We're building a website: What makes good design?

When we last talked about design Toben had presented a preliminary set of concepts and we chose the 'magazine' style layout and "finding the way" as an overall design concept to lead specific elements of the design.

Based on our decisions, Toben delivered the following design ideas. 

They expanded our brand colour palette so we could choose more than pink, green and blue. Not only our website but all our marketing and designed collateral can shift from the existing modern, corporate qualities to a warmer experience (yay!)

 They suggested how the colours could harmonise. 

They suggested design elements based on "wayfinding" and tourism "brown signs". 

And they began to look at how these various elements would come together to display designed, aggregated modules-

And designed interactive features. For example, if the user rolls over a carousel/slideshow item the arrow pushes out with information on it. 

Last week, I asked what designers do in the website building process. Another question I've asked myself constantly in this process is what makes good design? 

Folded into Toben's visual response is research about our sector, about our audience (those we have and those we want to reach) and a clear understanding of our brand, and its potential to influence and engage the public. On top of this Toben needs to consider technical requirements, the user experience and information architecture.

Good design is doing all of the above and making it look easy. 

In the next blog, as we gear up to begin populating the site with your content, we'll take a look at the designed homepages and organisation profile pages. 

We're building a website: Design

If you're anything like me you may wonder about the boundaries that exist between different roles in website production. 

What do web designers do?

Obviously the designers are responsible for all aspects of visual communication on the website. But when website layout and communication are intrinsic to usability the designer's job can blur very quickly with information architecture (the structure and display of information and data) and user experience design (how users encounter and interact with the interface to fulfill tasks). 

Early in the website development, while the research team Pure and Applied collected qualitative data from our audiences, the designers from Toben did their own research to prepare the visual response.

What animal are we?

This research started with Katja Hartung from Toben interviewing Michael Rolfe, Katie Duncan (Info and Resources Officer) and me about M&G NSW's brand identity. There were plenty of normal questions but  there were also some more abstract ones. For example, Katja asked us what animal M&G was. 

There was a moment's hesitation before Katie offered "cattle dog." At first I was suspicious that Katie's near obsession with canines was colouring her response but she then explained that M&G was like a faithful dog steering people towards the best resources and services, and the public ("the cattle"???) towards your wonderful places. Michael and I had to agree that cattle dog sounded pretty good.

What does this have to do with design?

Katja was collecting information about M&G's "personality." Unlike the qualitative data Pure and Applied were pulling, this profile was more expressive, and very much about our own sense of identity. What does the organisation aspire to do? What new audiences do we want to reach? 

When we saw Toben next they had responded to these personality traits with a range of conceptual and visual responses - ways forward in expressing our brand online. What fascinated me was how these conceptual design solutions also informed the user experience. 

'Magazine" versus "Explorer"

Toben discussed two types of user experience, and how they could be visually displayed on the page; the "magazine" and "explorer". The magazine style embraced the diversity of our sector by foregrounding rich editorial and visual content, but maintained a useful browsing function. 

Examples of 'magazine' style design.

The second option was the "explorer" interface. This experience allowed visitors with a particular point of interest in the museum and gallery sector to surface and focus on different content. The keyword search would become an interactive feature, surfacing different content types related to the search. With this version the user leads the content.

Examples of  'Explorer' style design.

As you can see, Toben may be designers but their remit extends to how users interact with the content on the website. Armed with these concepts and Adrian's research and experience we concluded the "magazine" style was our direction forward. M&G would lead the audience to the best stories. 

The concept

Toben also introduced us to four concepts that would "colour" or "personalise" the website - providing visual motifs that could emphasise the user experience.

Showing the Way

Make your own journey

A cultural melting pot

Surfacing treasures

Of the four concepts the first took hold. We appreciated the playfulness of "surfacing treasures" but felt that "showing the way" was a good fit with our online directory and the "magazine style" user experience we were promoting. 

In the following weeks, Toben responded to our first impressions and built up a strong visual brand identity. Next fortnight, we'll introduce you to the look and feel of our new website.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh

Over the weekend I visited the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens. The gardens were filled with the rich reds and yellows of nature's autumnal palette. It was delightful to sit at the top of a hill within the gardens and look across at the Old Town of Edinburgh.

The recently completed John Hope Gateway building is located at the western entrance to the Botanic Gardens. The building is designed to promote sustainbility through the use of sustainable materials, energy saving measures and the production of renewable energy. It houses a wonderful array of exhibitions, restaurant, shop and education centre. A newly planted Scottish biodiversity garden surrounds the centre which has the feel of a highland meadow.

The exhibitions are beautifully presented and focus on biodiversity both in Scotland and across the world. There are a range of activities for children, some within an activities room and others within the exhibition area. A small tent type structure has been completely covered with children's drawings inspired by the exhibitions.

The main exhibition was on the surprising topic of fungi! Exploring everything from mushrooms to athlete's foot the exhibition looks at the role of fungi in mythology, medicine, brewing and as a hallucinogen. A very neat hand held audio guide is provided for free. The audio is activated using infra red light at various points through the exhibition.

The Gardens have worked closely with artists on a range of projects. A project with a local design school was on display- the students designed screen prints for tights, inspired by plants preserved in the Herbarium. In conjunction with the Fungi exhibition is "The Secret Sounds of Spores" a project supported by New Media Scotland . The project uses a video camera attached to a microscope to record the release of spores from a series of mushrooms. The recording is displayed on a screen adjacent to the Fungi exhibition. Alongside the screen are a series of microsopes where visitors can examine a range of fungi.