The Products:
Overall I am very happy with how my products came out. The website is responsive, engaging, graphically accomplished and coated with lovely jQuery that isn't intrusive but just helps to add a little polish, class and sophistication to the entire experience. As I mentioned previously I am glad I built it first and allocated a lot of time to doing so. I think that the product came out very well because of this.
The iBook again I am pleased with. I definitely felt a little stunted due to the Apple design mentality of holding your hand and utilising an obscene amount of fairly rigid presets. Nonetheless I felt that I managed to overcome that and create an overall engaging, interactive and functional product. I really like the continuity between the iBook and my website. There is a very strong sense of brand identity and validity which would be great for the target audience of A level students and they would recognise the resource and trust in it's ability to be engaging and informative.
The Pre Production:
This is my problem with every project so far. The sketchbook. I am alright at making blog entries I think (although I definitely need to try and explore design principles more) but when I create my best work it is by actually doing it. I can't sit down and plan everything in meticulous detail because I cannot properly envision it and I am bound by certain limitations. For example in iBooks author I couldn't use the font I planned to and thus had to compromise in certain aspects. I also couldn't go as in depth with interactive, moving elements due to other limitations.
If I sat down and planned out something in detail then I would only encounter road blocks along the way and so I feel as though I am wasting my time. Perhaps that was a little confusing. It's not that I can't plan or that if I did plan properly my work could be better. I do still plan my work it is just in my head and a few seconds before actually executing it. I realise that I should take a second and use my sketchbook to jot down what just happened but that intervenes with the flow and train of thought for me. Once I'm in the zone it is very easy for me to be taken out of it by the idea of having to document my moves through the design. Another thing is that I don't feel as though my designs are suffering from a lack of planning. I think that to a certain extent I am better at designing in the moment, winging it, and using my eye to lead the design forward.
I need to focus more on relaying what I am seeing in my mind. Incidentally I feel like I have accomplished that better than on my previous projects in this one. Most of my early planning and changes have been documented in my sketchbook and there is more content in there than I think ever. This is still one of my biggest challenges though with any project. I have never been good at keeping a sketchbook.
Production:
Production was fairly stressless. Everything went more or less according to plan. Nothing in the website broke catastrophically as I expected it had the potential to. Overall it was fairly painless. I managed to complete the iBook quite quickly and it was pretty easy thanks to the drag and drop functionality. The website also took shape quite quickly as well. Once I understood the CSS and JavaScript I was incorporating, I got to a stage where I could just copy and paste all the content in and it would just work. That was a great success.
So all in all the production was pretty smooth. It was also bundles of fun. I think I have found a new passion in web design as there are aspects that are very similar to visual effects and video editing. The animation parts and trying to accomplish a difficult effect that looks good echo to me After Effects and that is right up my alley.
Conclusion:
This project for me went really well. I really enjoyed the production of both the products and I feel as though the end result came out very well. For my first proper attempt at web design I think the site is quite sophisticated and advanced. Some of the jQuery I think works really well to add a little fines to the site and also to make it that little bit more interactive. Whats more I think that my site and my iBook both suit the target audience and the brief completely.
The colour scheme, though child-like, really works. The pink pops and draws the eye and the blue creates a calming backdrop that echoes of the ocean. In the iBook I chose to steer clear of any games and activities that others included as I deemed them too childish. I certainly wouldn't want to perform a word search or sketch a flower at A level and so I don't think it fits the target audience at all. Furthermore I think that the typography is modern and easy to read, the information is of a high standard and reliable and the videos really add to the experience and work well.
This project went well from start to finish and I am definitely going to be exploring web design further as I really enjoyed it in this project and would like to learn more!
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