Dreamweaver Workshop

//Aims:

1. Identify purpose of website
2. Identify and distinguish the target audience
3. Identify and evaluate the target audience needs
4. Demonstrate understanding of interface design & basic layout techniques


//Purpose of a website:

Showcase portfolio
Practical
Self Promotion
Accessibility
Get a job
Freelance


//Target Audience:

Potential employers
Clients (type of work put on website will reflect the type of work you receive)
Collaborators
Like minded people
Awards


//Audience Needs:

/Potential Employers:
Contact information
Examples of work
Awards
CV

/Clients:
Reference/Reviews section

/Collaborators:
Links to their work

...these are therefore the pages we need.

(talk to potential target audience to find out what they want)

//look at similar websites (work out what works and what doesn't)

BROWSE THE INTERNET AND LOOK AT OTHER GRAPHIC DESIGN WEBSITES (good and bad)
Design the website and bounce ideas off peers


//WEBSITES
The average user will take 3-5 seconds to decide whether to move on or not.

WEB STANDARDS...Google W3
(bend these but still work)

Lightbox ...present videos

SCAMP: sketch of the web design layout
SITE MAP: shows all pages linking together
(produce both of these for next session)

WEB SAFE FONTS:
Specify a 'font family'.
The text on the website isn't embedded onto the computer, it uses whatever font is available on the machine accessing it.
(can make button as an image to use a non-web safe typeface)
Only a body copy using web safe fonts are searchable by a search engine (if left as an image it would be searchable)

WEB SAFE COLOURS: in photoshop tick 'only web colours' box on the colour picker. Use html code displayed #33333

800 x 600 will fit on any screen.
USE 1024 x 768
file: new: web: preset
(need to consider how it would fit on a tablet, phone etc)

Adobe flash does not work with any of Apple content.

Static Website: never updated
Dynamic website: updated (Facebook, blog)
...design of our website needs to be easy to update.

Can use dreamweaver to update the website (However, it costs a lot of money so a client probably wouldn't have it)
CMS: Content Management System
www.cushycms.com (simple to use and free)
instant dynamic content

http://www.awwwards.com/