DESIGN FOR WEB - FINAL CRIT // FEEDBACK & RESPONSES

After producing several scamps, having them critiqued and reviewed I proceeded to draw out a number of other possible homepage thumbnails. The variety of thumbnails gives me a number of choices for the homepage. I wanted a home page that represented Barbour as a sophisticated and professional brand, whilst also appealing to the target audience.

I then chose, what I perceived to be the most appropriate and best homepages for my website and chosen audience.

With these chosen designs I then produced a variety of different thumbnails for each page of the design. This gave me 5 possible history pages, 5 possible jacket pages, 5 possible collaborations pages and 5 possible collections pages. The reason I decided to produce 5 possible designs was because I wanted a range of pages to choose from before I started designing and coding.

I then very slightly adapted these possible designs and created 16 different wireframe thumbnails. These thumbnails did not show any detail other than the grid systems and boxes where information would go.

I, again, chose the most appropriate and best designs on paper and drew them on a larger scale, choosing specific designs for specific pages due to the content that was to be on those pages. This left me with two designs I wanted to carry forward and produce digitally.

Combining the chosen designs and the thumbnails allowed me to take the designing onto the computer.
 

Although I had already produced some of the homepages digitally, as well as one quick mock up of a possible website, I had not done it thoroughly and properly.

I produced the digital versions of the design to the approximate dimensions of the thumbnails and scamps, however, I used grids I produced digital and used the dimensions I could get off of those, as they could be more accurate.

I had previously had an idea on what colours and font I had wanted to use, however, during the digital production these were cemented.

These colours were Black at 80% and Black at 40%. To add an element of colour

I had also known the logo I wanted to use but I had not yet had it in a format in which I could work with. I therefore produced a vector of my logo so that it could be used in the digital production as well as being saved for web.

Once I had completed the digital designs I began to code.

I initially set up my homepage (index.html), setting up my container, navigation bar, logo placement and roll over buttons.

Once this was coded, I proceeded to set up all the other pages

(history.html // jacket.html // collaborations.html // collections.html) and link them together.

Now that I had a five page website with working buttons and links I proceeded to develop the homepage using the chosen design.

I then added a link bar in to the bottom of the page that contained a link to the Barbour UK page.

This was as far as I got with the coding prior to the critique.

Before the critique I also produced a set of design boards to inform my peers of any information that was not clear from my design and the reasons why I had done what I had done.

FEEDBACK

This is the feedback that I received from the crit.

The questions I asked in the critique were as follows:

-       Is the design appropriate to the audience?

-       Is the homepage too simple, would a photograph be more appropriate?

-       Should I use more//different colours?

-       Is the design a bit bland?

-       Other comments.

The feedback will appear oblique and my responses to it will appear as normal.

Try making the logo smaller. It is too stretched out and looks very ‘clipart’.

I will take this on boards and see what the logo looks like when it is made smaller and whether this looks better or not.

Try to make the navigation bar clearer, maybe have it along the top.

I have the navigation bar at the side to make it different and unusual to other more corporate websites as the audience would prefer this. It also changes the space I am left with to fill with content. Again, I conduct a few experiments with the navigation bard to try and make it clearer.

Really like the clean style, it works. It is clear and understandable.

The colours work fine I think.

Audience if definitely clear in the design – clean, modern look is what I would associate with the audience I have defined.

Not much I can respond to the 3 previous bits of feedback as they are really only ego boosting comments.

I like the homepage as it is – there is nothing wrong with simple. If you are thinking of a photograph, experiment with the idea. Something black and white though with the gold and detailing? Keeping with the colour scheme.

The reason I asked this question was that after critiquing peoples work I though it might add to the website.  I will experiment with some photographic imagery and see how it looks.

The colour scheme reflects the heritage and clothing style – no colours are needed other than these – maybe incorporate the gold into the content pages a little.

I also agree that the gold should flow through all of my pages I was just not sure how to incorporate it.

Looks very ‘hip’ but if you wanted to portray the rich heritage, introduce this somehow. Nonetheless appropriate for the audience.

I understand that there is very little that says heritage in the modern aesthetic. I hope more of the heritage will come through in the content. I will also look at the possible inclusion of the royal warrants of the name, date and location in all of the pages.

Make the homepage reflect Barbour. Are they simple or are they intense? Seeing as they are also about products, it might be useful to show them on the homepage too – so the user knows what the site is about automatically.

Due to my audience I do not want my homepage to just reflect Barbour. I do admit that the presentation of the website is not the usual aesthetic associated with Barbour, however, it will appeal more to the chosen audience. I do think that the integration of some form of imagery may add to the homepage so I will experiment with this.

Colour scheme is good, maybe generate another colour from the Barbour colour scheme.

I was possibly thinking of using the barbour green or an opacity of it. I will try this digitally to see if it adds or detracts from the design.

Issue with roll over button on the history page.

I have no idea what has gone wrong here. It does need solving before hand in.

Quite a few spelling mistakes and grammar issues, they’ve been drawn onto your design boards.

­I realise that the spelling and grammar is not perfect, however the boards were and after though and I would have rather had more feedback on the websites rather than the boards. There will not be any typos or grammatical errors in my final boards.

I think that the design does suit the audience, however, I’m not quite sure if it feels ‘hipster’ enough.

As stated in my design boards there is a reason that the design is not all out ‘hipster’ and has a structured and clear aesthetic. This is to reflect Barbour and its brand as that is the content of the website.

I really like the simplicity of the homepage and the use of gold. I think the gold colour should be used throughout the other pages in some way to add more of a sense of consistency.

This is something that has been mentioned previously and something I want to do, I am just not sure how best to do it.

At the moment, I’m not sure about the navigation, as it seems out of place in comparison to the rest of the layout.

This is something that has also been mentioned before. I had not seen any issue with the navigation and the rest of the layout. If does not move between pages. I do recognise that it is not perfect and something does not feel quite right about it. This is something I will rectify. It may be something to do with the width of the page and that the page content on the homepage is aligned to the left and the navigation is aligned to the right.

Also remove the ‘full stops’ from each roll over buttons, as they aren’t needed and make it look a bit awkward.

I will see how they look without, however, I think I tried this during the design process and it did not look right.

I don’t think the design is ‘bland’, it just needs a bit more consideration and a few tweaks here and there to make it work. It will come together when you code it all.

This does not really help me to be honest.

Boards – TL;DR

Less writing more showing.

When producing more formal boards, stay away from saying ‘I’. Clients don’t care what you want to do, they care why and does it work?

This is valuable information however at this point in the project I would have preferred more feedback on the website and design rather than my boards. I will make sure I do not refer to anything as ‘I’ or put my opinion in any further design boards.

Using the swatches in the bottom left keeps the reader in mind of branding and colour ways, which is a very positive move.

Some very valuable information again and it gives me something to take forward when producing further boards, however, again I would have preferred more feedback on my website and design.

Website clear to navigate although you probably know you need to develop your content a bit more.

There was no content actually coded, however, content was displayed in my printed designs.