Ionrock Dot Org

My focus this summer is twofold with regard to my working. The first thing is to get better with customers, estimates, and design. Basically, I want to become a better marketer. The second focus will be to get better at programming. This second focus will really be more broad in scope since I need to get back into the world of compiling things to help ease the strain of the upcoming semester. I feel pretty good about the programming side of things because I really think that I am off to a good start already by working in general. On the design and marketing side of things I am a little more concerned. I find that when I do a design that I like, it really isn't much of my design. I am a pretty bad copycat when it comes to design ideas. I have yet to decide whether this is a horrible thing or a normal part of web designer life. I am positive I am not the only person doing this sort of thing so it is not the feeling of doing something wrong in practice that bothers me. It is the fact that I am not really creating anything that really gets my goat.

It brings me to the conclusion that I need a creative process. I relate this to database design, which while some may not consider it artistic, it definitely needs some creativity in the end. In database design there is a sure fire way to produce a relatively useful database. The people who are very good at this sort of thing can make the database exceptional but there is a strong foundation to build from that makes creating excellence a easier task. My aim then is to do the same thing for design. I want to develop a method to creating a design that may not be amazing, sets a good base for growth. This spans from color to code and encompasses everything from predesign ideas to a sweet css file. I want to layout my first attempt at creating this method of design, even though I am a big copycat, I have to start somewhere.

The first thing to do is establish and audience. This is the most important part of any rhetorical communication and web design is no different. The audience and/or use will be my guide designing the site. I will create five users who will go to the site and analyze it for their experience. Each user should have at least one special need that needs to be fulfilled. The obvious example would be a senior who needs large text, but we will need to be more creative than that. If there is time (pronouced money), real people should be enrolled to get real life examples of users. This can also be done to help create a test bed of personalities you can use for different projects (thinking ... "yeah this sounds a little like I know what I am doing... strange"). The end result of the user research will be to develop one description of how the site should feel and work. For example, "This site needs to convey a subtle hint of arrogance to convey extreme confidence while enabling personal relationships to each customer. The site should focus on graphical content due to the specific audience (describe here). Three words to describe the site are focused, bold, handsome." The three word "thing" there is a good use for yourself to remind you what the design should be doing. It also can help to keep your ideas in check with what the customer is looking for.

Now that the audience is established the next thing is color. What colors defines the look and feel of the site. I have read that picking three main colors is best but I am going to go out on a limb here and say five is the way to go. This allows for some hinting colors that, for myself, never seem to make it into the design. I will pick three and use three so for myself more is better, especially if they are different and provide contrast. Again, these colors should envoke or be used to envoke the feel of the site you created when you determined the audience. If they don't look exactly like the feel (if that makes sense) that is alright. It is just a guideline and quite possibly it is better to go with colors that don't look like the feel in order to gain a sense of difference from other similar sites or designs.

Now that we have a clear focus, some colors, and little money left, we start picking out design elements. These are things like typefaces, photos, effects, etc. that will be used in the actual layout. At this point I think there is the temptation to start messing with photoshop or your favorite image editor and start putting together some layout ideas and where things need to go. Hold off on this. It is better to develop this pallette of colors, and tools before painting than to start sketching and then have to go get paints as you see the need. I hope that metaphor makes sense because I just thought of it now and I think it might really be and important idea.

A little side note to empasize this. When I was in 8th grade we did a paper where we had to turn in all our pre-paper work such as notecards, bibliography information, and 4 rough drafts (that was a pain). While I don't think I ever did a paper like this again, I did learn that taking the time to get supplies and sources together makes for a better written paper. At the time it made it seem steril and boring but when I was done I very impressed with the result. The system in itself really helped to give a better product. Alright, back to this first draft of the design method plan.

One thing to think about in developing this pallette of design elements is where you are going to get these parts and pieces from. I have started taking my camera with me so I can take pictures if something strikes me as interesting. Many of these pictures are not worth a flip but I keep them all nonetheless to help build a library of pictures for designs. This is an easy way to get material together for designs. I am ripping this off from Web Design on a Shoestring. The book suggests that before you purchase stock photography and expensive fonts, consider working with what tools you have such as your own digital camera or creating your own fonts. What I am trying to say be creative when creating your library to draw from.

Now that we have tools, colors, photos, and a general feel I think now is the time to start a design. At this point the best thing to look at is the content going on the pages. This is a very difficult part. In my own experience text and content have been a struggle to get out of a client. I will ask for text and information and they will give me half a page and expect the rest of the site to create itself. But enough whining, this dilemma makes for an important point. If you know the client is going to welch out on giving up some verbage than make the design focused on having less text and content. The idea here is to analyze what content you have and how to organize it for the website. Also, consider future content because if you are like me you have this passion to make people update their own websites in the hopes that only original, interesting work will come my way. You never know when the client will need a huge photogallery along with 30 years worth of brochures on their website.

We have arrived at the point where the brush hits the canvas and the actual design can begin. This is where I am pretty lost and not sure where to go but hopefully all this pent up creativity that has been welling up through this preparation process will be at a boiling point where you are going to explode with creativity on your screen. Some suggestions on places to start are

• The Menus - Is this structure many levels deep or will five buttons do the trick?
• Divide Up the Page - Does the page need space for many different authors or is it for just one person to ramble?
• The Background - I know most people just pick white and go from there but possibly another color or pattern would be nice.

As I said, I am not an expert by any means and this is a rough draft but I think this method really could help someone. I am hoping that someone is me. Please leave commments on what you think.