After presenting to our boss our product so far (that we were proud of-- me being quite impressed and satisfied myself), we realized (with the help of some constructive criticism) that we need to focus on getting a solid design framework concept down first, rather than just shoot around in the dark and hope that we hit something. So we put down the IDEs for a bit and decided to discuss design possibilities and choices for the time being. Since the website that we are designing for deals with energy conservation but in a highly interactive way, it was strongly recommended that we attempt to achieve a "game" sort of look to it-- that is, an interface that is very inviting and user-friendly.
One fellow group member had a neat idea of pursuing a "Tron" sort of theme, utilizing colors such as electric blue, neon orange, and red. Oh and black, of course. Lots and lots of black. This sounded like a good idea, and a pretty reasonable one too, since the site deals with electricity-- albeit the conservation of it. Everyone seemed to love the idea as well, thinking that it would be simple enough yet nice looking. However, for me who always questions the consensus, I had to think in my head whether or not this was actually an effective design theme or not, because it is quite a stretch from the "game" scheme that was originally suggested. "Would it be friendly for all users, or just for guys?" "Does/can it come across as having that 'game' sort of feel?" These are just some of the questions I have about using this theme, although if it can be achieved, then I have no problems with it. We decided to just bring this idea (along with others) to the table, and see what sort of feedback we get from others.
As for other design ideas, we agreed that having a floating navigation bar (such as the one utilized in this site) would be not only aesthetically pleasing but also functionally effective, although we came up with the idea of having it stick to the bottom of the screen instead of the top. We also came up with a whole bunch of other concepts, such as having navigation buttons that float on the bottom-right and bottom-left side of the screen in tablet size (and possibly mobile size) for those users who prefer to hold their iPads in their hands while using it (giving their thumbs a workout), and we also had the idea of borrowing the layout of Facebook, which has an intriguing design that nearly everyone can recognize and use.
In the past few days, my team and I met and discussed all these ideas (and more) to quite some extent, and it seems like we're making a lot of progress, but I must say that I cannot help but think that perhaps we're not thinking about things in the right way. Design and layout needs to cater to the users-- what they would enjoy and be able to navigate easily-- not what we the developers think is cool or easy to understand. Of course we're going to be able to think that it looks great and understand how it works just fine (after staring at it for months and months), but will the users be just as satisfied when they take their first glance at it and walk through the pages? We never really know for sure. But that is something that definitely needs to be kept in mind throughout the course of this website's construction, so that we can be proud of what we have built, and at the same time the users will be happily utilizing what the site has to offer.
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