Web Design I

Unit 2: Site's Purpose

The first step when creating a website is really understanding the users that will be viewing the site, researching any potential competitors and really understand the market you will be entering. This process historically has been a two person job, a designer and a strategist. The strategist helps define who the end user will be and how the website will stand out in the existing market. The designer takes the strategist findings to help them create a structure, visual language and brand for the website. During this class we will review some case studies, go over the strategists role in detail as well as dissect and analyze an existing website.

Home Work

Market Analysis

Choose one of the companies below to be your “client.” Play the roll of the Strategist as well as the Designer. Do market analysis for the selected company and then do a visual audit of at least one of your “clients” competitors homepage. Post your findings and research to your blogs. Once you have created the post submit the link via the Assignment in Blackboard.

Choose a client below:

  • R/GA
  • Frog Design
  • Method
  • New York Times
  • The Guardian
  • RISD
  • Cooper Hewitt
  • dribbble.com
  • Nike
  • Apple

Answer the following:

  • What is your market?
  • Who is your user? Create a user archetype.
  • Who are your competitors? Put together a list of (at least 3) competitors.

and provide a visual audit

  • Create screenshots of your competitors website homepages.
  • Overlay the websites grid on top of a screenshot of it.
  • Create a color palette.
  • Identify the typefaces used (names, sizes, hierarchy).
  • List all the media types used (images, videos, audio, interactive embedded assets).

Put your work for this assignment in a blog post and put the link to that post in Blackboard (not to your entire blog).

Project Design Document

For this course you will complete a website. Throughout the course you will go through the various design and development stages of Web Design. You will apply the skills that you learn to this website that you will create. Your final project will be an accumulation of all that your learn, as you create a professionally designed website.

For this assignment, decide on a website you would like to build for this course (I discourage designing a portfolio, but is an option). Then create a project design document. Provide the following:

  • 2-3 sentence Description
  • Intendend Audience
  • Primary Purpose
  • Site Goals
  • Market Analysis
    Similar to your market analysis assignment, conduct a market analysis for your website that you will create. Figure out what your market is, who your users are and who your competitors are (find three). Pick one competitor and do a visual audit of their website.

Put your work for this assignment in a blog post and put the link to that post in Blackboard (please not, do not put a link to your entire blog. Be sure it is a link to this assignment).

Resources

If our artists are not versed in technology, who will imagine what we can become, who will ask what we should not be?