May 26, 2010
Concept Redesign
The layout concept that my client chose was redesigned and taken to the next level. Unnecessary details were removed from the original design concept to make the site elegant and clean. Sharon asked for the layout to be made simpler. My client liked the use of red as an accent from the original concept. My client asked for a different font to be used on the header for her name. Sharon asked for the clip art to be removed from the site. The navigation was changed to include a page for an interview that Sharon did with the Capital Area Food Bank.
Layout Concept
Redesign
Three Layout Concepts
Three layouts are ready to be presented to my client. I developed these three concepts after establishing an understanding about the direction of the design with me client. Each layout has its own style. The layouts include a homepage and a sub page. The first layout concept uses red as an accent color. Red has been known to increase appetite in restaurants. The second layout concept was created using the clients favorite colors. The final layout concept was inspired by a wedding invitation the client liked.
May 12, 2010
Wireframe and Sitemap
The following site map was prepared to act as a guide to constructing the wire frame for Sharon’s portfolio.
The wireframe is the “skeleton” of the site I am creating.
Creative Brief
Sharon wants a Professional Career Portfolio to market, self promote and display her talent. The website will be a place that Sharon can showcase her skills and abilities, and can be used as an enhancement to her resume. Furthermore, with this website she will be able to start documenting her career and accomplishments for every time she changes positions. Additionally, the website will be available for headhunters, recruiters, and restaurateurs around the world who may be looking for someone with her experience and talents to view.
The site will be organized and designed around the feel of the European influence in her pastries. It will be a collection of awards, food presentation and photos, and other career accomplishments. Since the site is for promoting Sharon online, the logo for the site will be her name. The website will use high-quality images. Not only will the website have a form to make it easier for users to contact her, it will also have direct contact information for Sharon.
If you agree please sign below.
May 5, 2010
User Personas
“The cookies were good. Thank you for forcing me to eat them.”
Stranger Than Fiction
Chef Whitlyn Garrison Vail
L’artisan French Bakery is owned by Chef Whitlyn Garrison Vail but most people know her as Cricket. She grew up in sort of rural luxury. Her mother taught her cooking and baking and sewing; she learned still more about baking pies and cakes from an elderly couple — retired bakers — who lived next door. Cricket was a hard-working, serious child. A straight A student, she won a partial scholarship to The College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ and worked as a bakery chef to help pay expenses. She began her college career intending to study pre-med, but later switched to art, European history and architectural history. Just after her sophomore year, she married Pierson Clairemont Vail the Sixth, a law student. After graduation, she continued a successful bakery chef career, working for several locale caterers until her daughter was born, and Cricket quit working outside the home.
After her daughter was born, she and her husband moved to just outside of Austin, where they undertook the ambitious restoration of an 1805 farmhouse. Cricket started a catering business when her daughter started attending a private school, first in partnership with a friend and then on her own. In ten years this business, which she ran out of her farmhouse, had become a $1 million enterprise. She also opened a chain of retail stores to sell specialty foods and supplies for entertaining.
Chef Cricket uses the internet to do work, generate income and run her business. She sees the internet as a way for her to increase her brands exposure and sell her products. Cricket uses the internet to video conference with the managers of her stores for weekly meetings. She has found that this has cut down on issues of being late or complaints about traveling to the meetings. Cricket stays current on events by reading cnn.com daily.
Chef Blossom
Chef Blossom, is a baker that attended Harvard Law School but dropped out in favor of baking to “make the world a better place”. She is highly averse to paying her taxes for things she doesn’t want them to pay for, and claims she is a tree hugger.
Blossom began working in other peoples bakeries where she noticed organic baked goods all had a few things in common – they were brown, heavy as rocks, and tasted weird. She became committed to using organic ingredients to make great pastries that looked and tasted like their conventional baked brethren, but were better for the earth. Blossom noticed that lots of customers were asking where to find things, like “the organic brown rice flour you put in the Maple Pecan Muffins or Berry Tea Biscuits.” To keep her guests satisfied, Blossom opened Blossom’s Organic Bakery were she strives to be as eco-concious as possible without sacrificing taste or looks. From the start she was committed to offering her customers products made from the finest all natural ingredients.Having been born and raised in Texas, she knows the difference between naturally grown farm fresh foods, versus what she could buy in the grocery store. She even mills her own flour.
Chef Blossom mostly uses the internet to socialize. It helps her to communicate with friends by using social networking websites, through e mails, and chatting online. She also spends time researching her hobbies. She is trying to improve on her hobbies by reading up on them. She also takes part in discussion forums about leading a healthy lifestyle. She likes to be able to express her ideas however she wants. Her friends have been encouraging her to try online dating and she is thinking about it.
