Goals
of the site:
ArtQuest
is a magnet school for kids that would like an intensive high school
art experience. They would like to show they are competitive
and experts in what they do. Therefore they would like a professional,
almost corporate atmosphere, not catering to a little kid format, but
vibrant and exciting, to where the visitor would want to go farther
into the site. They want the site to be kid friendly, sophisticated,
gender friendly, professional for parents and attracting kids of different
ethnic backgrounds. They would like the first impression to motivate
the visitor to want to go deeper into the site, catch a person’s eye
to stop here, get their interest peaked, and to get kids to sign up.
After visiting the site, they would like their audience to feel informed
and empowered enough to want to sign up for ArtQuest.
Look
and feel:
ArtQuest’s
colors of peach and light gray are derived from lightening the Santa
Rosa
High School colors of orange and black. In order to
create the impact they wished from the site, accent color
choices were provided of either red, aqua, or orange and darker grays,
that would be in harmony with the majority of the photos.
They
preferred simplicity and a clean look with the black logo kept to
a faint drop shadow and photo treatment restricted
to a one point stroke and/or drop shadow. The home page is to be
simple, clean, with a single photo being okay. Photo
choices for
this opening page were provided, but not necessarily restricted
to them. The ArtQuest black logo, main navigation links with flyout
menus, main text links and one sentence is to appear on the home
page. The
home page could also have photo treatment of duotone or feathering,
but the gallery display is restricted to the above treatment.
This
site is mostly third level pages, so two templates will be provided,
a second and third level. Photos will appear on most pages, especially
in the gallery. The fourth level will be pop-up windows, which are
the larger gallery photos linked to thumbnails.
Navigation:
They preferred horizontal upper links with drop down menus to have
everything at their fingertips. They also liked second level side navigation,
but not necessarily needed to be included. To accommodate this and
to make it easier for them to change in the future, left navigation
for the second/third level will be provided as text links. Therefore
text links, except for the five main links at the bottom of the page
(in case java script is turned off), will not be needed at the end
of the pages . On the top black navigation bar, the main page name
will be located above the left side navigation for section identification.
Summary:
In order
to create an entrance page with the above intentions, a gallery atmosphere
is achieved by the use of one background photo and one small
isolated slightly duotoned thumbnail displayed against a white background.
To attract a younger audience, both photos are youthful, with the backgound selection
harmonizing with an atmosphere of being on a "quest". The
background
graphic
blends with the peach side bar, which is accented with the choices
of red, aqua, or orange. For the higher resolution of 1024 x 768,
a two-toned background of gray, peach, or the chosen accent color
will
be used to “punch-up” the peach and gray. Black
text harmonizes with the black logo, along with a black top navigation
bar of flyout menus.
For
second/third level pages, the background graphic from the home page
will be reduced
in size
and used as a background for the left side text links. The top
navigational bar with flyout menus will be repeated from the home
page, containing
all of the site links. Left text links will also orient the visitor
and contribute to making everything easily available to parents
and students. Their slogan will be displayed on second level pages,
replaced
only by a third level heading when on those pages.
Within
the first screen shot a single photo will display on the right side
on most
pages.
Depending on time constraints, more photos may/maynot be displayed
on a given page. The same will be true for the gallery section
where we may only be able to provide one page of gallery photos
with pop-up
windows that demonstrate how other gallery pages may be created.
Also, the student testimonial page will be provided, but content
may have
to be filled by the client, along with any animation/video clips
for the site. Working within the time alloted, many of the site
goals can be attained which will produce a beautiful site for the
visitors of ArtQuest.
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