Sharnia King Design: August 2013

I have started setting up the layout of my web page. This page is going to be an extended, horizontal page that compares the different responses to road and parking lines. To compare the responses I will have a very structured layout, but assign the content and images aligned properly or off centre to show how people in the cars have responded to the lines. This links the idea to the design.

So far I have just been setting out the coloured divs within a container so that I can see where everything will go. From then on, I will add in the content in a stylized way.

I have also added a footer to the page to balance it out a bit. It was very top heavy before, but adding the footer (which is smaller than the footer) balances out the page. Even though the majority of the information will be located at the top and middle of the page, having this area to put content in helps.

I have continued to use Photoshop to edit my images. I have been trying to create focus on specific parts within my images that I want the viewer to focus on. As my images have been focusing on how people respond to road and parking lines I have continued to use lines to exaggerate the focus and make sure the viewer sees what I want them to see.

I have used Photoshop to pixilate indentifying details within my images. Many of these are car and scooter number plates. When I was out taking pictures I tried to avoid capturing people in my pictures as this was not a focus of mine. In the second picture some of the number plates were larger than others and I had to play with the pixilating cell size to make sure that the numbers were unreadable.

I have completed some more wireframe sketching but changed my idea slightly. I want to only have one page that is long in one direction, much like a road is. I have done some sketches to compare having the page extended in the horizontal or vertical direction.

I went around Wellington yesterday and acquired some images of parking examples and road lines. In some of these photo's there are people responding to the interaction with the road lines, but there are also people who have not responded as well, and not followed the parking lines.

I completed some early wireframe sketching where I was looking at using three pages all linked together. With this thought I had the idea that I wanted to use each page to compare a situation eg having one page looking at the different types of cars.

I have undertaken some brainstorming to break down the idea of responding to the road lines. These explore the different situations of the interaction and the variation this can produce in the responses.

One common interaction that most people interact with everyday are road marking lines. Not only do motorists interact with these lines, but pedestrians do as well. Interaction with road markings is a thoughtless act many experience everyday, because we grow up abiding by these rules to stay safe, it soon becomes human nature.

While exploring the city I noticed that people interact with the road markings in different ways, and there is a level of degree to which people follow the road marking rules. Some people interact completely and abide by the rules, others fail to comply and create dangerous or annoying situations for others.

I want to investigate the phenomenon of how motorists respond to road markings and the variation that is found. There are different factors which affect how people respond to the road markings. I want to compare these situations to see the overall thoughtless act of following road lines.

After having thought about some ideas of interactions to explore I have decided that I want to look at how motorists interact with car parks, and how the interaction can change based on the type of car park, the area it is in, and th type of vehicle being driven. All these factors affect the interaction of how a car is parked.

Exploring Wellington within a group around the Te Aro suburb. Taking pictures of human interaction in various ways. The thoughtless acts people undertake with everyday objects.

Reacting

Responding

Co-opting

Exploiting

Adapting

Conforming

Signalling

Group members - LUCY RUHA, SHARNIA KING, SUSANNA CHOW

1. Have you seen anything recently in Wellington that reminded you of any of the images/points Suri highlights? Reacting, responding, co-opting, exploiting, adapting, conforming or signalling?

Adaptation to the bucket fountain how people automatically walk around it so they don’t get splashed.
Walking cautiously over the tiles on Cuba Street because they get really slippery when wet.

2. Have you come across any contemporary examples similar to the Channel 18-30 site?

http://www.jimcarrey.com/
This site contains a lot of visual movement and imagery relating to Jim Carrey and his work as an actor. Things are continuously changing on the page and it is very confusing about what is happening. There are many different scenes that are travelled to, which is out of the users’ control. In a way this relates to the work of an actor, taking the viewer to different scenes out of your control. The menu is located at the bottom of the page and is very faint, making it very hard to pick out of the page. This is an example of bad design because a menu on a web page is a reference point.

http://www.jkrowling.com/en_GB/
This is the website of the author JK Rowling who wrote the Harry Potter series. When first going onto the webpage a translucent screen appears detailing how to use the website. The first time I went onto the website I did not see this as I had been clicking the mouse impatiently. The website is presented in a timeline format where you scroll left and right to view the information. There does not seem to be a logical display of the information which makes it harder to comprehend the information at hand.

3. Can you think of a recent experience (on the Web or in the physical world) that failed the Need to Know criteria? How about the opposite - something very complex but gave you just the right amount of Need to Know information?

I was given a mobile phone but there was no obvious sign as to the on/off button. Usually there is a symbol that makes it obvious but this phone didn’t have the symbol on any of the buttons. I tried pressing them all but none of them would turn on the phone. I had to Google it to find out, and it was a particular button that I just hadn’t pressed hard enough.
The room number system at Victoria University when first arriving at the campus. The first number of the room indicates what level it is on. At first this is a bit confusing because it is not automatic thinking that the first number is the floor number.

4. Hacking: what sort of systems (like the Amazon example) could be useful in rerouting towards other applications?

YouTube downloader’s where they are moving around the new laws about downloading free music and videos. The websites which allows audiences to watch free movies and TV programs instead of purchasing them

I have completed my creative bio page containing snippets of key information about my life. It still has a focus on design as design takes up a big part of my life. Not only with uni work, but also my passion in my spare time. Again this website uses fixed positioning, but only for the background image. There is a bit more information on this page with some snippets that are a bit more about me. There is a quote that represents my work and beliefs in design. Also the page itself is designed in a way that represents me, using colours that I like. The background contains some colours, but only in the left hand bottom corner so as not to distract from the rest of the content on the page. The colours also link to some of the colours used for the header and footer. The font has been stylized in a more interesting way by using the cursive font style to create a subtle emphasis.

I have used a tiled theme for displaying the information. I believe this way is more visually interesting because there are only snippets of information. Often when there are too many words in a certain area users will not read the text, just key words. So I have tried to eliminate this problem by only using key bits of information for the area of text. I have designed the page in a logical sequence by including my name and occupation at the top of the page. I have included a footer in this design that contains contact information.

I have completed my professional bio page that is meant to be designed for a potential employer. As the word limit for this was very low I wanted to focus on key points, while also making the information look interesting. One design aspect I was trying to focus on was was using design techniques to guide the user around the page. This was done using coloured div sections to break up the text. I also used a colour theme which I believe to be easily readible against the darker background. As I used the colour theme on the fonts, I was also able to create points of emphasis about the content of my work. I used a simple background image for this page because it has a slight gradient effect which breaks up the page slightly. Because the image is so simple, I felt that it would be ok to include this as it does not distract from the information or the image of my face at all. The colour theme ties in with the gradient effect of the background picture really well.

Another feature which I felt was important was using fixed positioning so that the "potential employer" is able to see my name, face, occupation, and contact information when scrolling through the information. In the screenshots the viewing of my personal information is a bit strange to see in two places but this is simply because of the fixed positioning. I do hope that the design of this professional bio page catches the interest of a potential employer by the way the page itself has been designed. The information has been displayed in a logical sequence so that it is easy to read. However the page is not designed in a logical way, it is outside the box. The reasons for this are mentioned previously.

Sharnia King Design

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