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The basic overview of this project was to create a fully functioning commercial web site of a minimum of twenty pages. While doing this we still had to maintain artistic integrity, and create a professional looking site. The site also had to function flawlessly and be built using our knowledge of cascading style sheets.
My secondary goal for this site is to further my knowledge of css and get as much practice as I can before I start my web projects over the summer for real clients. I will also be using this site as a sort of job application this summer.
This web site is a fictional company set sometime in the future. Their business is an open, online marketplace for leasing privately owned time machines. I didn't want this site to strictly serve the scientific community, and that's why I designed it to look as corporate as I possibly could. I would expect it to attract more of the business community this way.
A typical task that the user would perform on this site would be finding out information concerning a particular and eventually go through the purchasing process to lease that time machine. When they use this site I want them to feel as comfortable as possible. After all there is a lot of money changing hands during these transactions and I want the design and functionality of the site to come across as professional as possible. That way they won't get nervous about their money.
Some adjectives to describe the site would be: corporate, clean, professional, easy, and intuitive
The overall message that I am trying to convey to my audience is that this is a secure, professional online marketplace that is as reliable as any online bank. I am trying to convey that message through the professional, clean, corporate design strategy that I used. I realize that people get extremely nervous when making purchases on the web, and I believe that good design is the best way to instill confidence in people to make those purchases.
I will measure the success of the site from the feedback that I get from the people that I get to user test my site for me. I will also get feedback from the final critique process on Wednesday, April 9th.
Although there isn't any real competition for this site, when designing it I took inspiration from as many corporate looking sites that I could find. I suppose the real competition for this site would be other online marketplaces like ebay or amazon. I think that those sites are really good for the purpose they serve, but my site differs from their's because mine looks more corporate. I did this because unlike other marketplaces who pander to the average person, the products on my site would most likely be used only by large businesses or research facilities with a lot of money, so I wanted the site to reflect that.
Like other online marketplaces, I used the catalog pages concept. I also used a lot of ideas from corporate web sites, like mission statements, service membership plans, and the overall design.
If I was redesigning this site I would keep the color scheme and design concept because I think that they are really successful at solving the design problem. I also think that I did a good job with the site navigation.
