New Jack Website Project

Since starting the design process on Saturday night I have since coded the main part of the website and created the 3 Flash elements. This leaves only the blog/journal (with php and mysql) page to do, as I am pretty much clueless on how to go about that at the moment so I thought it would be a good idea to leave myself a lot of time for it.

The unfinished website can be viewed at http://stephengreig.co.uk/newjack/

The 3 flash elements are:

Music player/sound bar animation in the header on the home page which plays automatically when the user enters the site. The sound bar animation stops when the music is stopped and restarts if the user restarts the music.
The banner animation on the home page featuring 3 promotional banners linking to relevant music websites in the scene.
A user controlled music player featuring ten tracks that can be played/paused/stopped/muted as well as featuring volume controls and a seek bar.

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Website Project for 'Artist'

I've been working hard the last few days on our new project. My client is a musician, a friend of mine from near Mansfield.

I started doing a few rough sketches last Saturday before transferring my ideas to Photoshop in order to create a suitable design. The first design I did is shown below.

I liked the general look of this design but there was something about it that I thought didn't make it entirely suitable. I thought I could definitely come up with a better, more exciting design. So I started from scratch and produced the design below...

I was very happy with this design and thought it made my initial design look rather bland and uninteresting in comparison. I think it creates the appropriate feel for the theme of the website and all of the colours complement each other well.

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Website Review: Mutt Ink

Mutt Ink immediately portrays a specific feel to the user, with its spacious design and use of subtle, light and neutral colours. The designer, Jeremy Holmes also makes very good use of textures and his own doodles/illustrations which very much define the designers style. The background also features subtle ink splodges which ties in well with the brand name, showing good brand identity from the designer. However, the background used is a very large image which makes for a rigid layout with no room for flexibility. In addition to this, the type used, although it is attractive, may be too small for many users and those who wish to increase the size of the text will be limited by the rigidness of the background. The text may also be seen to lack contrast against the background which could it make it very difficuly for visually impaired users who find it hard to distinguish similar colours.

The above screenshot shows how the opening page appears. The design is very subtle and un-obtrusive, allowing the important content to jump out and grab the user's attention. The navigation options are clear and consistent in terms of placement increasing ease of use. There are also clear buttons provided which provide easy access to Mutt Ink's social network pages.

Jeremy Holmes' portfolio, featured above, shows that the website's design very much compliments his style of work, capturing a similar feel and displaying great brand identity.

The above screenshot shows how the placement of the page elements and the formatting of the text ensures a clear presentation of the content to the user. The layout and content presentation used is kept consistent throughout all pages.

The design fits many of the web 2.0 design standards, such as a spacious design, the subtle textures and the content is communicated as a priority. However it also lacks many key points of web 2.0 design, as the layout is completely rigid and provides no flexibility to those who may wish to increase the font size.

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The Maze Website Project: Final Design

The Finished site can be viewed at: http://stephengreig.co.uk/themaze/

Enter Page

Home Page

Shows Page

About Page

Drinks Page

Contact Page

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New Designs for The Maze

After showing my original finished website for The Maze to Shaun, he pointed out it's flaws and downfalls. He thought the design was too dark and perhaps didn't portray the appropriate feel of the venue to the user. I certainly agree with this on reflection, although I do feel that the darkness is emphasised on the large monitors at uni due to the extra background space.

Anyway, Shaun asked for 2 new designs to be done in the next week which I have now completed.

The first design I feel is aesthetically pleasing, bold and grabs the users attention. However I think it lacks in suitability for purpose as it doesn't portray the appropriate feel of the venue to the user.

I much prefer the second design, as it is pleasing to the eye, it's funky and most importantly it captures the feel of the music associated with The Maze venue. I have fully coded this design to valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and will post the screens/web address in my next blog.

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New Jack Website Project

Website Project for 'Artist'

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The Maze Website Project: Final Design

New Designs for The Maze

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