Hollie Ferguson: December 2011

DP3 – Voyage Evaluation.
My brief was to create a 5 page website, validated to WC3 standards and includes at least 3 interactive JavaScript routines that enhance the interactive experience.
I brainstormed a few ideas together for a theme; learning to drive, Thailand, birth to adult, theme park trip, Zante. I decided to go with Thailand as I personally found it the most exciting and thought I could portray this well into the task set. I needed to be able to tell this theme as a narrative.

The methods I used to develop my ideas can all be seen on my blog posts over the duration of the project. I created wire frames which both looked like simple layouts but with images, backgrounds and text it improved the look. I didn’t want to design anything too complicated that I had to follow as I wouldn’t have been able to follow through with that design, I started with something simple that changed along the way as I got more advanced. I created mind maps to enhance ideas as well as a time chart to allow myself to work to reach the deadline. I also received feedback from my audience and peers which allowed me to improve my work.

Problems that rose for me in this project were that the idea I had, may not have been as great as I thought it was to start with. It was all a very personal experience and found the only thing I could share with this was words put into text and photos – which I worried would become very boring for the audience. The audience being friends and family, as I could keep the page quite informal and more about my holiday than if it was targeted at travellers and students looking to travel. I tried to overcome this with JavaScript to make it more interactive, I did however struggle with using JavaScript and didn’t manage to create as much interactivity as I wanted – such as games to play. Compared to my peers websites I feel mine is very basic however I do feel I have improved on my skills since my last interactive project.

Things I have learnt from this particular project are skills such as using CSS, JavaScript and JQuery which I didn’t use in the first year. As I said I did struggle with some parts of the JavaScript but online tutorials did help me. Looking at other websites really helped inspire me into colours to use, image to text ratio & layout. I think it’s also important to try a few different layouts to see what’s best. For example I tried putting text and images in different places on the page to see what looked best as the final design. Also it was important to check my website worked in all internet pages eg firefox, internet explorer, safari & Google chrome as some people in my group had problems with this - mine works in all.

Personally, I am happy with the final design of this project. However compared to other people in the class I am disappointed with it. I find coding very hard and wish I had skills such as illustrations so I could draw more images and put them into the webpage to make it look more creative. I would like to have another go at this project in my own time to make improvements and would like to change it so it’s a scroll down website, which I think is becoming more popular to use on the web now.

In Terms Of Constantine & Lockwood.

1. The structure principle.
My design is organized in a meaningful and useful way in which the navigation is in order of the places in Thailand visited from dates arrived. Photos and content that relate to each place are on that page and this is very clear for the user to recognise. Things that relate are on the same page, things that don’t relate are on separate pages. I have used cartoon images on each page that for me relate to that part of the holiday, an elephant for Phuket, island for Phi Phi, cocktails for ladyboys and a rain cloud for Bangkok.

2. The simplicity principle.

My design is simple to look at and simple to use. Tasks are simple to do and the website provides good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures such as a homepage button at the bottom of each page. The navigation is simple to use, placed at the top and each page is a different link. On reflection I now wish I had used the scroll effect website in which each link on the navigation is just a scroll down. I think this looks more effective and can be used better on tablets than the basic website can.

3. The visibility principle.

This meaning that the design shouldn’t distract the user with too many images, colour of text. Don’t confuse them with unneeded content. I have stuck well to this. There is the same logo throughout the webpage, headings and texts that relate well to the name of each page and a few images that relate to the page such as an elephant for Phuket. I used Adobe Kuler to make a colour chart for a “Thailand Theme.” The colours are very neutral and I think fit in well to the theme of the Voyage. I think I have balanced text to image ratio well & nothing is too overpowering for the user.

4. The feedback principle.

Keeping the users up to date, as it happened in the past this is easy to do whilst creating the site. It is also easy to add bits and pieces in when I want to, or change photos and the design around when I get bored of it. My audience – such as friends and family have seen the website I created and gave positive feedback, if I change the design then I would again ask their opinions and work around the best interest of them.

5. The tolerance principle.

Planning my project well would have meant reducing the cost of making mistakes and errors. The design needs to be flexible and tolerant. Familiarising myself with the software Dreamweaver meant I could test a code out and if it didn’t work be able to undo that without causing any major problems to my webpage.

6. The reuse principle.

My site should be able to let the user reuse the site and each page without having to think how to use it and having to remember what that are looking at exactly. I have clearly stuck to the Thailand theme throughout and the design is simple enough for the user to reuse it without any problems.