OUGD504 - Design Production: Design For Web (Interim Crit)

This morning we were told which groups we were in for our crit. Mine was in the afternoon. We were split in to four groups, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Ours was in studio 3 and involved us all standing at the front one at a time explaining where we are up to with our work, showing evidence along the way in the form of illustrations, wire frames, thumbnails and scamps. I was quite near the end so was able to listen to a lot of other presentations before hand and give certain feedback to different people, allowing me to actually think more about different elements of my website I hadn't yet thought about.

Some things which became a reoccurring theme throughout the crit was the idea of what, who and why? This is the idea of covering the target audience to focus the content down to be more succinct. The problem at the moment with my website is that the audience may actually be too broad. I think I need to narrow it down to be either for manufacturers of plastic packaging, or those who recycle. I could perhaps have a link coming from another website or set of websites which would link the user to mine. This way I would get my target audience interested in what I have to say on my site.

Another thing that came across was the idea of the website being simple as opposed to trying to over complicate it. The simpler the better. Simon actually said that a lot of the websites found on the awwwards.com website are all very complex but not necessarily that user friendly. This is something to strongly consider when applying my design digitally. 

I came up with a few questions I would like the answer to:

• Would it be complicated to include a scroll bar?
• Is the website interesting?
• Should I focus my audience down to either manufacturer or consumer/those who recycle?

The feedback I received was all positive. Simon said he would be able to show me how to include a scroll bar, and that this is quite an easy process. Both Amber and Simon agreed when I said about refining my audience a bit more, and Amber said that it sounded like a really interesting website that I have obviously carried out a lot of research for.

I also picked up from the other crits for other people's work that it is important to have consistency across all of the pages, as a result I think I am going to have to maybe change some of the dimensions on my pages to make sure I either have two or three columns running consistently throughout. This shouldn't be too time consuming though, it will just mean me drawing out some new scamps and wire frames.

I didn't really get any feedback from the rest of the group, whether this was because I was near the end I'm not too sure, however I am hoping that it was because I had covered everything I could have done during my crit and now just need to focus on actually applying it to Dream Weaver.

Lorraine and Phil then debriefed us at the end and they both seemed quite unhappy with the amount of work produced. I feel as though I could have possibly tried to code my website or at least start to but I was limited for time since my last web session. I will however be working on this tonight and everyday leading up to the deadline now, especially now that I am sure that I am able to use a scroll bar.

On a more positive note, I do feel that I have been able to manage my time between print and web quite well and feel as though I am at a similar stage for both. My idea for print has developed an awful lot and as a result I have a lot of development to show.

I am happy with the outcome of today and I am going to try and speak to Simon one day this week to clear up any queries I have (scroll bar) concerning the design of my website.