LUCY: Website tweeks and development

I have gone through and tweeked various things throughout Lucy's website and added in a more secure login system to prevent hacking of the blog and gig updates etc.

Fixed various design flaws - including too much inconsistancy between headings and colours etc. Things are a lot more structured and userfriendly now, including headings, possitioning and other TINY little things in the code that usually wouldn't go noticed, but make a massive difference to the professional quality such as padding etc.

I've also made the add, edit and delete forms for the blog and gigs MUCH more user friendly by changing the text boxes to drop down menus.

You can now upload photos up the 3MB and the system will automatically downsize it to fit within the constraints of the website WITHOUT distortion, however the file size will remain the same.

The login procedure is now MUCH more secure. People can't edit the blog or gigs by accessing the individual pages, they MUST log in. (Which was previously a flaw in the last log in design)

I've added in a random image selecter on the home page so that it will randomly choose an image to display which is a photo of Lucy and a comment that someone has said about her. (Refresh the home page to see this working)

The alignment of the text is now justified so that it spreads evenly accross the page. (Small minor change, big difference!)

And finally, the MP3 player begins playing the first track when you load up each page.

I'm handing in my work on Thursday and doing my presentation on Friday... I think we're almost finished!!

I've talked to my brother about getting the website online at Lucy's own domain, and I hope to get that online by the end of March. Fingers crossed!

LUCY: Website complete!

Lucy's website has been one of the most exciting, rewarding and challenging projects I've worked on to date.

Not only has it been a great chance for me to express myself and my skills, it's also been great to create a website for someone I care a lot about and deliver something of high quality to the end user.

I've managed to create 2 flash MP3 players, video content, a banner, a gallery and an interactive side bar with links to twitter, facebook and myspace. Along side this, I've developed two databases where Lucy can update her own personal blog and a space where she can post up all her upcoming gigs. Not only can she do this, but she can also edit and delete every post and add a photograph alongside her blog entries - quite a brilliant accessory to keep herself and her fans up-to-date on her progress.

I've also included a Twitter feed onto her home page where fans can access the site and get an instant update without having to access her blog first.

This is the first website I've created which uses Flash AND PHP, MySql together. They have worked very well together and their seamless interaction benefits are going to be very beneficial to Lucy's promotion.

Overall, I'm overly happy with how this project has gone and I'd rate it the best website I've made, so far.

The next step is to create the login page and get Lucy to check over it all to make sure everything is how she wants it.

http://www.kidinacandystore.co.uk/lucyward/index.html

LUCY: Flash MP3, Banner and Photos

If you click on the photo, you'll be able to see the latest design ideas I have for Lucy's website.

The MP3 player was entirely made by myself using photoshop and flash with action script.

I've created a DIV with a background image which includes the pins, and then created a DIV inside that with the Flash content, making it look as though it's a single image. I've also done this with the "Lucy Ward" title banner.

By using action script 3, I've been able to create a simple music player that can player up to 4 external songs, with skip feature, play/pause and volume control.

Where the photographs are on the right hand side, it is infact a flash banner, where the user rolls over each photo and some information is displayed about Lucy herself.

Future design ideas:
I want to create another box above or below the main content text area in the centre to include either a regular twitter feed or her latest video news. This may be an area where I can include my PHP database.

LUCY: Project application and design

Brief 2 states that we need to create a website for an artist or organisation. This is no more than the perfect opportunity for me to finish off the website I started creating for Lucy as a project.

This way I'll get marked on work I produced outside of Uni and I can get feedback and create the site as professionally as possible.

I have to include 3 interactive Flash elements and a PHP MySQL database profile page.

At the moment, I've managed to get the whole basic template of the site online and the first flash element included. However, as the flash has to be interactive, I am unsure as to whether or not this is possible to use.

I am currently going to start designing the flash MP3 music player that will set in the menu section. I'm also hoping to have the side pictures revolving and use video through Flash as well.

Social Network Integration

There's no getting away from social networks when you're online now. Even the most standard sites such as the BBC are all over social networks like a house on fire.

Why is this?

Well it's all about free promotion and creating a presence when you're online. By various websites being connected to a social network, they're instantly accessible to a world of over 50 Million users (Facebook) and a growing Tweety generation through Twitter. With almost the equivelant of the entire UK population online through Facebook across the world, there's a massive potential to gain access to an endless array of people from all sorts of backgrounds, enableing advertisers to target specific groups and get maximum benefits.

As more and more users post up their details to Facebook to share with their "friends", advertisers are now able to pick out specific infomation and change their displayed adverts according to your preferences. For example, if you're single, you'll gain many adverts for dating agencies, if you're itnerested in fish, you may get scooba diveing ads.

My current project is to create and produce a website for my friend Lucy. As I was never able to finish the site I began for her, I will now use this project to complete it for her, including links to social networks. But which social network is best to use?

Well Lucy already had a facebook and Myspace so it would make sense to utilise these. However, Myspace doesn't really make it very easy to post that content on other pages in the same way you can run your RSS Tweets from Twitter across multiple platforms. Therefore, I'm going to try and steer clear of Myspace due to it's inaccessibility. However, I will use Myspace's idea of being able to broadcast music to your listeners. I'll be creating a mini music device in flash for Lucy to show off her work.

To keep her site up-to-date and relevent, I would like to create a blog feature, but I am unsure as to how I'll do this as of yet. Instead, I will deffinatley try to incorporate her facebook updates and twitter feed as this will keep users up to date, even if the website isn't kept on top of.

By utilising the social network industry, I'll be able to keep Lucy's fan on top of what's happening as they'll have easy access to her reguarly updated sites. This will keep her fans interested and continue their support and come see her when she's off to do a gig.

Displaying her updates directly onto the front page is important as it's current and instant, however I will not be making it a massive element, due to the temptation from users to click off her site and visit Facebook, rather than exploring her website.

LUCY: Sketch Book Design

All designers should have a "working space" where they can experiment with ideas and designs to truely get their best potential for the project their about to embark on.

These are 3 of my 6 sketches I drew while designing for Lucy's website.

They show a variety of different designs. They're done for my reference so if they don't make 100% sense, then that's why, they're working documents.

LUCY: Website Design Refine

Taking the first and second design for Lucy's website, I worked with Lucy to bring together the ideas and here is the first design I've compiled from the first meeting.

We really wanted to keep the earthy and industrial feel but twist it to keep it still inkeeping with her style.

The bright raspberry purples and reds reflect her hair and her personality which is a great way to combine the two.

In the Menu section, I've left a gap to include some sort of music player to stream some of Lucy's music so the viewer can hear instantly her style.

LUCY: Website Design 2

Here's the second design for Lucy's website.
It is a lot more modern and cleaner. I wanted to create two that are quite opposite to show her the variety of sites available to her.
This design offers a more sleek and professional feel, however it may not fully represent her as a musician.

Hopefully we'll be able to discuss her requirements further once we've met up.

LUCY: Website Design

Here's the first website design for Lucy's website.

The website will either be created in flash or dreamweaver depending on the requirements.

The background of the website gives the whole site the industrial and rusty feel I was aiming for and the sellotaped and pinned notes fulfil the requirement set by the client and are inkeeping with the site design.

Using two fonts enables the industrial features to stand out which makes Lucy's name striking and bold, contrasting with the website content which will be easier to read where smaller text is required.

LUCY: Moodboard

Here's the first moodboard design for Lucy's website.

She said she wanted an industrial feel to it, and when I said the word "rusty" she loved the idea.

Here's the first moodboard I've created to help design and generate web design ideas.

Points to ponder over would be that she told me she liked stitching and scelotape ideas with a lot of things stuck all over the place with it looking very busy. I'll be including these elements as much as possible. Another thing she said she wanted was attitude. She's coming out as a new artist but doesn't want to be branded as a typical "folk" artist as she's not just about that genre of music and her website MUST reflect this.

3 Massive Projects for the summer!

Hey hey!

You thought I would leave 1st year without doing anything over the summer didn't you?
Well your all wrong! haha!

I've decided to channel my spare time (5 months off!) into doing something productive!

Firstly, I've been approached by one of my best friends who's currently trying to kickstart her music career and she's asked me to design a website for her.

Secondly, I am currently the publicity officer for Nottingham Trent's Society, NTU Pride. Therefore, they've asked if I can redesign their current website into something a lot more professional and user friendly.

Thirdly, I am designing my own website to front www.kidinacandystore.co.uk as the current website is just a place to hold my Identities project from year 1.

I have various design and ideas in the pipe line! So keep checking back to see what becomes of my time off...