Building my own website turned out to be more challenging
than I thought it would. There are many factors that need to be taken into
consideration such as colours, fonts, font size and the layout. I decided to
look at 3 product designers’ websites to get some inspiration from them and see
how I can present my work in my website.
The first product designer I looked at was Marc Newson. He
is the designer than made me interested and inspired me to follow this
progression route. The first thing I noticed when I opened the website were the
images of his work displayed on the home page. I really like the fact that he
used the home page to display his work which makes it easier for the viewer to
identify what his profession is if they don’t know. You can view a different product
as the image changes using a transition every few seconds, which is a cool way
to display an individual’s work. The colours maintained throughout the website
are simple as he keeps his background white with the striking orange heading
that he has on top. The orange is a really bold and exciting colour to introduce
to a website as it really attracts the readers’ eye. On the heading they
included his name and the different menu tabs you can click on to navigate
through the website. His name on the website is written as his signature which is
a very interesting thing to include as it makes it more personal.
Clicking onto the first tab menu option which is ‘projects’,
it takes you to a page where all of his products are displayed. You can click
on any object and it redirects you to a page with a brief description of the
product and when it was made. This is an effective and easy way to navigate
through the website as it makes everything way more organized which is more convenient
for the user. It also gives you the option at the top right to change the
layout of the page and turn it into a list of his products instead of images.
Once you click on to ‘projects’, you get 3 sub-headings called
‘sector’, ‘material’ and ‘client’. This gives you the option to select what type
of products you are going to view, what material and with who he has worked
with in the past. This function makes it really easy for people to choose their
preferred style of product and view it.
When you click on the second menu tab option, you can see a
picture of Marc with a short biography and then a list of design awards he got
from 1986 till now. It is vital to include a page with a short biography and the
awards to make yourself familiar with the viewers of your page.
Lastly, when you click the third menu tab option, ‘studio’,
it reveals some contact details and a map where you can find the studio. I like
that they included the map as it is easier to look and find a place using maps,
in my opinion.
Overall, I really like the website created as it has simple
yet effective colours. It is very organized and easy to navigate through and
keeps every description short and to the point. This is one of my favourite
websites and my goal is to make it as easy to navigate through as this one. The
only thing I would change about this website is that there is no search bar. A
search bar would be helpful to the viewer; however, the layout is really easy
to figure out even without a search bar.
The next website I looked at was by Philippe Starck. The home page image consisted of a human brain, if I'm not mistaken, with a quote that said 'the elegance of intelligence. Personally, I don't like the picture and the quote as it doesn't suit the theme of the website. I would find it more suitable if they included pictures of his work. I didn't find the layout appealing and the black colour made it very unpleasant and dull. The font he uses is nice as it is elegant and simple. I also like that the 'T' in 'starck' has an orange colour as it makes it more interesting.
I scrolled down and it was extremely confusing. It had different videos and images of different products scattered around the page. On the bottom of the page it said that there were 146 pages so I didn't scroll through most of them. I found this layout very hard to navigate through and extremely confusing.
On the right side of the website, there was a menu button. I clicked on it and there were many options to choose from. Although this was very overwhelming, I decided to click on 'about' so I can view the designer. He had a lot of information there and I didn't manage to read all of it. In my opinion, when it comes to websites, you should keep everything short and to the point in order to not bore the viewer. On the right side of the page, there were many options to click on so you could find out more about him. Some of these options included ' a childhood of art', 'the future'. There was a lot of text displayed, therefore, using this list of options was a useful factor that made the page more organised.
The next thing I decided to look at was at some products he designed. I went to the 'design' section, clicked on the heading 'furniture' and then a list of more sub-headings appeared. I chose 'chairs'. Surprisingly, this page was organized. On the left hand side, there were different options that you could explore such as 'bed', 'armchairs', 'sofas'. Once you clicked on a chair, it would redirect you to a page with a video and a few more pictures of the chair. However, there was no description of the product which I found very strange.
Overall, I really disliked this page and it wasn't a pleasant experience navigating through it. It was confusing and frustrating. This was definitely an example of what I would want to include in my website. I didn't explore this website as much as I did with Marc's as it was very frustrating to navigate through.
The last website I decided to research was by
Bethan Grey. I really liked the home page of her website. It included a colourful, calming picture with a quote 'I believe in storytelling through craft and design'. In comparison to the last one, the picture and the quote are both related to the theme of the website which makes it look more professional and coherent. She chose a more calligraphic font which I like as it is more artistic. Scrolling down on the home page, I found many small paragraphs about her biography, journeys, kinship, cultural narratives and even a short video about her. I really like that she included all this in her home page so people can familiarise themselves with her. She keeps everything short and to the point so the viewers can grasp the main points. Throughout the website, I like how she keeps the colours very simple and minimalistic. She maintains a solid colour background to emphasize on the context.
Later on, I clicked on the first menu tab option which was 'stories'. The light grey background created a contrast with the vibrant pictures used. It was really well-organized and tidy throughout. Once you click on a story, it gives you more details and pictures about it. The pictures are always very enlarged which is something I like as I am more of a visual person. This is a factor I really liked and want to include in my own website.
The second tab option included 'store'. Once I clicked on the tab, a drop-down menu was visible with all the different collections and products included in the store. I really like that it was organized in columns and included pictures as examples.
I chose 'chairs' and there were 2 options displayed. Once I clicked on one of the chairs, the materials used and where they came from were shown in more detail. It included size, height, weight, length and all the necessary information needed for someone to purchase it.
Lastly, she includes contact information and her Instagram page so people can find her. Included also is a map of her studio with information such as address and phone number.
Overall, I really like Bethan's website too. Everything is clearly displayed with information that is short and precise. She includes many pictures to make it more interesting and adds quotes to engage the viewers.
I enjoyed researching about different websites as it gave me insights on what I like or dislike in each one. This made me more aware of different factors when it came to designing my own layout
References:
https://marc-newson.com/
https://www.starck.com/
https://bethangray.com/
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