IXD301 Wk1:- Research and Discovery

This was the first week of second year, this class was an introduction to what would be covered in second year and also the portfolios that would be created.

Class started by looking at different language used by people and what may be more commonly used. This can come in use when applying for placements as I can see what words employers are favouring in their hunt to find an employee.

In order to get a better understanding of this I used Google trends to help me identify which words were most commonly used.

Over the last few years searches for UX design and UI design have been on the rise as more people have become more aware of what these jobs are and what they detail whereas in the past human computer interaction would have been the most common search and it would have acted as an umbrella term that encompassed other terms like UI and UX. In recent years human computer interaction searches has been declining as employers and people in general are realising that there are different aspect to human computer interaction and they are changing their searches to match this revelation.

 

PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION

In class  it was said that other portfolios that have been created by other designers and teams should be looked at for inspiration and to see what they did well.

Here are some portfolios that I found myself drawn to :-

I found Studio Lovelock’s portfolio to be very eye catching. Once I opened it, my attention was captured by the vibrant colours used and I wanted to see more.

Studio Lovelock had a show reel in order to show viewers a range of their work that may not have been within their portfolio.

Instead of having a solo page dedicated to their portfolio they instead have their portfolio on a slider and to see their projects the user moves to the next screen and can easily see all of the details of their projects and their final outcomes

Studio Lovelock does a lot of things really well within their site. They capture the viewers attention and does a good job of keeping it and making the viewer want to see more

Since writing this Studio Lovelock has since changed their brand and is now Goodlove:

Even without all of the colour Goodlove is still visually pleasing, just in a different way and there are many features that are done well within their new brand site and that I found to be amazing for inspiration.

Such as:

The layout that they use for their content and text is very pleasing. Everything seems to be well placed and done well which is something that I would like to try emulate in my site design

 

Elmwood

Elmwood is a design studio that I had recently found during my search for inspiration.

 

 

 

Elmwood has an amazing site. Everything goes together nicely and it does a great job.

 

 

 

 

They also use two different background colours but make it appear seamless, while the green used make the text stand out. This is especially so as Elmwood only uses their green colour for their text and does not use black which again helps everything fit into place and appear seamless.

 

 

One thing I loved about this portfolio is that it was not super complicated and overwhelmed with animations and items etc but at the same time it did not feel too simple. I felt that this portfolio had found the perfect balance and that everything it did it did well. I found that it also helped give a really good sense of who the designer is and what type of person that they may be.

 

 

 

I personally loved how Wargnier used text over her images in order to add something special and different to it. Also once Wargnier’s portfolio opens up the first thing that the viewer sees is one of her projects and work. This allows the viewer to already be given a sense of the type of work that she does and then if they are interested in viewing more of her work they can go into the portfolio to view more projects.

 

Enjoy Digital

Enjoy digital is another site that had inspiriting elements within their site.

 

 

 

They also had a colourful landing page similar to the one that Studio Lovelock use to have. Eye catching and captures the viewers attention. They also had a changing headline located on the landing page which displayed almost motivational sentences

 

 

 

 

Also depending on the page that the viewer is on the background colour seems to change but no matter the change it is always an eye catching colour to again capture the viewers attention. even though there is a colour change there is still a similar colour gradient added.

 

Clever Birds was another portfolio that I looked at it as it had different elements that interested me and drew my attention. Their homepage had a slideshow that showed different project that they had worked on.

Instead of having different pages, one for the about section, one for the contacts etc. everything is instead located on one page. The menu navigation takes the viewer to the exact section of the webpage that they are interested in. This means that everything the viewer could want to see in relation to clever birds is on one page

 

 

All of these webpages seem to equally work well and display different characteristics. They all do different things well and it is my hope that from researching these websites I can take away inspiration that I can then input into be work when creating my website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *