Project Statement

Wall of Sound Project Statement

1. Background: Wall of Sound began in 1990, in the heart of Seattle's Belltown. Their website must have been created around that time, hence the 1990's look and feel. Their store sells a variety of music genres, from avant-garde to traditional and popular genres. 
2. Target Audiences: The audience that they target is someone who has a very refined taste in music. One who is interested in avant-garde japanese rock, indie, alternative, jazz, folk, experimental, electronic, electro-acoustic, and neoclassical. Their demographic seems narrow but covers a some what wide-spread interest in music choices.
3. Objectives: The hope for this website redesign is to show what this local store has to offer, in order to do that there should be emphasis on the types of music they provide. Since this company has been known in Seattle for over 20 years, they should be able to be recognizable as a successful music provider. Giving them a professional look will be key, but leaving them with a distinguishable new look. 
4. Obstacles: Obstacles may be redesigning this website, and forgetting who this company is. We do not want to scare away their customers with a completely new look. They may not be comfortable with a completely different user interface and experience. 
5. Key Benefit: By redesigning their website, Wall of Sound can create a better customer experience. Redesigning their user interface will make buying online faster and easier. 
6. Support Statements: Currently their website is very unorganized, and leaves the user feeling uncomfortable. The redesign will increase the number of online users, and will allow them to move through the website with ease and less anxiety.
7. Tone: Vintage
8. Media: Web
9. Creative Considerations: In order to create a successful redesign, we need to consider how the store perceives their business. This way we can create an accurate look that will represent them in the best way possible.

Unit 4

Chapter 7 is up for discussion this week. In the chapter, the very first thing Krug begins describing is that the homepage is "beyond our control." There are so many things that the homepage needs to cover, and in order to attract your audience. First of all, a homepage must include the sites identity and their mission. This should be the very first thing any user recognizes. Understanding that a homepage needs to cover so many things, in such little spaces draws in a problem. Understanding how to organize everything is very important when designing a homepage. You do not want to over power the user, but you want to give them what they are looking for. A search bar is a necessary tool in order to give the user a fast approach to find their specified needs. Most importantly, the user needs to know why they are at your website, and where they can find what they need. A tagline is always important to characterize your website! One of the most important parts of a homepage, or any webpage is the navigation. The navigation must be clear and easy to use. Again, there should be no questions in the brain of your user.

I really enjoy the creativity behind this websites navigation
This website uses a creative approach, but is still identifiable as a navigation system to the user.

Examples of different navigation menus

Web designer links

Unit 3: Breadcrumbs

Chapter six is very important to keep in mind, especially for our next big assignment. When we are designing websites, it is important to understand the importance of navigation. This chapter uses a metaphor of street signs and breadcrumbs to navigating through a website. Things should be evident in any web page. There should be a clear navigation system that can be seen, (like a LA street sign) from a far distance. We want our users to understand where they are at every moment. Confusion should not be an issue, but if this occurs there should always be an evident "home" button. The site id should always remain at the top left corner of each page so that the user always knows which site they are on. The logical hierarchy of any site should include: The site ID, sections of the site, subsections, sub-subsections, the page, areas of the page, and items on this page. Chapter 6 also describes the importance of a search bar. Often there are users that go to this first hand, rather than browsing around the entire website in order to find what they are looking for. With the search bar, there should be absolutely no confusion and should be listed as a box with a "search" button. Bottom-line, no questions asked. Another thing that was interesting to me was the use of "breadcrumbs" these help the user understand where they are, and where they have been. These are best used when they are located at the top of the page, like an accessory. To indicate movement, the best symbol would be >. The use of a small font size is key to using this as an accessory. The last thing this chapter discussed was the use of tabs as navigation. These are visual cues that the user is moving from one section, to the next and helps differentiate them from each other.

Breadcrumbs?

"Talking About Swiss"

I want to create my portfolio like...

This!

Chapters 3, 4, & 5

In chapter three, the first main points covered what is most important to reveal when designing a website. These five things were: create a clear visual hierarchy on each page; take advantage of conventions; break pages up into clearly defined areas; make it obvious what's clickable; and minimize noise. Considering we are now putting together our low-fidelity webpages, these are key to keep in mind. Understanding the importance of hierarchy will help us in the future for all of our designs, whether they be print or web based. Chapter three also described how important conventions are. Conventions are important to understand where the information comes from, and why this information is of importance. They are useful for an audience because they work, and they help people navigate with ease, minimizing confusion (thought). Chapter 4 describes that websites should be clear, and precise. You should leave no questions with your user, so take out all of the unnecessary information. "Omit needless words," is very important when creating a webpage. Like the previous chapters, users scan, and don't read things that they aren't of interest. Chapter 5 tells us to get rid of everything that isn't needed, and keep all of the important things. Page 45 says that this will benefit you by reducing the noise, making useful content more prominent, and will make the page shorter. These will make both you and your user happy!

Interface thumbnail Sketches