KBD_P1Envision

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= P1 ENVISION = 3005 DESIGN & SYSTEMS BRITTANY, DASHA AND KITTY

We began by brainstorming several new features and creative concepts that the department could implement, such as a student marketplace to sell work and exchange skills and services, or a new interactive map interface. However, we soon decided to take a step back and concentrate on the most important aspect of the site - the current information already presented and available.

We approached the info-architecture and layout-out for the VA website in a straightforward manner, particularly concentrating on rebuilding the student handbook in a coherent and user friendly way. Critically re-examining the info architecture first developed during the class exercise, the structure, organization and hierarchy of our links was further corrected to be more intuitive, direct, and even inviting - for example using the term "Explore".

Important features such as course descriptions, the student handbook and any other student related information is all located under the 'student' heading. Current students can also quickly find the facilities and resource available to them through the 'explore' tab.

A large number of visitors will also be prospective students and parents. These visitors tend to browse the entire website outside of their designated areas anyway, usually to get a feel of the entire school or the current student experience. Hence our group decided to abandon the split between the current and prospective sections. Instead, the whole site will act as a promotional piece and resource for those users looking to come study with VA at York, while specific questions regarding admissions and other prospective resources will be located and answered under the 'admissions' tab in the main menu.

Visually, our site aims for beauty and simplicity while remaining functional over the growing number of platforms available for web browsing. Use of flash is hence limited if not altogether abandoned, and information is presented in an airy 6 column grid environment. The locations of the main navigation, search field, link to york universities website, and the quick links bar remain static throughout the pages and give the website an overall identity. Other content, depending on length and type, fills the middle area and falls into a 2 or 3 column grid, within the original 6. All images, especially on the index page, are loaded, positioned and scrolled through using a precoded java script, making updating the website very easy and user friendly.

Below is a wireframe of Scenario One, depicting a user, Billy, who is a current student at york but not necessarily in the Visual Arts program, who is thinking of taking a few Visual Arts courses in the upcoming semester. He is interested in browsing course descriptions, but also wants to know who teaches the courses he is interested in.

Looking under the 'student' and 'undergraduate' tabs in the main navigation, Billy follows to click 'courses' on the new navigational menu that appears on the left of the new page.

He is presented with a listing of course types, organized in two columns depending on whether the class is a studies or practicum course. Looking for something in the studio, Billy clicks to browse the 'drawing' courses and he is presented with a full listing of all the drawing courses offered by the department.

One specific class catching Billy's eye, he is curious of who teaches that studio course and clicks on the professors name. Billy is navigated to the faculty bios section of the website, to that professors personal description, featuring his picture, courses offered, a short description, office hours and contact information and perhaps extracurricular or personal projects that he or she are involved in.

Another important feature of any art institution is showcasing the art and student work produced. In our envision, student work will not be under a section typically called 'Gallery' due to the fact that York University has several physical spaces called galleries. Hence student work is found in the "Student Work" section under the 'Explore' tab.

There are three methods an average user can access the student works section, by clicking on the work as it's featured in one of the scrolling banners, through the main navigation or with the quick-links icon at the bottom of every page.

Once selected from the works, each specific piece is loaded in high resolution over the dimmed site with a short description and artist information. The aim is to display each work in an efficient method, using the maximum area of the browser, while maintaining the user on the same url and website.



View P1 Envision Roughs.

Info Arch and Wireframe Scenarios :