Website Research

Soon I will be required to create a website as part of my degree as a form of communication of my work. I see this as a brilliant opportunity to display my designs and their progress whilst in college and after leaving as I can continue with it. Having a website will enable people from all over the world to view my work and also to get in touch with me if they like what they see, therefore I am looking forward to creating this and have begun some independent research into website designs. 

I have collected some examples of the websites that I have found to be easy to use yet still effective in displaying products or designers work. Furthermore I have collected some examples of websites which I feel have a really good layout and personal designs on them. As well as collecting examples of websites which I think work really well I have also collected tips of what not to do on a website from the ones that i'm not so keen on. 

One surface designer who's website I only recently visited when viewing her work in New York is Lotta Jansdotter. When researching a little more into her work I found her website and thought it had some great personal touches and I could see parts of her personality through it which you also see in her work. Her website is easy to navigate with simple links at the left hand side on a white background. The type of the links is a handwriting type and I think this is something which shows her personality as it reminds me of a diary. Another thing that is also really nice to see is the display of her work as well as photographs of her creating her work in her studio. This is something which I feel is a plus to a website because it's good to see a designer making their work in their own environment and it feels inviting and personal to an outsider. She lists her methods, techniques and processes of creating her work on one of her pages which is lovely to see as it feels as though she is trying to help other artists out with their own work and makes you feel welcome as a viewer.  I also think her illustrative work brings the site to life adding her own design layout to her website so you will be sure to remember her and her work. 

Another website which I am very found of is the illustrator Keri Smiths. Her website is full of character and gives off a fun vibe as soon as you click onto it as the home page is full of not only links but little add ons like 'image of the day'. Her layout is original and although it is a little random I think this is part of the character of her website. The main thing which I thought was a good idea on the home page was a box which is labelled 'right in front of you' which urges you to draw something which is write in front of you inside the box digitally. I think an having interactive site is a brilliant idea as it will bring people back to the website and keep them talking about you.

A website which I have taken tips from of maybe what not to use on my own is style.com. Although I frequently use this website to keep up with fashion trends, research and general browsing of top designer collections I often find there to be a little too much on pages and find myself lost. There seems to be too many advertisements on the page that feel quite overwhelming and cluttered, also feeling a little like they are trying to force you to buy things. It is a good website for reference and it is jam packed with things to view but it just feels a bit crowded for me personally which is something which I would like to stir away from when creating my own website whilst making sure there is still enough to keep viewers entertained and interested. I also sometimes find that there is so much imagery at a large scale that things often freeze when loading or tend to take a long time which is also something I must consider when creating my website as people may get bored and exit the website. 

I have found some useful websites and have an idea of what I would like my future one to be like. I have a list of options when creating my website and my views may change but for the moment the points I would like to aim having are:

• a white background so that my work can stand out against it and nothing can overpower it
• a fun and personal type to feel inviting to browsers
• an easy to navigate website with useful links
• an uncrowded website which still has enough to keep people busy
• a considered sizing and amount of images to ensure fast loading
• links to blogs and my other useful contacts etc
• a wide range of my work to show diversity
• prices of products and places to buy them e.g. links to easy shop

Things that I would like to ensure I stay away from are:

• a cluttered website that can become confusing
• a website that appears to pressurising to get a viewer to buy
• a boring website which is lacking in style and personality