Design Fit to Target Audience - Assignment Example

Design Fit to Target Audience Introduction The following report will discuss the various elements of the pollution website discovered at http://homepages.uel.ac.uk/u0905639/. The report is intended to show how this specific design was implemented. This includes how it was created to meet its target audience and how the information design was established so as to provide easy navigation and effective communication. The report will also discuss the actual implementation of the design including difficulties that were encountered during the creation process and strengths and weaknesses of the finished site. Bringing the report to a close, it will explore what has been learned in the creation process and end with a reflection on what can be done differently in the future. Design Rationale The design selected for this website includes a very dark color scheme incorporating mostly mid- to dark greys and shades of brown with some relief offered by bright lime green and red. The basic layout for the site is based on a vertical square with a horizontally-oriented logo graphic extending across the top of each page followed by another, smaller, horizontally-oriented grey box in which the six major links to pages within the site are located. This is followed by generally two graphics that depict the pollution being discussed in the larger grey box that fills the remainder of the page. In some cases, additional graphics and charts are made available for greater communication of the issue and each page contains a link to a dictionary that offers definitions for common pollution-related terms. This was deemed an effective design for communicating the seriousness of pollution because the images of the damage inflicted are quite powerful and entice the visitor to learn more about what is being said in the text areas. Target Audience The target audience for this website is teenagers and younger people of all genders as well as those people who are not very well-informed about pollution. The message of the site is intended to convey the global effects pollution has on everybody who lives on the planet, whether you are taking part in it or not, whether you care or not. Generally-speaking, this target group is apathetic to the larger issues of the world, being constantly distracted by the new media of the present generation, yet this is the demographic that can have the biggest impact on environmental concerns going into the future. It is for this reason that this particular target group was selected as the focus for this site. Although the dark colors may make it seem as if the site is targeted more toward the male gender, the site is targeted to both genders with a serious theme in mind. Design Fit to Target Audience The design of this site fits this target audience in a number of ways and takes into consideration elements of social expectations. For example, studies have demonstrated that young people in general tend to prefer websites that offer a great deal of graphics, video clips, audio clips and interactivity over those sites that offer a plain, straightforward presentation (Fidel et al, 1999; Kafai & Bates, 1997; Miller, Chaika & Groppe, 1996; Wolcott, 1998), a trend that continues into female adolescence, but not necessarily male as will be shown. However, they also understand that sites that omit these elements for the most part are more serious in nature and the information presented should be taken seriously. This website includes the graphics and the ability to interact on a small scale, such as the air pollution page in which users can scroll through a video presentation of examples, but it keeps its serious tone by not incorporating too many of these elements. Information Design The content of the website is neatly divided up into six major pages and five minor pages. The six major pages include the home page, pages on air pollution, water pollution, land and soil pollution, radioactive pollution and a credits page. The minor pages are all dictionary pages associated with each pollution page and offers page-specific definitions for terms used. The rationale for this organization was to keep the information clear and crisp without overwhelming the page. Working from the concept of the natural breaks that exist between these various types of pollution, it was relatively simple to keep the pages looking neat and uniform while still allowing space for unique features to each page such as graphs and additional photos. According to Rosenfield and Morville (2002), planning the information architecture before setting out on the project is essential to developing a well-working site and this fact became clear as the text of the site was developed. By separating the definitions into their own minor pages, the site retains a clean look without losing its informative appeal, all of which is the result of prior engagement with the information architecture concept. Navigation Navigation for the site is designed to be pretty straight-forward while leaving room for the site to be expanded at some future date. The primary navigation is located in a horizontal box just underneath the title graphic and is presented as straight text. Links to dictionary terms are located at the bottom of the text on each page, distinguished by a change in text color from black to red and contained within a bright yellow-green box. According to Tony Colon (2008), “it is important that users navigating around your site have a clear idea of where they are both in absolute terms and in relation to other content. Location information should appear on every page of the site, in the same place and in the same style.” Location indicators have been implemented on the pollution site in the form of a simple line that underscores the page that the viewer is currently reading. Usability and User-friendliness There are several elements of design that were incorporated into this website intended to improve usability. Jennifer Kyrmin, an expert on web design and HTML, listed the top five usability issues faced by designers. These include content, layout, colors, HTML and download speed (Kyrmin, 2010). Content fills 100% of the page area with enough text appearing on the initial screen without scrolling to entice the user’s interest to scroll down and read more. Since the text blocks have been kept short with the addition of the definition pages, most pages require only a few motions of the mouse to read the entire page. The colors are dark but are carefully selected so that they