Today is our 2nd lecture with Kyle in the studio. We looked at what web content is and where it can come from and how we can use it in our portfolio site. We also looked at examples of inspiration, Content Curation, user and job story, visual grammar , Language and Typography.
Where does web content come from?
Web Content can comes from
- Clients- This is any information that can be sourced from clients such as images, texts, sounds, graphics, videos, etc.
- Self- generated- This is information I collect myself from my work.
- Third-Party- This can be content from blogs, Wiki, etc.
- User- generated- This is content which can be gathered from social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook.
We looked briefly at Inspiration from Paddy Donnelly who is a web designer, a Blogger named John Gruber, a girl called Rachel Andrew who blogs about css, smashing magazines is another inspirational site.
Content Curation
Content Curation is the simply finding information, that is relevant to your specific topic. Content curation which is basically sorting or organising of content in order to share with a specific audience. A cassette tape is a good example of this.
The 3 simple steps of content curation. Its important to do this with my own content curation.
The main benefits of content curation is:
- improving your understanding
- Helps identify trends
- Enables you to network and build realtionships
- Promote content to a specific audience
- Idenfity the main focus points
- keeps user informed
Good principles of a content curation is:
- Consistent
- User centered
- User friendly
- Useful
- appropriate
- Ensure its clear.
User and Job Story
A user story is a way of pinning down what you need to do. User stories are great for a different audiences. The best Content has a purpose as well as looking nice. We should consider acceptance criteria as it basically something that works well. Make sure to include contact details on portfolio so employers can contact you.
Kyle give us an exercise in class were we had to write our own user stories.
My first one is: I am a student currently seeking for a Job placement in Belfast. I want to work in place that is user friendly. So I can be successful and hopefully will help me find a full time job.
The second one is: I am looking to interview a potential student. I want to able to contact them. So I can arrange an interview with them.
Visual Grammar
Kyle then went on to talk about Visual grammar which can be Icons, pictures, images, etc. Visual Grammar can combine simple elements such as Line, plane and dots to create specific sites and images. For next week he wants us to produce visual grammar for the Home, About and Case study.
Tips for visual grammar
- Simplify
- What can you do with constraints
- Focus on re-using elements and Minimising visual complexity
Language and Typography
Key points to consider for my portfolio site is:
- Who are you?
- What are your values?
- What’s your mission and purpose?
- What do you hope to achieve?
- How will we know if you’re successful?
Write key words to reflect your personal brand value that people will understand
Typography is basically clothing for words. The use of Typography is very important on the portfolio and helps you site stand out.
Things you should consider:
- Optimise legibility- Appropriate Choices
- Improve Accessibly
- Improve usably
Resources I could look at include:
- Typewolf
- Books
- Fonts.com
- GoogleFonts
A good website has a start, middle and end. A website must be able grab a users attention, portfolio site can consist of one or multiple webpages.
It’s important to start off with the critical Info, then consider the background and content and finally ensure its nice to look at.
Placement talk
Later on we had a talk about placement which i found very interesting. He talked about his background and who he all worked for and what potential employers look for. He mentioned briefly about the elements of user experience.
Sketches
Near the end of class Kyle asked us to sketch 8 different drawings in 8 minutes of how we wanted our website to look. We were able to go wild and express ourselves to see what ideas we came up with.
Reflection
I enjoyed the lecture today. There was a lot of information and things to take away from the lecture. It helped give me a better knowledge of content and where it comes from and why it’s so important.
For next week kyle wants us to :
- Sketch
- Develop our visual graphic and produce a Mockup for our Home, About and case study page.
- Look for inspiration