Interactive Design / Project 1 - Proposal

Omar bin Shafik / 0371439
Interactive Design / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Project 1 - Proposal

Proposal for the redesign of the Yale School of Art website.

Web Analysis

Regarding the layout, everything is pushed to the left side of the screen which already creates an imbalance on the screen. The layout of the buttons is very messy. They're scattered across the page with barely any reason behind them. The mobile website somewhat improves this as everything is arranged in a straight line. There is also a burger icon in the top left of the mobile site to help with navigation.

The colours used are also a mess, being a mix of bright and dark colours that don't complement each other well. There are also text boxes with colours fading into white that just don't seem necessary. This doesn't change on the mobile site.

The typography used here could also have been better. Some words are too big for no reason and some other texts are too small to read easily. There is also quite a lot of jagging on most of the texts. On mobile, the font size fits the screen better and is easier to read. 

The use of highlights on texts are only necessary because the background is a mess. As for images, the only image that can be seen is a large repeated image that takes up the entire background of the page. Nothing changes on the mobile site.

There isn't really an overall aesthetic for the page, as it seems to just be different elements that are mixed up in a way that doesn't quite make sense. The site is arranged better on mobile, but it still doesn't have much of an aesthetic because of the mess of colours, highlighted texts, and jarringly large, repeating images.

Redesign Goals

For redesigning, a lot could be improved for this website, like improved readability, improved useability, and a much cleaner and well arranged look. 

The target audience would of course be for the community of the Yale School of Art and anyone that is interested or would like to know more information on the school as that was what the initial target audience was as well.

Design Proposal

Since the website was made for the an art school, I was thinking that the website should somehow incorporate the students' works in the website as a way to promote the students and school to outsiders. Maybe have a board on the main page that shows off different works made by students that changes weekly or monthly and sub page that shows off every student's works. The works of course are to be submitted by the students by their own choice. 


Fig 1, Website Wireframe Concept Sketch

There should also be a gallery where visitors can view and search for specific artworks from the students. This could be organized by either category of artwork or creator of the works. I was thinking that it could look like the main page of Pinterest with a sidebar to search by category. 


Fig 2, Pinterest Main Page

Since the website is also meant to be a social experiment in the way that it would be observing the way in which people view the website, I feel that a sudden change like this redesigning would also add to the social experiment, being able to see how people react to the change and how they will view it then.


Fig 3, Website Reference and Moodboard


Fig 4, Colors (Rough)

UX Enhancements

I was thinking of simplifying things by adding big panels stating what they're there for and sidebars with quick links to different pages of the website like program information, faculty information, the student gallery and forums. I would like to make the website easier to navigate  for newcomers this way and for them to be able to connect and socialize with the existing community easily. As seen in my sketch as well, I would like to organize the website better as well by splitting off different topics into different sections on the website instead of the main page being a huge mess of information like the original website. I don't feel like the load times need any improvement as they're plenty fast already. The mobile website would also see improvement to color palettes and better organized contents. 

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