AF103: Design For The Web

Today I start the new (final!) brief; 'Design for the Web'.

Project Aim
It's all about web design and responsive web design, and the aim of the project is to "produce a responsive website that will display on Desktop, Tablet and Smartphone devices". In creating this website I will ensure there is a consistent visual style throughout all of my products (Desktop version, tablet version etc) and I will develop my own approach that is carefully considered and designed successfully.

As well as using a range of software to design the visual style of the website I will also hand code the website. To do this I will use a text editor, and the suggested programs include: TextWrangler, BBEdit and NotePad++. In order to hand code the site I need to develop my own knowledge of a variety of web languages, those include: HTML5, CSS3, Media Queries and some jQuery (to add further interactivity), and these are all languages I am going to look into and (hopefully) become accustomed to and (somewhat) learn during my research and throughout website development.

Requirements
As the main product of this project, my Responsive Website must contain (at least) the 3 following elements:

• A navigation system that is not only robust and works correctly, but that is user friendly and uses a 'Responsive Navigation Design Pattern'.
• A selection of text, images/illustrations, sounds and moving images.
• Some form of animated navigational elements. These should accompany the content of the website and should be successful at enhancing the user experience. I can do this through the animation being relevant and applying a good design style.  

As usual, my blog and sketchbook shall document my progress throughout this project. They will contain: a detailed production schedule, some analysis of existing responsive websites (good and bad examples), research into different industry standard navigation design patterns, and some good visual and interactivity research.

Pitch

At this moment, the proposed pitch date is Tuesday 6th May, so I am working towards that. In my pitch I will put forward my proposal for my responsive website. This will include explanation on how I have developed certain elements of the site - the design style, the navigation system and it's responsive qualities. I will also include wireframes, developed logo and header designs as well as interface designs and my considerations of UX design.

Crit
On Tuesday June 3rd I will crit my website to the class. Here I will receive feedback that is hopefully constructive and will give me ideas on how to improve. It also gives me time to fine tune the site before submission. By this point the entire site and navigation system should be there and working with few issues - my aim is to present a 99% finished product to the class.

Submission
This project will be submitted on Wednesday 4th June by 4pm, with any proposed improvements applied and (hopefully) a design and overall product I will be happy with!