Koha: Design for good

In designing the website we first had to figuring out the crucial pages to ensure our website is complete and all the necessary information is easily accessible. We will be including an About, Contact, Call to action, Emergency procedure, and a Neighbourhood contact page that will stem off the home page. Next we started laying out where the main features of the home page would go. Including the header, navigation bar, text box, and heaps of images to draw the user in and help tell our story.

Since the interim presentation on Monday, I've been working more on experimenting with a few more stylistic approaches to try how a different tone/atmosphere can be created that might better fit a wide range of audiences rather than just a simplistic photographic approach. I decided that the vector stylised images looked quite clean and simple, yet effectively conveyed the message and theme. Below are the more revised options of this style that I'll take further into the full poster experimentation. I also used some of the monopoly icon people which are in scenes that relate to our topic in some way. (These could be used in our designs for the next touch points?) These are some of the other styles I used in the rest of the poster design. Although I'm quite liking where this is going I'll continue experimenting with different layouts to see what I can come up with. 

Today was the interim presentation of our first semi finished posters. Through the feedback we received from teachers and classmates we've decided to continue with the monopoly concept as we think there's more potential to continue the theme in our other touch points. For example, using the community chest as a way to encourage communities to come together to share resources in their emergency kits. Also having the streets and style of the monopoly game has quite nice parallels to our theme of neighbourhood communities. We also think it encompasses quite a wide audience successfully, as it's considered a traditional New Zealand family game, and has been around long enough to bring back memories for both young adults and also the older generations. 

There are some key factors one must consider when deciding how their website will be laid out. For my design I want to keep it simple to ensure the the focal point is strong and the message is clear. A grid will help me structure the layout of the different sections, it will guide me through the specific screen size requirements, and help to create responsive templates, so the design will be consistent in terms of spacing. Everything should drive to that final 'What can I do here?' Starting off with the most simple layout for the simple purpose of engaging neighbors to attend the event Then I can start adding other components that are necessary. Getting everyone to attend the event is not the only purpose, it is also important to change their behaviours so they will be able to support each other in times of need.

These are the 2 A3 rough concepts I handed in for the small interim presentation we did in groups. From the feedback I received on these I began revising these and thumb-nailing some revised concepts (shown below.) Despite having multiple potential paths to choose from with the snail concept, I've decided to go with the chance/monopoly concept as I think theres a lot more potential to use further on when designing material for our other touch points. Below is a revised rough A3 mock up of how this concept could look. I think to make this more effective I need to make the chance card much bigger as the main focus of the poster. Class notes:

barbecue, block party, yard sale, talent show, karaoke, bake sale, pot luck, community garden, tree planting, paint a mural, community concert, movie night