Website Updates

What?

The website has undergone some changes. Conceptually we've figure out a better idea of what we wanted, did some research over the weekend and we also started to sketch out what the final product is going to look like. We got some inspiration from a specific website, but we have some different ideas of how we want the site to animation and function. The objective of the website it to make it fun, with lots of different animations that spring from buttons. We want the site to be highly visual, functional, and fun. Because the site is geared towards teenages, we want there to be bright colors, funky sound effects, and a style that would keep teenages attention.

So what?

I think its important to make this website give information, but make sure its not too much like reading. The text has to be divided up into small chunks at a time, the idea of the site is to get the information in a funner way than reading a magazine article. I think animations such as mouseovers and actionscripting will be vital to the feel and flow of the website. We have some talented designers working on the site, so I think we'll be fine, but we need to start getting content, so we can put this site together! The due date is coming real fast, so we just need to get working on the flash, get a url purchased, and splash page up. I'm working on that, but i'm pretty rusty when it comes to design, and the splash page is going to set the tone for the rest of the page, so I think we need to get some input from Carmania and Berg. We can meet up today and collaborate a little more during class, we should be fine, no worries here.

Now what?

The next step is to get the information thats going on the site, so I can start throwing the individual stories into the flash movies. Once we get that going, we can figure out how long each article is going to be, and what needs to be paired with the stories visually, what images we can to use, how was want to decorate/organize them. Like I said, we'll be fine. I'm actually pretty eager to get working on this thing, I can do the stories, but I think Sean Berg needs to have all the final decisions and artwork on the website, the style of art he does is exactly what this website needs to have that extra touch. John's already started on the cityscape thats going into the background of the site, the rest is deciding/brainstorming what we can to have in the animations of the scene, and where each link is going to be placed.

Website Concepts

I came up with a concept for the website that I think will be successful. Because the demographic we're dealing with is young teens, I think the website needs to be animated, colorful and very interactive. I've found some different methods of navigations through a plugin website that I think will work well, but the real idea i had was to push the website as a series of short stories, rather than actual articles. Dealing with teens, I dont think they want to be force fed information and facts, its too much like reading and school, my plan is to have a set main character, Chomp, and have him interact with different characters and have the kids learn things through the events they encounter. The idea for the character was those walking teeth that you wind up, seems like an easily identifiable object, plus relates to the name of the magazine. Its hard to describe the navigation, so I'll leave that out. For the site, I also think the logo should randomly change. I know theres some javascript we can write that will make the logo change, randomly everytime the page is loaded, which I think could make the site more effective because its constantly changing. If everything was concrete and the same, I dont believe it will be as appealing to kids.

I think this is important because the site is the most important part of our project. We do have good designers working on it, but for it to be as successful as we're hoping, it really doesn't need to be informational, interactive, and hold kids attention for longer than 2 seconds. I feel these are solutions that can help make our site as good as possible. I also feel, as one of the main designers for it, the rest of the group should follow my lead in supporting this idea. By writing their "articles" in the form of short stories, it makes it interactive, I can also take photos that reinforce this concept which takes the bore out of reading, we can arrange them in short lines of text with images, making it read more visually.

Now what to do is just run it by the group, get approval, and start working on the website. The best way to do this is convince them how its best for our target age group. Besides that, I think me and john are already on the same page with this site, we just need to talk to Berg and go from there. I don't think we're going to have any problems with this though, we all work together very well and with my past experience with them, we work out problems well. I really don't know what else to add about what comes next, we have the plans, today is the approval of the logo, then its basically jumping straight into the design. With the time we have left, we really dont have time to sit and relax. I had planned on meeting up with John and Berg last night, but we had problems with scheduling, so we can work on that later on today I guess, I dont have class until 7, after Design Rebels, so we may be able to fit in a meeting there.

The Next Step

What? Well, some of our group mates met up today in the library, couple of them missed out, but we came together and decided up on our idea for the project. The rest is creating an identity for the organization, which means: a name, logo, detailed schedule of events that need to happen. We actually came up with a rough schedule so we can figure out jobs for everyone and how all is this is going to come together. I feel the majority of the team has good chemistry, we're putting out good ideas, participating, and show that we want to make this successful. I have worked with Kit before, so I know she is reliable, same with Berg and Carman, I just think there was some miscommunication about what the project was originally, which led to a lot of confusion and frustration as to the end product of this semester project. Now that we've met up, i think we have a solid idea, now just to have everything down solid and keep everyone on schedule.

So what to do now, I think once everyone gets assigned their spot in the group, everything will fall into place. Because we plan to do an editorial, i'm almost certain that i will be doing photography as well as web design for the project. I'm probably the most knowledgeable with web design in the whole group, even though i'm not part of the graphic design department, I've had a lot of experience with it in the past and am real good with the scripting and layout of a site. The photography i'm guessing will consist of food mainly, but that doesn't mean other stuff won't make its way into the publication. Besides that, I think within the publication, we need to have specific jobs for people who are working on the writing and the design, if we have one person working on each story in the magazine, I feel it will be a failure, everyone will have different ideas and I don't think it will all flow together. I nominate Sean to be the art director for the magazine, he has strong design qualities such as color and illustration, I think to grab the attention of our target audience we need bright colors and the trendy art style thats going around now. That seems to be one of Berg's strengths. Me and John will probably wind up working together on the site, and I could probably use an assistant in the studio when photographing shots or on location. So that could be whoever. I know John and I can work well together because we get along well, not to mention we live together, so we could pull long hours if we needed to. Besides that, I just hope Milton pulls his own weight, I did see him slack off in the group presentation when he was in John's group, I don't want that to happen again.

Next, we need to set a final name, logo for the publication and get straight to work on the color palette and the overall feel of the work. Getting into contact with the proper companies and sponsors will be another important job, I think that should be Laurie's job, she is a good people person and doesn't mind making phone calls, she seems to be more informed about the concerns we're facing so I think she should take a leadership role in this project. Maybe as more of an organizer and supervisor, making sure we all stay on schedule, besides that, I don't know her design skills so I think until I do, i'd rather her not be a main designer for this project. From here on, its really just take care of our own individual jobs and everything will come together nicely and be a success.