AD202 digital applications evaluation

AD202 Digital Applications

Final Evaluation

   At the point of completion it is imperative you evaluate your final portfolio website, consider points for improvement and how you managed the production process. This should directly relate to your skilled use of digital applications. (LO4)

Final product?

Improvements?

Would do next time instead?

How I managed the production process?-how was it made-development to make final product?

I think the final design works affectively and reflects the research I’ve looked in to since It follows the same simplicity, ease of usability and design aswell as looking sophisticated and corporate, this gives the right message.

 The white space is used fully to balance the splash of the colour pink that keeps the branding consistent around the website without focus of the work of the portfolio being distracting.

From my research I looked at different style portfolios in how they layout their work, what is the first thing you see in glimpse of the home page, the colours used-black and white websites and how the colours are used in the elements of website, the type of pages,content and navigation

At first I thought that black would be suitable for the overall web page colour as I thought the black would contrast with the light colours to make it stand out more but when trying a white background in comparison I find that the result was the complete opposite as in the white stood out more and had bring the design more together complimenting it.

At the beginning the navigation of the site was going to be a top menu bar, this is commonly used and usually gets lost when scrolling, so I decided to change this to a side bar that sticks so the user knows at all times where to go to change the page.

It also allowed fitting in the space for the logo, which helped to shape the design.

Following the font used in my logo I felt with the font being quite legible, clean and modern, I found that using this font throughout the site, was another element that helped keep the branding consistency

I had problems with adding the size of the content, as it had to be a certain size, as if it turned out larger than the scale required, it would run out of the frame and look sloppy.

So the content like images and text had to be kept within size this one of disadvantages of using a border as of it being restrictive.

This is due to the borders outside lining the content of the page and without this it may not be clear which part belongs to what of the site with out as it divides the site in to sections that help ensure easy navigation.

The navigation is easy with 4 pages created to make the site:-

·      Home page-links back with clicking the logo

·      About me-info on myself as a designer and who I am

·      Portfolio-purely for my work with images and text description used underneath so the user knows what each design is about.

·      Contact-one image with mainly text of details

The three pages are all templates used from the home page as the menu is always at the left side and the design is always kept the same with room left for the content in the middle and right hand side of the page to be displayed.

When content is added it creates the border on the right hand side, the only disadvantage of this is that, it may look cut short as it not always the same length with the border on the left or if the content is longer than the menu side bar it will sit the same length and will not be long as the right border that follows the length of the page content, there fore most of the time the border are going to be different sizes and not look professional.

To add instant interest to the home page with this being the first thing you will see, I added a slideshow and found it quite fitting as it add interest and makes the home page professional.

It also allows the user to have a glimpse at the type of design work I produce and persuade them to go straight to the portfolio page.

This being a strong advantage needed to help sell myself as a designer and shows what type of website they are looking at.

If I was to do this again then i would make the height of the webpage to be longer as it looks stretched sideways with empty space sitting underneath the website as it does not fill the page.

For the portfolio page I would also shape the preview of each design in to a circle and then for it scale to full size when clicked, giving the light box affect. This would help to make the portfolio look more professional.

The original design for my contact page was going to have a submission form that would send direct e-mails from the site, I found creating this to be too complex and ended up opting for the basic way just having text to display my details and for the user to have send a e-mail from their e-mail provided instead with people being increasingly lazy on the internet it may put some people off so to have this feature could make a difference as its easy and convenient for the user.

This something else I would include in to improving my website.

If I studied the language of coding in abit more depth, then I would have been able to make the site a lot quicker and enable to produce a less basic site with more design elements to it however with Dreamweaver was very foreign to me and trying to building each element I began to understand some of the code like what it does and how part of one the codes determines how it will react to give the desired affect, to somewhat degree because of this I have gained valuable knowledge and picked up some skills in building websites in Dreamweaver.

 SWOT Analysis

•   Strengths - What did I do well?: my research was though rough and allowed my give a good design to suit my portfolio

•   Weaknesses - What do I need to improve?  writting essays - not being sure of myself wether i put enough or the right content in to my work especially like this project, that involves writting essays as of essays i feel not being my strongest point

•   Opportunities -What do I need to do to build on my strengths and weaknesses? 
keep doing what im doing and keep practicing writting to better myself.

•   Threat - What could stop me achieving my goals? my weaknesses 

SMART

•  Specific - Well defined:need to work on being abit more confident and little abit more self assured about what i am producing in to my work
• Measurable - Know when it has been achieved: i will be able to smoothly write essays
•    Achievable – Are the goals achievable:yes if i work on it as much as possible
• Realistic - Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time: i will do this from my own knowledge of how i will improve on this, with time,effort and self determination to do it, each time i approach my coursework.
•  Time Based - Enough time to achieve the goal:next project.