Reflection
FINAL VISUAL
Our proposal is on the the street art of Melbourne and we are going to explore some of the issues around it such as gentrification, depoliticisation and brandalism. My primary role in this project is website management, which includes branding and design. The first issue for me is that I do not know the details about the history of Australia because I come from China. Fortunately, our team member Janine knows the history of Australia very well and she told us a little bit about Australia's history, which the story of Ned Kelly. We decided to use his image to build our brand.
Branding is extremely important these days. According Goodson (2012) brands are psychology and science brought together and can outlive products. Brands are valuable because they convey uniformity, credibility and experience. It was important to me that a picture of Ned Kelly was used effectively to brand our project. I tried to capture his picture using shape mask, but it didn’t look good because shape mask and pictures don't always blend well. Thus, I used Photoshop to do the editing first which helped me separate the character elements from the background. The uploaded image on the website looks very professional.
For the website design, I chose black and white as the main colours which has given our website a clean and chic appearance. The second issue for me was adding some special effects on WIX, our chosen website host. When I first created a website for our proposal, I chose the model which was already built on the website, but during editing I found I was limited by the designated design (for example the font alignment) and the lack of effects and animation, such as hover. I feel I had achieved what I wanted to some extent, but I still wanted to improve on the site for a more tailored and professional look. Thus, in order to create our own site templates, I decided to re-build our website.
BEFORE
AFTER
When I tried to add background picture to the website I found I could not put a picture in the middle, the picture always covered the full screen. I did some research on this problem and found changes on the website could be done using the “add" button, where you can find effects and design templates. Besides this, I also wanted to use the hover effect. Although I know how to add this effect through code during the website editing, I couldn't find how to add this effect using WIX. Thus, I did more research and found a YouTube tutorial on how to compose, add hover box effects, and animated effects.
HOVER EFFECT
I think another issue for me with creating this website is the language because English is not my first language, so I need more time to familiarize myself with the entire site's operational design interface. I’ve watched tutorials about how to create a stunning website on WIX, but the language barrier has meant I have had to spend a lot of time understanding them. This meant I haven’t had enough time to add more visual effects to the site. Additionally when I published the site and checked the visual effects I’d used on the computer and mobile phone, I found that they need to be edited separately. If we only set it up on the PC side, mobile users will find the website very confusing. So I will continue to work on management of our website in the coming days.
Finally, I think we are the perfect combination on this project. We work together and learn from each other. We have had a wonderful time so far and I am very happy to work with Janine and Veronica. I believe that we will complete this proposal very well in the future. I am looking forward to our final video as well!
Reference
Animation Effects | Easily Add Animation Effects to Your Wix Website, YouTube, 24 August 2016, 6, Wix.com, vi, viewed 10 August 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn8z0r9CR5E>.
David, L. New Wix Tutorial! How to Make a Stunning Website!, YouTube, 24 April 2016, viewed 10 August 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q4737kSSzA>.
Goodson, S, 2012, Why Brand Building is Important, Forbes Magazine, viewed 12 August 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/05/27/why-brand-building-is-important/#6b7947023006
Wix Rollover Hoverbox Tips from a Wix Website Designer, YouTube, 4 January 2017, Pickle-Wix Web Design, viewed 10 August 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehsnKpCsQOQ>.