Final Project Worksheet

Develop Your Idea

The website I want to create will sell a a short magazine/guidebook I am creating that highlights some of the best cultural festivals celebrated in Asia. The guidebook will be very visual and contain articles that inform the reader on what each of the festivals featured celebrates, how long it has been celebrated, the significance of the festival, where and when it is celebrated and the traditions and activities that occur. The problem I want the site to solve is to provide my print guidebook/magazine with an online platform that will help publicize the book to a wider audience and get people interested in purchasing it. I also want to site to serve as a place where the user can directly get background information on the book and easily purchase it.

Discovery and Research

Fest300

The homepage of Fest300's website is clean and captivating as your eye first focuses on the colorful header photo and then shifts its attention to the text box, logo and navigation. I like how the black info box and logo overlap with the header photo and interrupts the immersive effect of the photo through contrast in color, space and alignment. I want to implement a similar landing page structure to my website but also add a moving header feature.

Travel+Leisure

The organization of Travel+Leisure's featured stories is effective in visually capturing the user's attention and providing them with several options once they enter the landing page. I also like the confluence of the photographs as their individual color schemes compliment one another and give a relaxed feel to the website.

I like Travel and Leisure's idea of implementing a slideshow feature on their landing page.The website's use of a moving header adds movement into the flow and structure of the landing page and again, presents multiple story and content options for the user. It also offers a refreshing change and variation in the minimalistic style adopted by Travel+Leisure.

Complex Magazine

The article layout and balance between text and photos for Complex magazine's cover story visually compliment each other as both the copy and images work together to create a pleasant reading experience for the user. For my website, I want to mirror the same emphasis that I place on typography and typographic layouts in my print magazine/guidebook onto the structure of the site as well. I also like the shared color scheme between the photo, the background of the site and the text.

Conde Nast Traveler

The navigation drop-down menu is beautifully displayed and organized in terms of the site's categories and their corresponding visuals. The clean and elegant design compels the user to engage with the feature, offering both textual and visual options to vividly illustrate the specific headings and subheadings and what to expect when visiting that section of the website. However, I think it would have been beneficial to add a "See More" link at the bottom right corner otherwise the user's options seem restricted, which could possibly turn them away if they can't find what they're looking for.

I found the collage of readers' Instagram pictures at the bottom of the webpage to be one of the most creative aspects of the site. It incorporates both audience interactivity with the website (encourages users to submit photos relevant to the story under a hashtag) and a unique, unconventional approach to showcasing a cover story.

Target Your Audience

My target audience is travel or culture enthusiasts, frequent travelers/tourists and journalists interested in writing and visually documenting the festivals and customs practiced around Asia for a story. Interested in finding out what some of the best cultural festivals in Asia are, the audience will use to site to learn more about the guidebook and the content that it offers. The website will also serve as a sneak preview into the magazine’s overall design and layout in order to get the user excited about purchasing and reading the actual publication. By familiarizing themselves with the magazine/guidebook through the website, the audience will be more curious to learn about international cultures and the importance of cultural diversity and feel inspired to travel to these countries and participate in their festivities.

User Profile

Rani Khol, Student: Rani is an avid reader of travel books and she is looking for one that would teach her more about the culture and customs of India and other Asian countries. When entering the site, she is first brought to the home page where she is greeted with a full page slideshow that she can control using the side arrows and a navigation menu with selections such as "About", "Preview", "Purchase" and "Contact". To delve further into the website and learn more about what the book offers, she can click either one of the menu options and be brought to a new page. She is curious about what the book generally offers so she clicks the "About" tab. After reading an overview of the book, she then clicks the "Preview" tab on the differently designed navigation bar at the top of the page to see sample pages of the interior of the book. She finds herself interested in purchasing the book but before clicking the "Purchase" link, she wants to ask the creator of the book a few questions. To do this, she clicks on the "Contact" portion of the navigation bar and sees a list of ways for her to contact the author.

Inspiration

Thumbnails

Wireframe

Photoshop Comp