are easily legible without introducing eye-strain. Kyrmin recommends sticking with HTML 1.0 coding, which was not done in this design. Reading further into her recommendations, it becomes clear that her real recommendation is not to use any new programming codes until it is at least a year old in order to be accessible to a majority of the audience. Visual Design & Language Although the studies on my target audience indicate they prefer bright colors and flashing images, I feel my color choices and limitations on features is appropriate for my audience because I am trying to strike a serious tone at the same time that I am telling them that I take them seriously. For example, on the Penguin Pollution site, http://tiki.oneworld.net/pollution/pollution_home.html, the focus is obviously totally on younger kids in the color scheme of white, bright teal and vivid yellow with cartoon graphics. However, the organization of the site makes it clear that the content is intended for older kids who have the ability to read the more complicated text and the patience to follow the links. This site made it clear to me that I needed to take a more straight-forward approach. Another site targeted to my target audience is Bolt, http://www.bolt.com/, a teenage news outlet. The colors used are bright blue and a vivid orange while the layout is very similar to that of Facebook, making news articles difficult to find. From this site, I learned the importance of avoiding a certain look if I wanted my site to avoid being mistaken for something else or something not serious. Finally, the Youth Voices website, http://www.youthvoices.ca/, takes a much more serious approach to their topic, but again the page is filled with white and bright colors that give the site a very light-hearted feel. I liked the way they had the links along the top, but I had a difficult time discovering where I was in the site. My color scheme is intended to bring it home to my audience that this is a very serious and dirty subject while my language in the site is conversational, relatively simple, but informative. Design Implementation Here you need to discuss how you produced your website technically. You should discuss how the design of your website, detailed above, was technically implemented. This would involve discussing the use of XHTML, CSS and possibly Javascript. It would also involve discussing the inclusion of images and the image optimisation process (e.g. file formats, image resizing etc.). Difficulties Encountered & Solutions Applied Detail key stages in your work where you could not do what you wanted to do. Include details of what steps were undertaken to solve the problem even if they were not successful. Strengths & Weaknesses of the Website One of the strengths of the website is its emphasis on the importance of the issue it discusses. This is emphasized in the color scheme, the images used and the tone of the language involved. The inclusion of the definitions pages ensures no one goes away confused and the straight-forward design elements of the navigation ensures they never become lost. The information the audience came looking for is right there in front of them, easy to find within the page and not forced to compete with other elements such as advertising or other forms of content as was found on the other websites I looked at (http://www.bolt.com, http://tiki.oneworld.net/pollution/pollution_home.html, http://www.youthvoices.ca). While I am still pleased with the use of the dark color scheme, I feel a change to a dark brown would have perhaps been more effective in both highlighting the dirty nature of pollution and pulling the various graphic elements in better. What was learned? Briefly detail 2 or 3 key technical aspects of your work where you went beyond what was taught in the course. Describe anything you think you have learned about the process of design Describe anything you would do differently if you were to do this coursework again. Conclusion In conclusion, the process of designing a successful website is clearly much more detailed and scientific than simply sticking a few graphics on a page and adding some text. A great deal of forethought is necessary to start as a means of ensuring that the design meets the needs of the target audience and perhaps remains open enough for expansion to other demographics or greater development of information offered. Elements that must be considered include not only the target audience as a group, but also how they’re going to be using this site, what kind of equipment or software they are likely to have and how to best communicate to them on a visual level. Only after these ideas have been more fully explored can you begin to work on implementing these ideas into the actual site. Even with all this forethought and the struggle to get it to appear the way it was envisioned, the finished site still contains elements that just don’t match up to the expectations, suggesting the ability to revise and ‘tweak’ is a never-ending process if permitted. References Bolt. May 12, 2010 Colon, Tony. “Top Website Navigation Tips.” Web Design Library. (June 20, 2008). May 12, 2010 < http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-basics/design-principles/top-website-navigation-tips.14820.html> Fidel, R.; Davies, R.K.; Douglass, M.H.; Holder, J.K.; Hopkins, C.J.; Kushner, E.J.; Miyagishima, B.K.; & Toney, C.D. “A Visit to the Information Mall: Web Searching Behavior of High School Students.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science. Vol. 50, N. 1, (1999): 24-37. Kafai, Y.B. & Bates, M.J. “Internet Web-Searching Instruction in the Elementary Classroom: Building a Foundation for Information Literacy.” School Library Media Quarterly. Vol. 25, N. 2, (1997): 103-111. Kyrmin, Jennifer. “Top 5 Most Important Web Usability Issues.” About Web Design/HTML. (2010). May 11, 2010 Miller, L.; Chaika, M.; & Groppe, L. “Girls’ Preferences in Software Design: Insights from a Focus Group.” Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century. Vol. 4, I. 2, (1996): 27-36. Morville, Peter & Louis Rosenfield. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastropol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2002. Penguin Pollution. May 12, 2010 Wolcott, M.S. Information Seeking and the World Wide Web: A Qualitative Study of Seventh Grade Students’ Search Behavior during an Inquiry Activity. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of San Francisco, 1998. Youth Voices. May 11, 2010 < http://www.youthvoices.ca/> Appendices Read More