Group Work Assignment 1 - Web Site Design BlueFish Media Design WebQuest
Group Work Assignment 1 - Web Site Design
BlueFish Media Design WebQuest
Introduction:
Assume that you are a member of a design team at BlueFish Media Design, a premier web and multimedia design firm in the Manawatu-Wanganui region. Recently, several local firms have approached BlueFish with requests for websites. The new clients are: ● Le Expensziv -- a new gourmet French restaurant offering wonderfully delicious food and extravagant prices [Group 1 and 13] ● A Dog's Intelligence -- a company that offers dog grooming, training, daycare, and vacation boarding services to the greater Palmerston North area [Group 2 and 14] ● Coffee Cafe -- a locally owned coffee bar similar to Starbucks located in a Palmerston North neighbourhood [Group 3 and 15] ● BabyFactory -- a small, upscale shop in Deer Park Mall specializing in clothes, toys, and accessories for infants and toddlers [Group 4 and 16] ● Pirk, Picard, & Paneway -- a new accounting firm just formed by three recent accounting major graduates with CPAs, specializing in small business and tax accounting [Group 5 and 17] ● StressExterminators - a team of NZ school psychologists who have developed a new cognitive behaviour therapy approach specific to NZ and wants a cognitive behaviour therapy online application that is used for treating stress among young people in all schools within the regions of NZ [Group 6 and 18] ● Share-a-Journey: A social networking website aimed at linking up people so that they can travel together in the same car if they are visiting the same city from the same home city. The website must be very informative about all sort of information required by the target audience [Group 7,19 and 25] ● Hunters’ Den - A start-up company started by a couple on their farm to offer hunting expeditions to many city hunting hobbyists and enthusiasts of various hunting skill levels - armature to experts - offering prime game in New Zealand, especially herds of deer that are tormenting them by eating grass in their cattle paddocks [Group 8 and 20] ● StarTrek Infinity Enterprise - an organisation engaged in space exploration and planet colonisation projects. The website seeks to raise funds; to inform citizens of the earth about the benefits to humanity of their missions and to recruit people. Recruitment is via a “reality show” type of interview done on international TV. This is for the Mars 99 mission, undertaken under the assumption that recruits will never return back to earth once they are launched into space to go and colonise other planets [Group 9 and 21] ● Innov8 - A company specialising in motivational strategies that provide motivation and personal development consultancy services to corporations, companies, and charity organisations. [Group 10 and 22] ● Gaming Ninja - A game developer. The website seeks to appeal to the gaming community including young gamers as well as parents who want to control the gaming time and content of their children with concerns about children’s exposure to violence. [Group 11 & Group 23] ● Karoomba! – an event management company specializing in themed parties.
NOTE: Read Web Design Manual 1 and Manual 2 (the two manuals may have overlapping topics and concepts and are not meant to be progressive - they are complementary/supplementary) and the criteria in the Best Practice Guideline (a supplement to Manual 1) to help yourselves to carry out this work.
The Task:
Since your team has done so well on previous assignments, the Web Design Director, Maria Maaka, has decided to allow your team to choose the client you would like to work with. Your task is to analyze the competition, that is, businesses operating (with a web site) in the same domain and propose a page layout design appropriate for your client's business and target audience. There are three deliverables (also to be submitted in a ZIP archive via Stream):
- Analysis Report,
- Presentation (slides) + VIDEO presentation (no longer than 15 mins) by the group (show teamwork in the presentation),
- Sample Page Layout.
Each member of the group also must submit an assessment of self and other members’ contributions and participation in this work. Each member of the team plays a different role:
- FearlessLeader,
- DesignGuru,
- TextMaster, and
- PixelMeister.
You will need to discuss these roles with your fellow team members and each choose a role. Two members may jointly be assigned to a role.
FearlessLeader: The FearlessLeader serves as the team leader. The role of the FearlessLeader includes working with the team to divide up tasks, leading discussions, reminding team members about due dates, communicating with clients (via your instructor). You will also be responsible for sending preliminary designs to the instructor for comment prior to submission. See details (Share Your Design) later in this document. The FearlessLeader is ultimately responsible for all of the group's deliverables.
DesignGuru: The DesignGuru verifies that design principles such as alignment, contrast, proximity, and repetition are utilized in the design of a usable and accessible sample page layout The DesignGuru contributes to all the design-related components – especially the page layout format for the Sample Page Layout. The DesignGuru will generate the Presentation (with help from other team members).
TextMaster: The TextMaster focuses on writing for the Web-- the use of text and the written word on web pages -- including writing compelling headings, brief paragraphs, and eye catching lists (see Chapter 3 Writing for the Web resources). The TextMaster will generate the written Analysis Report (with help from other team members) and provide assistance with the text for the Sample Page Layout.
PixelMeister: The PixelMeister focuses on the use of color and graphics on a Website (see Chapter 4 resources and Chapter 7). The PixelMeister has responsibility for the selection and justification of the color scheme chosen. The PixelMeister will generate the Sample Page Layout (with help from other team members).
The Process:
Choose Your Client Your first step is to discuss the client listed above, assigned by your groups number, with your team. Understand your client's business domain and what their business is about. Analysis Your team will need to do some investigation and background analysis.
- Determine the top three expectations your client has for the website.
- Determine the target audience.
- Locate three potential competitors (or similar websites).
- Use the Web Design Best Practices Checklist to analyze the competition. For each competitor, note two strengths and two weaknesses.
- The Analysis Report. Submit a two-page written description of your results for the four analysis steps above.
Design Your team needs to design a sample page layout and create a presentation to propose to the client. Feel free to contact your instructor with your questions about your client and their business.
- Choose color scheme. Justify your selection.
- Choose page layout type: jello, liquid, or ice (frozen). Justify your selection.
- Choose font face, weight, and size for headings, subheadings, main content, footer, etc. Justify your selection.
- The Sample Page Layout. Use any of the following applications to create a Sample Page Layout: Adobe Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Macromedia Fireworks, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, or Adobe Photoshop. Create your own content, including logo banner.
- The Presentation. Present your design with flair! Use either Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint to enthusiastically share your design ideas with your client (the Presentation). Include information about the target audience and client expectations from your Analysis Report. Include your proposals for color scheme, page format type, and fonts you selected. Include the URL of your sample page layout file.
