design
branding
The partners have supplied me with their company logo:
They insist that the logo must be displayed in the top-left corner of each page of the website. They also want the website to have a colour scheme that reflects the company logo to provide a consistent corporate look. After much consideration, I decided to use the following three colours throughout the website:
 |
 |
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| #FF6666 | #333333 | #FFFFFF |
I didn't choose bright red and perfect black because I felt that together they were far too oppressive. The digits underneath each block of colour are their hexadecimal representation.
I also felt it necessary to design another image that would be displayed through the whole of the website. I used Macromedia Fireworks to create it. Below is a screen shot of the development of this image.
Using the three colours from the website's colour scheme and with the knowledge I have gained about the nature of the company, the image to the right is what I came up with. I then emailed it to the clients and gained their approval instantly.
The totality of this task has enabled me to partly complete the first main goal: "establish the company image".
content
In this task I wish to discuss and consider the layout of the page content. This is a very important aspect of the design. The quality of the content itself and the layout of each page's content will affect the effectiveness of the site as a whole.
layout
On all of the pages, bar the biographies and products pages, I wish to split the base of the page into two different sections. This will give the average user a choice of different pieces of information instantly. This will improve functionality. For example take the front page. If somebody visits the site for the first time they will be welcomed and introduced to the company, but if a previous visitor revisits the website they will they be informed of the latest news in the "What's in the pipeline?" section. This layout technique gives the front page dual-usage and will provide better access to other content in other parts of the site as well.
The layout will be portrayed more fully and clearly later on in this development stage.
images
The partners have been given permission to use Oracle Corporation's ON logo somewhere in the 'about' page's contents. This will be situated next to the text informing investors of PSD's relationship with the company.
For the partner biographies page I have been provided with a snapshot of each partner to display under their name. Each of these images are a similar size to passport photos (110 x 165 pixels).
There is one more picture that the partners want in the website. It is a diagram to aid the explanation of one of their products. This image will have special properties assigned to it. All other images will be purely for display purposes.
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