It is now exactly one year since I created the first conceptual sketches for this site. This seemingly simple project was one of the most challenging projects I have ever completed. The site really forced me to use all the methods I have normally use in my projects for clients and have consumed an unbelievable amount of effort to make it perfect in every respect. Here is the story of how it was created.
I flipped through my old photos last night and realized that it is almost exactly one year since I made the first conceptual sketches for this site. Some of the 300 hours of work later I am actually very pleased with the result, even if I whish I had published more case studies to my portfolio.
For you all designers out there you all know how hard it is to create your own site. My own site is suppose to show of my design skills without focusing to much on one particular style in my aesthetic repertoire. The site is also suppose to be appealing to potential clients and function as a easy to overview portfolio. I have started the project to design a new site several times in the past. However, the projects have all fizzle out when client projects and lack of inspiration lead me to focus on other things.
I did the first sketches a couple of very sunny days in june last year at my Öland studio.
In June last year however, realized that I tried to do this project as fast as possible instead of organizing the project as a would do for a client. Isn’t this strange? I have worked out brilliant methods for creating successful projects for my clients and at the same time doing all the beginners mistakes on my own site. To my defense I’m not alone in this abomination.
I know of so many examples of skilled design agencies to skip all methodology and just do it when they are designing their own projects. The questions is this: If an agency do not apply their own methods in their own projects, why to they recommend the methods for their clients?
A detail view from the primary taget group from the effect map.
So, in the spirit of being true to what I preach I started with creating setting up an effect map for the project. I defined the primary target group for my site to be potential clients. The secondary target group was defined as potential fellow project members meaning other designers, developers and project managers.
The most important overall goal is for potential clients, that are interested in my work, is to by a quick glance should confirm that I walk my talk and know what I m talking about. As I saw it, a client should get the possibility to dive deep into any of the areas of my focus and get a lot of information in order to make an informed decision of hiring me.
After completing the effect map, the next step I recommend clients is to establish conceptual sketches for the concept. Documenting the overall solution. I have found that hand drawn sketches have the unsurpassed ability to support thought process and prevent me to get stuck in details to early. As I see it there are plenty of time to zoom in on details later in the process when a solid concept has been found.
The basic concept for the start page in an early draft.
In the case of aesthetic qualities I wanted to go for a very simple and minimalistic concept. Almost sterile in its simplicity. I wanted the fact that I in present day focus on interaction design to show clearly in the design. Color were to be added by adding large iconic images in the page header and for vary from category to category. I aimed for an extremely minimalistic design.
In order for the site to not get boring I wanted to add some movement and animations on the front page. The solution became a picture of me sliding in accompanied by some featured posts from selected from the blog.
The design and interactive prototype desgined in Adobe Fireworks
After completing the conceptual sketches I started the graphic design. I work in Adobe Fireworks which is a really cool tool for designing web sites and producing interactive prototypes.
The development of the site was done by Ola Sundqvist at Get it done, a word press equilibrist of large proportions. Later, after the site was initially published I moved the production to some cool developers in Ukraine.
The most interesting observation for me was the amount of time and resources the text work was. In all projects the texts are the hardest to get in good quality.
A quick snap with the mobile camera fixed the illustration for the about section on the site
In order to get the design and the basic content in an ok manner took somewhere around 200 hours to complete. I know this sounds like an enormous amount of labor, and I can ensure you that is was, and still is. Among other things, this project has really made me humble when it comes to the challenges involved in creating good content for a corporate site.
Finally I want to thank all of you who has contributing with feedback and suggestions along the way. This site would never has been nearly as good if you guys was not around to help me. Thank you all!
/ Yours truly