Developing The Idea:
Before I began development, I had to consider the problems I needed solved first in order to give my website purpose. I identified 3 key problems that fit the criteria of a strategic designer who wants to be able to showcase her work. First, I needed a place where all my work could live together. Second, I needed to have something that is readily available and can be shown to clients. Lastly, I needed to make myself accessible.
Discovery and Research:
I started off my research by looking at different websites and determining what works and doesn't work for me. I narrowed it down to three for the purpose of simplicity and pointed out the elements that I liked and disliked.
Here is a photo from Seth Godin’s website. I liked that it’s one page with the directory on the side. It’s easy to navigate and I can just scroll through the whole thing and see what I need to see. However, I don’t like how messy it looks and feels. I think it could be cleaned up a bit and have more organization to it. To me, the order and layout doesn’t make that much sense.
This photo is from Rami Malinic’s website, specifically, ‘the books available to order’ section. In general I really enjoyed the style of the website and how it blends the use of color with minimalism. What really stuck out to me about this section was how it spans across the page and the background color changes depending on which book you’re hovering over. However, this page almost felt too long. There was a lot of content and it was like a never ending scroll, and that’s not including the other tabs that can be clicked on and explored.
Now for my personal favorite and biggest source of inspiration, Debbie Millman. Looking at these photos, you can see it does a great job at showcasing Debbie’s personality and style. It plays with the typography, background design, and is very straightforward. I really love the large font size mixed with the visuals and it manages to capture the type of spirit I’m going for. On the other hand, what doesn’t work for me is that it feels a little messy. It certainly feels personal and like a look into Debbie as a person and the work she creates but I personally would want something slightly more polished.
Targeting The Audience:
I began the development of the website with the intention that this would be the website I can show employers when looking for jobs but also potential clients who need help getting their brands off the ground. For context, I want to go into Data Analytics and Trend Forecasting with a background in brand strategy as the foundation. Something all of these things have in common is research not just any research but the research that gets buried under piles and piles of content. I need to be able to showcase I can do that through my projects but who wants to dig through all of the different things I’ve done anyway. With that in mind, I designed my website to be straightforward, simple, and let it speak for itself. It’s the website for people who want to know who I am and what I can do without revealing my deepest darkest secrets.
Creating The Website:
Putting It All Together:
