paper design-
Even though I already have a detailed design specification with a certain topic of my website of my choice, here are some other designs (topics) that i could talk about and what areas I need to focus on.
1.
Topic: Horror Films
Content: It will contain information on new horror film releases as well as horror films of the past. It will also have rankings of horror films in different categories (such as ratings, audience numbers, earnings, etc
). It will also have a page that has a list of recommended horror films of my choice and follwing explanations of it. It will also have a page of history of horror films.
Layout: This will be as important as the content. People definitely needs to get the feeling that the website is scary, spooky, or at least flashy. As the nature of movies admit importance of advertisement and visual aids (including the movies themselves), the mood that people sense needs to be strong, and in this case, scary. So probably a black background will do it's job with blood patterns. As for the text, it will be a black text on white background, but on the white, there should be scary factors like drops of blood, etc.
Problems: The major problem for this kind of website is that it needs to be constantly monitored and updated. As for the nature of this assignment, it will be close to impossible to keep on updating it. Also, the time it will take for me to create the product will be so long that by the time I finish the website, new films and new information would have arose.
2.
Topic: Recommended Online Games of Korea
Content: It will mostly contain information on different online games. It will have a seperate page on different genres of games (FPS, MMORPG, RPG, social, etc.). In the pages, I will give an image of the game itself (the official title, etc) as well as some screenshots. I will also give pros and cons of the game itself, and state whether you have to pay to play, or whether it is a free online game. I will also give short explanations of the games themselves. I will also give ratings of the games according to my standards. I could also have another page of foreign online games that are worth playing too. Each game should also include the official age of permission to play the game.
Layout: Layout, in this case, holds about 40% of importance (while content is 50%). One major aspect of games itself is because of the "cool" effects, graphics, and the visual aspects of it. So assuming that the people visiting my website will be those who play online games, the visual aspect is important. The designs would be different for every page. For example, the homepage could be a collage or a mix of different genres of a game. FPS page would mostly include guns, knives, and militarty uniforms. RPG page would mostly include characters with ID's and status of the characters, and etc.
Problems: Since it is about Korean online games, the language use itself is a problem. Also, Korean online game market is ever-expanding, so again, it will need constant updating. Also, it would be kind of pointless to create this website for the audience of foreigners because korean online games require a social security number and even if foreigners wanted to play, they would not be allowed uinless they are korean citizens or working in Korea.
3.
Topic: Baccaulaureate of Science, Arts/ Medical Doctor (BS/MD or BA/MD programs) offered in universities in the United States.
Content: The content is of 90% importance here. The audience who will come to visit my website are people who seek for information, not people who are bored and want to explore the web. So giving reliable, profound, and organized information is crucial to the success of this website. hence great research needs to be done to gather the information. The main pages of this website will be: List of BS/MD prgrams in the states (along with universities that offer it, tuition, and other basic information). Another page will be an overview page (possibly my home page) on "what is BS/MD?". Another page will be the necessary or the recommended requirements of high school grades, official test grades, etc. it should also have a ranking page (if i can get the ranking information). It should also have another page on the paperwork required for admission (including the financial aid, admission itself, scholarship paperwork, etc.)
List of pages: Homepage, Introduction page, Basic requirements/recommendations page, list of universities offering BS/MD page, financial/tuition/scholarship page.
Things to include: Font- Times New Roman 13-15. Bckground color- dark or smooth green. Color of font for navigation: white. Text- White bakground black writing. Images- Have not decided yet. Reliable information under the pages listed above.
Layout: The layout for this page will be of minor importance. Again, the visitors come to elicit information, not for boredom. But one thing that i do need to keep in mind is that the page needs to look professional : in the sense that it must look as if it was recently created (because old information is the last thing anyone would want for BS/MD programs). So overall, it should just be neat, and not flashy or tacky. (more design layout shall be on the paper)
Problems: The research itself will take a lot of time, so extra extra effort is required. Each university program differs with each other, so having a great content would take a lot of effort. But other than that, there are no major problems.
Again as mentioned before, I already chose what my website is going to be. however, the major factors of my design spec were that : my information is reliable, the information will be easy-to-see, have good navigations, no automatic video, the designs will not be too noticeable, and that the content will be more important than the design itself.
So idea 1 will not work. My information will be less reliable (since I need constant updating). The information would be easy to see as well as have good navigation as well as i work hard. But the major problem is that the design part will hold equal importance to the content itself (as metioned above).
Idea 2 will also provide problems. As mentioned above, it will be useless for foreigners. Some aspects of the designs should be eye-catching, and the design holds quite some importance in the website.
Idea 3, however, will work. The information will be reliable (as I only need to update it once a year), and the content holds greater importance to the website itself. What i really did was i set the design specification to meet this topic itself, so it really is a perfect match.
The reason I chose idea 3 was mainly because I was personally intersted. I am thinking of applying to BS/MD later and the research would do myself good. Furthermore, it won't be impossible to do, as long as I put adequate effort into it. But mainly, I chose this because of my personal gain from this assignment as well as the level of difficulty of creating this website compared to my other ideas.
I've also made a model of the website on paper. The paper idea included everything that I wanted to have. However, it does seem quite a big job since there were many pages. I am still a little skeptical on including images though, since most of the images will be useless. But for the sake of the design layout itself, I might include some images. I'm really not sure on which type of font to use. I want something formal like Times New Roman, but it would sometimes look too boring. But anyways, the model itself met all the design specifications. It had everything i wanted to include. The layout would hold less importance compared to the content. There was no automated video in my design.Also my information (even though i have not collected) will be most definitely reliable since they will mostly come from university websites themselves and other famous scholastic websites (such as collegeconfidential, etc). The navigations to me seemed fairly straight forward, so the readers will not have trouble trying o find where to go.
