Class Assignment – Learning Designs By Studying Sites You Like

Jenn Clore

Class Assignment – Learning Designs By Studying Sites You Like

The content below are the questions and answers from an assignment using Awwwards.com.

What are some of the characteristics that many of the “Flat Design” websites have that makes them so attractive?

I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t see what a common characteristic of a Flat Design was, so I had to google it. According to Creativebloq, flat design is “a shift toward skeuomorphic design, which attempted to bring real life to the screen, with faux-realistic textures, drop shadows and real object characteristics. That gave way to the flat design, which opposes all of these ‘artificial’ design techniques, in favour of a more simplified, classically digital aesthetic.”

I think one of the characteristics is a bold, clear headline. This cuts through any potential static for clear messaging. Another characteristic is large, magazine quality images and minimum navigation.

Pretend that you have gotten a freelancing job to create a website for an energy industry consulting company that specializes in “green” solutions to prevent earthquakes and choose three websites that were featured on the Awwwards.com site that each have one thing you could use to inspire your own design:

Site 1 – Sirin Labs

I like the “techie” aspect of the design and the animation of spinning. Could use an animation of a drill?

 

Site 2 – Future Water

I love the interactive design and animation. This design would be a great way to illustrate how their cleaner alternative works.

 

Site 3 – Red Collar Digital

I like the white color of the site. It seems clean, fresh and reminds me a clean air.

 

Pick three Tags from the Awwwards.com site (i.e., Clean, Retro, Colorful) that appeal to you and answer the following:

  1. What are some commonalities that the sites in this tag/category seem to share?
  2. What kinds of websites might these work best for?
  3. What kinds of people do you imagine these appealing to or why do they appeal to you?

Tag – Big Background Image

  1. Big background image :p
  2. Restaurants, clothing stores, coffee-shops
  3. Urban, techie / hipster people. It appeals to me because it seems cleaner and more modern

Tag – Ecommerce

  1. Most have one main product image on the homepage
  2. Retail businesses selling goods
  3. Tech-savy shoppers

Tag – Retro

  1. Fun fonts, imagery, some have pixelated images
  2. Fast food, entertainment places like Dave and Busters, bars, liquor brands
  3. It appeals to me because it is fun and colorful, meant to not be taken seriously