Design Practice II//Dreamweaver//Lorraine Session I.

Notes from the first of Tutor Lorraine's talks about Dreamweaver, with help and support in terms of constructing our initial website designs and proposed layouts for our web pages.


1 hour for the next three weeks- workshop sessions in the afternoon (see notes on the door after CTS Lecture session).


CONSIDERATIONS


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PURPOSE- WHY?


- Self promotion/Client exposure
- Point of contact/Networking platform
- Selling merchandise
- Persuade
- Inform


AUDIENCE (TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON THE CONTENT/SITE)


- Industry professionals, Creative Directors- Networking
- Other creatives in similar industries- calling card for collaborations in similar situations
- Interested individuals or companies
- Educational purposes


ESSENTIALS- WHAT?


- Style of work and my capabilities
- Images/Portfolio of your work- motion graphics, flash games, PDFs, Images, etc
- Contact information
- About section
- Whatever the audiences want/expect to see


WEBSITES MUST HAVE


- Functionality (Does it work?)
- Usability (Does it work well?)
- Aesthetic (Is it well designed?)


A BALANCING ACT. BE INSPIRED BY LAYOUTS AND STORY BOARDS CREATED IN MOTION GRAPHICS FOR OUR SCAMP DESIGNS.


PEOPLE LOOK FOR...


- Interesting
- Resembles what they're looking for
- Clickable


CONTENT ON THE FIRST PAGE (INDEX/HOME)


- Navigation (send a message that your navigation is simple and easy to use)
- Personal branding (consistency)
- Work/link out to work
- News/About
- Name (Company/Personal)


HINTS & TIPS


SLICE TOOL


Cuts up images, saves as separate files (really useful for mocking up on Photoshop and then applying to Dreamweaver).


STRUCTURE your layers into files on P/Shop
File organisation on your hardrive is PARAMOUNT, or you will loose things


SAVE for WEB & DEVICES
When saved, these will batch export (like package on InDesign) into separate files