Website Analysis

http://www.mountainview.be/fr/

Mountain View

-Simple parallax website. Many parallax websites has too many things going on which makes it hard to navigate around. But Mountainview uses it in consideration.

-Information is evenly distributed with a restricted colour palette to prevent chaos.

-Overall Header & Body text is readable.

-Even though the sponsor images are big they are toned back with an overlay.

-Including a video pluggin on the front page is quite interesting. Can consider this for our own website? How can we make it more interactive?

-Navigation would had been easier if the website was in English. (French website)

-The images aren't completely fixed in position and appear as you scroll down and discover new information. I think this makes the experience of the site more interesting.

-There is also interesting use of colour to separate each section of information. I think this works well to guide the reader into different pieces of information.

-There are also visual cues at the start before you scroll down, to make sure the reader doesn't miss the information on the page.

-The logo and navigation bar remains in a fixed position as you scroll down and when you move across to different pages.

-There is a site map at the bottom of the page aswell.

-The social media buttons are in the footer along with contact information. Works well for people who would be interested in contacting them after reading the information without having to click to a different page.

These key-pointers will be a helpful guide when we start planning initial thumbnails.

-Rebecca, Sarah

Three words and Mood Boards

Words

At first we had the words illuminating, experience and discovery but then changed to the words below. After the first session we thought to expand on those words and find something much more relevant.

This is the matching mood board with the 12 visuals matching the words above. It's still quite broad when trying to connect the imagery and the words. 

As you can see we changed the words again to suit more of what we wanted to show through our website. The idea to captivate our audience whether through the use of imagery or through colour. The works themselves are captivating and add a layer of new meaning and depth to the environment around it. That's the whole idea of Lux, to give Wellington a new essence through the winter. The concept of energy being literal for the electrical energy for the lights but also the energy around the environment and throughout the crowd that go to see the work. Energy through sound, energy through movement and energy through the light given off. The final word we decided to change last minute because even 'discover' was a bit vague. We chose the word memorable because that's what we would like the audience to feel after the actual event or even take an essence from through the website. For example having feedback posts on the website from twitter/facebook and even shared images on instagram. Memorable also through the fact that festivals and moments like these are shared between each other.

This is our proportional mood board of the six images. We chose the screaming LUX as our main image because that is what we want to give the user an essence of. In a way social media plays a big part with events like these so to make something memorable photos are shared with one another. Another persons feedback and photos may influence another individual's perspective to actually go and make their own memories. The idea of captivate is working more towards how we will captivate our users/audience and make the site appealing. The final bit is for the energy which can be seen through the images and use of colour palette and somewhat through some haptic movement. 

-Richie, Rebecca, Sarah

Week 2 - Research / Development

Throughout this week we have been ideating and researching material that would lead us to a point where we can see what we want to achieve with this website.  Choosing the three words without it being to vague or literal was tough. 

It’s always fun making a mood board but then choosing 6 out of so many is tough yet good for a sense of direction.  So far we are just gathering materials and ideas from around the web and gain a better understanding of what we would like to show through the website.

We originally went with the three words: 

-Illuminate

-Discovery

-Experience

However they were too generic and vague. We needed to find 3 specific words that can relate to the Lux Festival and also essentially be a guide for our style aesthetic. In the end we came down with:

-Discovery

-Energy

-Captivate

After trying to find some images relating to the words, we found that discovery did not fit well with Energy and Captivate. We wanted a combination of words that can cover a range of ideas yet still lead to a point of focus and give the user an essence of the experience. 
After deliberation, we finally settled on:
-Energy
-Captivate
-Memorable

- Rebecca, Richie

Colour Research

Palettes

These are some palettes taken from adobe kuler to see what would work together. We don't want our website to get too hectic with the amount of colours, so it would be limited down. If we do decide to have a reversed background then something else rather than black would be better. We would have to take into account the clarity and readability of the website. To get that captivating sense I have also taken into account a fluro colour palette that could be incorporated in a subtle way. 


Colour Psychology Research

Blue: Security, Trust Worthy, Stability, Loyalty, Wisdom, Confidence, Trust, Friendliness, Preservation, Courage, Science.

Green: Wealth, Money, Calming, Trees, Ambition, Endurance, Healing, Calm, Generosity, Natural, Completion, and Protection.

Red: Energy, Power, Vigor, Leadership, Courage, Passion, Activity, Joy.

Yellow: Optimism, Childish, Freshness, Law, Education, Arrogance.

Pink: Romantic, Feminine, Love, Beauty.

Orange: Cheerful, Passion, Pleasure, Enthusiasm, Fascination, Creativity, Fun.

Black: Powerful, Mysterious, Elegance, Sophistication, Functionality.

-http://www.blackbeardesign.com/understanding-color-the-meaning-of-color/

-Richie

Inspirations + Research

I collected some basic website as a helping tool (inspiration) to get us started on our own composition. I think we should try and avoid using lots of big strips as it could start appearing like banners, destroying hierarchy as a result. (Need to create a nice visual flow for easy navigation). We will also need to consider the demographics when constructing our website, making sure it appeals to everyone. I think it would be good if we played around with shapes, not restricting ourselves to rectangles. Fade in, fade out? Maybe incorporating some shapes from the Lux festival?

Plugins:

-Count down timer to give a "anticipating" feel.
-Interactive map for direction and seeing what's around.

Website vs Mobile App

Colour Exploration 

Restricting our colour pallets so the website doesn't appear too chaotic. (3-4 would be ideal I think).

Decided to use the eyedropper tool to pick out prominent colours from photos. I tried to incorporate darker and lighter colours to form a contrast. I still need to keep in mind that we have to pick colours that allow text to be readable. It was said that white text on black background is harder to read than if reversed. So I decided to stray from using too much black as a base colour. Instead I went to choose something that is still relatively dark and still gives the essence of a night festival e.g. navy blue and dark purple. 

-Rebecca

Type and texture exploration

I have also had a look at the typography side of how some styles could be used. I will discuss these sources with our group and see what we think will work as a collaborative. This is just to start off on some concepts of the kind of 'mood' our type could have. 

This other mood board is for the textures and patterns I think of when I imagine energy and the concept of illuminating. In regards to light and energy, you can start to see a sort of haptic movement and a sense of direction.  

- Richie

Mood Board - Richie

Allocated words: Illuminating and Energy/energetic

The dictionary definition of the word illuminating is light up; decorate with lights.
The first word that came to mind was illuminating because the light design/work gives the space around it a new depth of meaning and aura. 

Since the project revolves around a light festival, I considered imagery leaning more towards that. There is also a sense of direction and movement created which could work well when working towards getting the viewer's eye to flow through our website. 

It was interesting to notice that even the most little of things can have an impact of how we see our environment. Instead of looking for imagery that was in direct correlation with the LUX festival, I chose to expand on that into various areas that explored this word. 

Energy: 

1 the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity

• (energies) a person's physical and mental powers.2 power derived from the utilization of physical or chemical resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work machines: nuclear energy.3 Physics the property of matter and radiation which is manifest as a capacity to perform work (such as causing motion or the interaction of molecules).

Energy or energetic was the other word that came to mind not only because the light work requires energy but also because there is a sense of energy within the crowd and environment. There is also a sense of spiritual energy regarding the innovation behind it.

I collected imagery regarding the different areas of energy and some abstract interpretations of it. 

- Richie