www.bookbrowse.com/

http://www.booksie.com/

http://www.bookreportradio.com/



Books to Promote:

BRAIN ON FIRE, by Susannah Cahalan

http://www.susannahcahalan.com/

SIX YEARS, by Harlan Coben

http://www.harlancoben.com/novels/six-years/

GIVE AND TAKE, by Adam Grant

http://www.giveandtake.com/Home/AdamGrant

Unit 3 Reading

Summary:

Chapter 6:

What I have gotten from this chapter is that we as designers need to design in a sense that allows people to not have to browse through a site but can easily navigate it with barely looking. We want to make it so that we can have a user of the sight come to it and not have to do much thinking to get to their end result. The author goes into great depth about how each page should be consistent and look fluid so the user doesn’t get confused while trying to find what they are looking for. He even gave suggestions on what to use when designing search bars for websites and how to make them more user friendly. He provides solid examples of bad websites and gives excellent examples of what to do to not only improve them but make them easier to navigate around. He even asks what we would do to change them, in the reading before he shows us his end result. All in all what I have gotten out of this chapter is to design with the thought that people will come back to your site if it is easy to use and if it is easy to navigate and find what your trying to look for.

Week 2 Post for Project 1

Concept Statement:

I feel like the mission for my site will be to not only show my graphic work, but to also show my photography, tattoo work, and clothing design too. I aspire to do a lot with art and I feel like when I’m marketing myself I need to portray more then just the fact that I’m a designer, I’m an all around artist. As for right now I think I will be focusing on getting most of my graphic work on the site before all of the others, just because of how much graphic work I have been doing later. I just really want people to know that I am versatile and I can work with more then just type. I want someone who needs a magazine cover done with stock photography, and not have to call in a photographer just me. I want to be that guy in my field who can do it all no matter what, and I want to create a reputation for that in the design world so people will remember that I can be called upon anything to do any job necessary. Graphic design is a huge passion of mine, but I know that clients like to see more then just graphic work. They like to know that we can create as well.

Lofi Sketches:

Lofi Wireframes:

Landing Page

Site Entrance Page

Home Page

About Page

Contact Page

Portfolio Page

Hifi Landing page:

Can click on name to enter site

Unit 2 Reading

Summary:

Chapter 3:

What I got out of chapter three was that you need specific things to make a website work, and you have to make all of those things work together. It talked about visual hierarchy with type and graphic layout, talked about conventions and there use to make site look familiar to each other, clarity of page, affordance of buttons and how there shouldn’t be any clutter on the page. All of these things are good to keep in mind when designing anything.

Chapter 4:

Chapter 4 was a very short chapter and was about how you should make using a webpage a mindless activity for the user. It talked about how few button clicks should get you to the “end result”. The author also brought up a very good point about how three mindless clicks usually could be one super well thought out click. Depending on the site I am designing I have to choose which way to go is more appropriate.

Chapter 5:

Chapter 5 was probably my most favorite out of the three that we read for the week. It was about how people use meaningless unnecessary words while designing for the web and why not to do that. The author taught me about what happy talk really is and I thought it was quite funny. I feel like the guy just thinks everyone has no brain and it makes me laugh and hold my interest to read further.

Week 1 Hmwk for Project 1

Mood Board:

Sketches:

Inspirational Graphic Portfolio Sites:

http://35mmdesign.com/

http://leotartari.com/

http://www.bradlangdon.co.uk/

http://tebbott.co.uk/

http://www.fahadkhalid.com/

http://designspasm.net/

http://alexarts.ru/en/index.html

Unit 1 Reading

Chapter 1:

Chapter 1 in the book Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug was pretty much an introduction to how we should think when designing websites for other users. Pretty much what i got out of it was don't make them think. A good site has a lot more to do with how user friendly and easy it is for for the user to navigate your site. Making a site that is to complicated for someone can result in them loosing interest, wasting their time, and making the company your working for look bad. SO design the site your working on with user and workload always in mind.

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2 was about the way that people actually use the internet in this day and age. It made me realize that people really don't care about all the options and what not on sites. They just care about getting to the end result quicker. Which in turn made me realize that when i do design sites i should be focusing on making it as simple as i possibly can. Doing this will make the user feel smarter and hopefully will make them want to come back and use the site i have designed. This chapter just really puts into perspective how naive people are when it comes to how much work is put into the usability of sites. Even though they might not care it should still be given credit in my opinion.