Client Website Chris Dunn Web Design Year 1

For this brief I chose to create a notional client website for a charity named after my Dad called The Brian Dunn Foundation. The aim of the charity would be to make people aware that meningitis doesn’t just affect children it can also affect adults. I chose to do this because my Dad died from meningitis 10 years ago at the age of 48. Intended audience would be people who have lost a member of their family to meningitis and people who want to find out information on meningitis. It would be aimed at both men and women.

For my research as mentioned above I looked at charity sites already on the internet to see how they were built up. I also read Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug to get ideas of how to build my site up. In his book Steve Krug says "Making pages self-evident is like having good lighting in a store: it just makes everything seem better" chapter 1 page 19. I will take this onboard when creating the pages for my site, ie the News page is clearly titled News and so on. He also talks about creating a clear visual hierarchy "The more important something is, the more prominent it is. For instance, the most important headings are either larger, bolder, in a distinctive color, set off by more white space, or nearer the top of the page - or some combination of the above" chapter 3 page 31. I will make sure my pages are set up like this so the user knows what is important. I would recommend this book because it is a good read and also a helpful guide for web designers.

My site is constructed with a Flat Site Map

Header at the top with a picture of my Dad and his signature and the title of the site. Navigation bar underneath the Header Content to go below the navigation bar Colour scheme based on the colours used in the Meningitis Research Foundation Logo

I did a user ability test to see what other people thought of my site. I asked them 5 questions each and then asked them to give me an answer to each one. Below is one of the questions I asked them and their answers. Q1Does the user know where they are on the site? David Jones: Yes every page has a bold heading at the top left which helps you to know were you are. Dan Farrell: Yes, the page titles are clearly labeled on the top of each page Andy Howard: Yes the titles on each page are clear and you always know where you are. Dan Whittaker: yeah the header on the page is clear Barry Gamble: yes it is very clear where the user is on the web site. Peter Hayton: Yes with clear nav bar used in template, Very clear layout, good header Michael Parish: Yes, the headings are clear

I am pleased with the overall look of my site and I think it is easy for the user to navigate around. I have took on board what Steve krug said by making the pages titles the same as the navigation buttons. I have also made sure that each title stands out by making them a larger font and in bold. I have put the navigation bar just underneath the header with easy to read names. Each page has a small amount of text so the user can scan through it to find what they want. I think my Dad would have been proud of this site my Mum thinks it is a fitting tribute to my Dad. Could the site be improved? I maybe would add a bit more css for example a hover on the navigation bar. Also if I was going to make this a live site I would need to add some boxes so the user could fill things in. I would also have to create some kind of payment account so the user could donate to the charity. Apart from that I don't think I would change it that much