DESIGN PRODUCTION - WEB - FINAL CRITICISM

Firstly, this weeks web criticism followed the same structure as the final print criticism, with the group being split in two forming the opposing critique groups. 

Group A (my group) were the first group asked to layout the elements of the web brief ready for the criticism. 

At this stage of the project I was unable to present a working, coded website as I only started coding it the day before. Despite this, I presented PDF. files of my outcome so viewers could get an understanding of the layout, colour scheme and aesthetic choices made so far. 

Furthermore, I also created a question for the criticism that asked about the navigation of the website. The question posed to members of the other group asked for comments on the sites navigation, as initially I was unsure whether to fit all of the sites content on one continuous scrolling page. The feature would to help make the site easier to navigate for my audience, an idea that arouse after becoming inspired from some websites I viewed in my research. 

QUESTION

1. Would the website work better as a continuous scroll with all the content on one page? At the moment I have a mixture of a continuous scrolling timeline and fixed resolution pages, do they work together?

FEEDBACK

Below is the feedback I received from the session.

ANALYSIS

A lot of the feedback received from the criticism is really useful, making comments on my websites navigation, design decisions and aesthetic relevance. My question generated some really applicable comments which will help influence my final decisions regarding the navigation of the site. Moreover, responding to the feedback will allow me to develop the functionality and relevance of my site as problems were highlighted that I had not foreseen.


Below are some of the useful comments received from the session;

• Placing all the content on a single, continuous scrolling page could get confusing.
• Separate pages allow for better navigation.
• Continuous scroll feature appropriate for timeline but not other pages.
• Consider using the same title font for all pages to make the website more consistent.
• Body copy font doesn't really work with the websites aesthetics, consider choosing a new one.
• Consider making changes to the body copy as it is not as in-keeping with the rest of the aesthetic elements. 
• Keep it simple in terms of text - balance.
• If you make rollover buttons keep them simple as the site is already visually busy.

RESPONSES

Analyzing the responses I received during the criticism allowed me to highlight areas of my project that, with development, could be refined and in turn improve the quality and relevance of my final outcome.

Below are the areas/changes that I will develop;


Finalized navigation

• The feedback I received commented on how a continuous scrolling form of navigation is suitable for the timeline, but is however unsuitable for other pages. Moreover, if all of the content was fit onto one page it could become confusing for the viewer to navigate.
• In response to these comments I have decided to utilize a continuous scrolling feature for the timeline section of my website, but have links from my navigation bar to other separate pages. 

Title fonts - Consistency

• Comments were also made about the inconsistency of my title fonts. The reasoning for the varying styles of typography was to create a messy, D.I.Y zine style aesthetic which holds relevance to my target audience. However, people viewing the site felt that it was a feature that could be improved to make the websites aesthetics more consistent. Moreover, a more consistent heading font will also help to establish a strong typeface hierarchy which coincidentally has relevance to navigation. 
• In response to the comments on my inconsistent heading fonts I plan to recreate each title with same typeface to ensure that consistency is apparent. However, I make sure that the D.I.Y style aesthetics are still apparent by roughly hand-rendering each title to create imperfections and dissimilar letter forms.    

New body copy font

• Finally, numerous comments were also made on the font used for the body copy on the website. I initially chose to use a web-safe typeface called 'Lucida Unicode'  as it had similarities to typewriter letter-forms only without the serifs. Typewriter style fonts have relevance to D.I.Y zine culture as typewriters were often used as a tool of creation, I wanted to try an capture this aspect with my font but obviously failed to achieve this.
• In response to the comments made I will find a new font for the body-copy of my outcome, first looking at serif typefaces as their letter-forms have more similarities in comparison to a typewriter style font.