Website Analysis
Pastry Chef Joseph Johnson
Joseph Johnson is a pastry chef. His online portfolio site is located at
The layout of the homepage is two columns with a nice, short slogan. Joseph’s education and experience are organized in bullet points. The image in the background spans the width of the main content area, and continues to the bottom of the homepage. The site is pretty clean and organized apart from the over-powering background image, and I like the simplicity of the inner pages.The inner pages are also nicely organized making it easy on the eye to follow the content.
Rolf’s Patisserie
Rolf’s Patisserie is a gourmet European style bakery located just outside of Chicago. Overall, there is a clear influence of European style with the use of the images and typeface in the logo. It also works as a good contrast against the soft color scheme. Rotating images are used in the header on the homepage. The navigation bar looks professional and gives clear direction as to what is contained within the links. The logo, however it isn’t clickable (taking me back to the home page as I would expect), which can be quite annoying to a web savvy audience.
Delectable Desires
You are immediately struck by the gorgeous header design and along with the use of color. The website is focused on European style cakes created by Carlene O’Garro. The sidebar is simple but effective displaying images. Page naming has not been done on this site.
April 28, 2010
Summary Client Survey
My client, Sharon, is currently a student at Le Cordon Bleu where she is pursuing a certificate in Pâtisserie and Baking. She would like to have a portfolio website that will showcase her baking skills and proficiency in pâtisserie and baking including artisan bread production, design and creation of chocolate/sugar showpiece, classic European pastry production, and fine pâtisserie to potential employers in the pâtisserie and baking industry.
The the target audience for this site will be potential employers. The primary action of visitors to her site would be would be for future employers to view a showcase of her work, and skills.
Adjectives to describe the feel of the language, graphics, and approach for her portfolio would be decorative, elegant, creative, professional, and refined. She would like her website to impress and persuade potential employers to hire her.
When asked about the content of the site Sharon stated, “I also think of it as a place where I can provide more details about specific aspects of my work experience and my education history.” Contact information should be easy to find and prominently place on this website.
April 21, 2010
Site Development Process Review
In order to successfully develop a complex web site, the designer must plan the site. Poorly planned sites are ineffective. Web Style Guide’s article on the process of how to plan, design, and maintain a website explains the the process for developing large sites in 6 steps. There are many different aspects that go into planning a web site such as site marketing, site construction, site design, information architecture, site definition and planning, and tracking, evaluation, and maintenance
I found this article to very informative when discussing the transition between development to the editorial process. According to this article after a site has been launched a process manager needs to take over the site to keep it going. For example the article states, “When multiple people contribute to site maintenance, the site editor may choose to edit pages after they are created and posted to avoid becoming a bottleneck in the communications process.”
Throughout the article the author makes very good points when discussing that not all web sites fit neatly into a standard formula but is still able to provide means by which designers and developers can use an over all process to develop a site.
A user’s Internet experience can be frustrating if a site is not organized. I think this article addresses how to organize a sites cont
ent very well. For instance the article states, “Once a content architecture has been sketched out, you should build small prototypes of parts of the site to test what it feels like to move around within the design.”
April 15, 2010
Website Analysis
Strayer University
Message and Communication Theory |
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| Characteristics of effective communication
in general |
a. No spelling or grammatical mistakes.
b. Avoids using any technical terms, explains in laymen language c. Clarify and condense information |
| Guidelines for effective communication specific to web sites | a. Website text is easy to read
b. Easy to scan pages c. Clicked links change color. |
| Navigation and site organization principles for better usability | a. Uses simple navigation structure
b. Navigation is easy to spot and easy to use c. Visible on all pages of website |
| Characteristics of good content and content presentation | a. Writing flows naturally and only mentions keywords where they fit
b. Credible, original content c. Pictures and all other multimedia relate to the message |
Visual Design Theory |
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| Design principles that promote visual clarity and simplicity | a. Does not use blinking text
b. Pages is well balanced and visually pleasing to the eye. c. Flows well |
| Page layout principles that help users visually negotiate page and site organization | a. Items are in a structured environment
b. Break up text into subheads and bullet points c. Users know it is a university site |
| Design fundamentals most critical to good web design | a. Avoid “intros”
b. Pages are consistent in layout. c. A clear visual hierarchy |
| Color Design Theory | |
| Guidelines for how/why to select a color palette | a. Colors should blend well together, not clash
b. Don’t Overdo it with colors c. A color palette that fits with the logo |
| Principles of color use specifically helpful for effective web page design | a. No color clashes that distract the viewer
b. Color is used to tell the viewer what is important on the page c. A great balanced combination of tone |
