This week we learned where content comes from and the sources of this content.
Content comes from;
- clients- content client gathers for you
- self-generated content- personal brand or blog
- user-generated content- twitter or social media ~ these sites are full of content
- APIs-
Content curation is how you organise content in a meaningful way. An example of this could simply be making a playlist of your favourite songs or creating a board of images you’ve seen on pinterest.
By curating content in this way you automatically give all these separate pieces of content a meaning and context. This can help generate more ideas and content.
User Stories
This week we learned about user stories, how to make them and why they are beneficial.
We learned a user story is a way of focussing on what you need to do for your digital product design. The format of a user story goes like this;
- As a person [in a particular field/role]
- I want to [perform an action/ or seek out information]
- So that I [can achieve my goal of]
The best content has a clear purpose and creating user stories is a great way to help develop and define the purpose of what you want to create.
Task- create 3 of your own user stories
These could be on any topic not just related to ux to make us think outside the box for what any user would want to do
1- As a [large animal vet]
I want to [to keep up-to-date on new medical information]
So that I [can improve my knowledge base and better diagnose illnesses]
2- As a [primary school teacher]
I want to [find some good learning resources online]
So that I [teach information my students will understand]
3- As a [Ux Design student]
I want to [Research ux portfolios]
So that I [can improve my own designs]
Crazy 8’s Task
insert images from sketchbooks
Portfolio Site update
This week I developed my site further by designing some quick sketches and wireframes of what I wanted.
Sketches
These were my first sketches of what I wanted the website to look like for the first 3 pages, Home, About and Contact, just ti get me started.
I had this idea when I was sketching of vertical text on the side of the website to tell you what page you were on, I thought it would be simple yet not something you see everyday. Something else I liked about these sketches was the idea of 2 columns where the content would be stored. These two main elements is what I took with me when designing my digital wireframes…
This was my homepage
This was my about me page
I decided to merge the contact page to just be a couple of links with icons on the bottom of the homepage instead of having its own page. This way contact would be available quicker and one every page. I liked the idea of having the text of my name on the homepage, animate when the cursor hovers over it. The text would multiply and fade under the header text. I thought this would give it a more interactive feel.
These wireframes were then given some feedback from my lecturer and peers in my class. The feedback points were as follows:
- Use about me layout as homepage
- Use standard icons for contact links
- Put contact in footer
- Separate Case studies into different page and add call to action
Mock-ups and Changes
I took the feedback on board and started making my hi-res mock-ups of my site with the changes needed.
Changes: Took on format of ‘about me’ page and contact links are standard icons and in footer
Changes: Separate projects page was added to showcase all case studies- not on homepage
Content and design for first case study was made and images added.
Changes: New about me page was made- short biography and images were filled out. Contact in footer
Overall Thoughts so far…
Overall I’m really enjoying how my website looks so far, I think it looks different and the bright colours are fun. The feedback I received really forced me to elevate my site and I think in the end it’s been very beneficial for me.