I would like to create a web page on a small vacation town in Arkansas. I hope that it will be entertaining, and provide information about how our family enjoys this vacation destination; which hopefully, will encourage others to seek out family fun in their area or visit this town. The project will also provide links to purchase licensing needed, techniques, and equipment used. I will take all the pictures and videos personally as to not violate any copyright issues. I plan to also use Photoshop to create more pleasing graphics for this project.
I created a Google Form and sent it to six members of my family and friends (3 Male, and 3 Female). They provided me with a list of items that they felt would be interesting and informative on the website. The survey's results are here and are as follows:
What information would you find the most beneficial for a lake lifestyle website?
The majority wanted to see fishing and bowfishing regulations, licensing, fishing reports, and antiquing. One person wanted to see activities for both day and night, as well as the cost. But since that was only one out of five, I will not include that information at this time.
What colors do you think of when you think of a lake themed web site?
Everyone's first choice was blues. Yellows, Neon Green, Purple, and Orange were tied for second. I will use the web safe colors suggested here.
What information do you NOT want to see?
The survey results were advertisements, adult content, information that doesn't change, anything green or mossy, or any statistics.
What information would you find the most entertaining/interesting?
The primary results were pictures, antiquing places, bowfishing, and fishing information/licensing.
What information would keep you coming back to this web site?
Again, the primary results were primarily Fishing regulations and reports, new antique shops, and pictures changed regularly.
One type of user could use this as a way to see to our specific family's activities and interests without the drama of social media. Another type of user could use it to get inspired to try something new like bowfishing, fishing, or Cricut crafting. The last type of user may want to explore this specific area of Arkansas with or without their family.
The target audience for this web site will be:
~Members of my family and friends
~Ages 8-Adult
~Geographically partial to water areas, but can live anywhere
~Computer skill level: beginner with Internet capability
~Both male and female (which is why I chose to have both genders take the survey)
If other people stumble across this site, hopefully they will gain useful information they can explore for their own personal use.
Lake and Home Magazine: This site although organized well, did not have enough content to sustain an user's interest. Although every web site has an "infant" stage, I will need enough information to encourage users to check it out and not be bored.
Lake Effect Company: This site has beautiful lake pictures, laid out in an attractive table layout. I know that I need to use the beauty of this region to create interest on my home page as indicated from my survey responses.
Darien Lake: I really liked the organization of the navigation links on this site. The navigation was organized as a horizontal bar with drop-down buttons that allow easy location of all information. The site was too busy with the multimedia elements; but that is a personal preference and not one mentioned, eitherly positively or negatively, by the perspective users in the survey.
Love Lake Living: The positives are the site has a variety of information that keeps you scrolling to see what she has been up to. The negative is that the structure of the page isn't very pleasing. It looks unorganized and unprofessional because information isn't always easily to find and the flow doesn't seem normal.
Indiana Beach: The colors of the website are fun and energetic: orange, blues, pinks, and neon green. To create the fun "feeling", my web site will need to have energetic colors as mentioned by survery responses. The graphics are really busy on this site and initially are fun; but after a few moments on the site, it seems overwhelming.
If other people stumble across this site, hopefully they will gain useful information they can explore for their own personal use.
The web site will be hierarchical in nature because I have a central subject that will have supporting pages. The web site will be a two-column layout. -To provide a consistent look and feel across all pages and give my audience a sense of connected fluidity in my site, all pages will contain:
The following shows the outline of the proposed pages and content.
I created my wireframe on the website www.lucidchart.com. It can be viewed here CLICK HERE or you can VIEW HERE.
The web site will be hierarchical in nature because I have a central subject that will have supporting pages. The web site will be a two-column layout. To provide a consistent look and feel across all pages and give my audience a sense of connected fluidity in my site, all pages will contain:
The banner logo will be a graphic that I created in Photoshop. All other images used on the web site will be taken by me and optimized for web use. In the footer statement, I will include a statement: "All material in this site is original and created by the site owner, Tammy Taylor. Any further use of the material is prohibited without permission from the site owner."
The colors that I will use were suggested by my survey participants and are frequently seen on graphics on boats and other lake memorobilia. The specific colors are web safe colors. The basic color usage will be the yellow background color and the font color of black. The banner and navigation link background will have the graphic created in Photoshop that contains several of the colors and font colors will be white with a black text shadow. The color choices will be challenging to keep "not too busy" but the goal of "energizing and fun."
The colors are:
BLUE...The blue "is the color of the calm sea and the clear sky, both of which are linked to inner serenity, calm and clarity."*
YELLOW... The yellow represents sunshine and is "associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy."*
PURPLE...The purple is "associated with royalty and symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition."*
AQUA...The aqua is "associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy."*
The banner logo will be a graphic that I create in Photoshop. All other images used on the web site either be created in Photoshop or will be taken by me and optimized for web use. In the footer statement, I will include a statement: "All material in this site is original and created by the site owner, Tammy Taylor. Any further use of the material is prohibited without permission from the site owner."