|
< design > A Few Words About Design The creation of any visual communication requires knowledge of who it is you are creating it for. You need to know who the user, viewer, client, or customer is before trying to engage them in an activity, encourage them to make a purchase, request information or even to be entertained. Knowing who your target audience is, what services they're looking for and what actions they'll perform on your site are the first steps to understanding USABILITY. Usability requirements for a mini van and a sports car are entirely different and the two are rarely confused with one another. The same is true for digital mediums. The front end presentation - they way it looks, works and responds to user needs - is the first interaction your audience will have to a website or application. Design is the necessary service required to give the best first impression to the audience you most desire to impress. The delivery of a front end presentation can come in many forms including a website, a CDRom or DVD presentation, and interactive PDF document, or a mobile application running on a PDA or cell phone. Flash Interactivity In its early inception, Flash was merely a tool to create animations and eye candy. Unfortunately, a few people still have that impression of Flash and have become turned off to the use of the product because of its gross and gratuitous overuse in the past for seemingly useless purposes. The good news: Adobe has enhanced the product functionality by ten fold. Flash is now the premiere tool for interactive multimedia design. Current benefits of use include: vector graphic output results in tremendously small file sizes, the plug-in in installed on 98% of all computer, and the outputted solution is cross browser compatible. Flash shouldn't be considered a tool for producing mere eye candy animation, but the product now has provided support for the development of rich internet applications. Flash now has the ability to communicate and display data from any data source such as a web server database, opening up the possibilities of producing big-boy applications entirely within Flash. With the graphical design and interaction presentation that Flash offers and the ability to create database driven applications, web design and development possibilities have been greatly expanded. Digital Imaging Many projects can be "winners" or "losers", as a matter of fact, by the digital imaging (photography or video) used in a solution. With a smart selection of images and movie clips, your project can be greatly enhanced - adding to the emotional "hook" for your users. Iziks is proud to announce our digital photography and video services. The addition of these services will give you another resource and ability to easily add digital imaging to your project. With a formal education in the Arts and formal training in photography, Brian looks forward to lending his experience and expertise to creating supplementary photography and video to your website, CDRom, or Flash presentation. Usability Definition & Testing As touched on previously, usability is the process of determining how someone will interact with your website, what information they intend to receive, and how your business intends to interact with that user. It's all about meeting agendas and addressing the needs to both parties. It sounds like an easy task, but there is much more involved in determining those needs and goals. When addressing usability in web design, there are subjective factors such as emotional reaction to a visual design or color scheme, legibility of a selected font or type face, and information architecture - or the way that the content is organized on the website. Related to web development, the functionality of website portions must be addressed by determining the goals of each piece. Do you want to simply have a user send you an email or do you want to capture that data for further and future use in an email campaign? By defining the scope of the project before the design and development ever begin, we can resolve future issues and "save time" (translate as "save money") by reducing revisions to completed work due to changes based on undefined goals and usability Website Identity Some companies simply exist online - storefronts or swank office are not required for all businesses and may be an unnecessary overhead expense. Your website may be the only opportunity to make an impression to new business or clients. Is your website clearly representing you in the best light possible? It's our job to make your business look great, a professional resource, a consumer's dream, or just incomparably informative. If you're not sure how you stand up against your competition, there's no better reason or time to call Iziks and have us help you determine the effectiveness of your website's identity. CDRom & DVD Presentation Give them something to remember you by! And a reason to call you back. CDRom and DVD presentations give you the opportunity to leave behind additional sales materials or to deliver a rich, multimedia experience. Iziks can help you from start to finish, from storyboard to production and packaging, in the process of creating a CDRom or DVD presentation. If you've got a product or service to sell, don't wait any longer to get into the game of marketing your business with this impression digital medium. Product Interfaces A term that is often heard in our industry is "GUI" which stands for Graphical User Interface. Greatly synonymous with Usability Definition standards, a GUI is the way that a user interacts with a product. In the context of a software application, the design tools, editing options, etc. of the program must be easy for someone to use. When you are able to pick up a product and use it without much education or knowledge, someone has done their job by designing an excellent product interface. </ design > |
