Living in a very rational society and dealing with logic and reason the process that Manuela went through when designing a web-page for the Master of Design program was not surprising. Design became a very generic discipline, which can be applied to nearly all areas of life and Manuela has adapted it very well, which means it is no surprise that Manuela accepted the challenges and started designing in an unfamiliar field, she never worked in before. She became an expert in applying without thinking explicit rules that our selfconscious culture teaches designers. They have been internalised and converted to tacit knowledge. It is also true that having internalised this design knowledge, principles and rules under which design operates allowed Manuela to look at design in very broad terms and able to see different alternative uses for design.
To get started Manuela first analysed the timeframe and scheduled her time so that she would finish the project on time and also attend to her other commitments and assignments. Therefore, the actual design process started before she put anything on the paper or even started researching ideas and concepts. This also confirms ones again that design is a commercial industry and time here is very important.
The next step was to establish the boundaries, possibilities and opportunities of the project. This includes technical requirements and specifics of this area of design. She consulted me in order to get a few starting tips on what does the web design area involves and to understand technology she will be dealing with (screen resolution, web-safe colours, file structure etc.) Manuela was not really concerned with the scripting and programming aspect of web-design, because her work requires developing a concept and scripting could be done by specialists in this area. This is an example of division of labour, where she has established her position on the professional ladder and structured her work respectively. However, knowledge of technology is still required, because it is helpful to know the limitation and variables of technology she is dealing with. Secondly, Manuela gathered information on related websites: KvB, Bond as primary sources (because the Master of Design course if offered by KvB in association with Bond University) and UNSW website for comparison and idea about their design concept. She analysed them, identifying strengths and weaknesses, how easy it was to navigate and get to the information, structure of the website, presentation of information, technology used, etc. Manuela also had to decide how to organise her project, how far does she need to go with this website, filter important information from things that are not necessary.
So, what is the general purpose of the website?
General purpose of the website is to attract students to join to do the course and not to give always too much, don’t overload and clutter.
How will existing students benefit from this website?
I’ve thought about it, but then, they have outlines of different subjects, have access to libraries. Posting student’s dissertation online will have to deal with copyright issues etc. Introducing students, listening to their opinions about courses might overload people’s minds, develop prejudices towards the course even before starting it. We don’t want to give away too much, but create a friendly inviting atmosphere and get them to enroll. Then they’ll create their own experiences about studying the Master of Design.
Would you include any information relevant to continuing students?
Information that will deal with currently enrolled students is a much bigger project. It has a lot of exciting opportunities for development and might be added later protected by private passwords to maintain security and privacy of each individual.
During this discussion it was clear that Manuela will be able not only produce the work but also see it as a part of a bigger picture. She is able to think outside the square, consider many different alternatives and stand outside the problem to frame and reframe the concept to include much more than can be said.
The Master of Design is going to become a link from KvB website. ( Kvb > Programs > Bond Programs > Master of Design). The reason here was that the Masters degree is offered by KvB Institute of Technology, associated with Bond University. Both Institutions developed their own websites, which means Master of Design should become rather than a separate website - a link from both KvB and Bond main websites.
How the existing designs of KvB and Bond University are going to relate to your idea?
Firstly, through the use of colour and fonts.
Secondly, because Master of Design is a link from KvB - and KvB at the moment only has a very poorly designed webpage, with excuses about the lack of time. My concept and ideas for the Master of Design course could become a design for the whole Organisation. Otherwise it will have to be redesigned again with the update on the KvB main site.
She decided to use colours blue and yellow, which are corporate colours of the two institutions, will use the same font and work in same same screen resolution as the other websites to create a smooth transition from one to another. These discoveries were made from critical judgements and based on tacit rules of design received during her education.
Manuela also criticised the way the information was presented on the Kvb website about the Master of Design. It presented a long continuous piece of writing, which was boring and non-flexible for the reader to pick information they wanted. Bond website offered a slightly better version, which showed different sections of interest that the user can choose and view. Manuela’s alternative was to restructure information from the linear pattern to a non-linear presentation, to add flexibility and choice. The sections she picked out followed the same distinction as in the Master of Design booklet. (e.g. Introduction, Course Structure, Entry Requirements, Resources, Contact Us, Home - KvB main page)
Manuela’s first conclusions allowed her to proceed further in the process and start putting theory into practice.
The objectives were clear, the content finalised, colours and fonts chosen, she still found herself in a position to be starting from scratch. “You have a white piece of paper in front of you, and you need to start transforming your words into visual images, and this is still very difficult, because you want to be original, creative and imaginative within the constrains of the project.” (Manuela)
She created a frame, where she is going to place information. She had chosen a 3 row structure, so that the top and the bottom rows are going to stay consistent, and the middle part is where information is to be presented. (Blue top and bottom rows with text colour of white and yellow to create a contrast and for the text to be more visible) Because Manuela decided to use black font colour for the main frame window, the background had to be pale, in order to see text clearly, and maintain legibility of the typing. She chose the background of the middle row to be a gradient of a light colour faded into an image collage and associate these images with information presented on the page. The collage that she thought of , although it will not show same images on all pages, is a consistent feature of the design.
Introduction:
welcoming Australia, general stereotypical images of Australia, images of nature, general introduction to the country, where the students are invited to start studying.
Course Structure:
examples of work from different departments in KvB, underlining the diversity of disciplines offered and a broad choice.
Advanced Visual Communication, Advanced Design Seminar
photographs of cities around the world, interesting aspects of culture, history and design. Also implies that design is an universal, international discipline.
Design and Cultural Theory, Advanced Graphic Design and Digital Communication
technology, satellites, computers, different generations of technology, which means not everyone has access to the latest and the newest and what are the consequences of this (different cultures, economic, political systems).
Dissertation , Design Project
famous designers, architects, philosophers, scientists, historical figures as well as contemporaries, for students to relate, acknowledge and identify with famous people and their success, set their goals to achieving the best.
Entry Requirements:
pictures of student life, different age groups, so that noone feel excluded, Australians and international students - these should give viewers opportunity to relate to actual real faces of people during subjects and feel part of the community.
Resources
an abstract concept of basic building blocks for every design: shapes, forms, colours, numbers - computer code, letters - typography, books, reading, seeing, putting things together, theories related to design and examples that these could create. The institution is providing you with everything.
Contact Us:
social life in Sydney, streetscape, places of interest, shopping, entertainment, architecture introduces the environment where students will be, if he/she decides to take the course.
This process is constant use and reuse of rules and design principles, learned through years studying design, as well as skills in making meaning of images and how the images are read. (consistency, colour and gradients, collages, knowledge of technology and what can be done).
Then during the manual process of copying and pasting information into related sections of the website, and reflecting on the process she has done Manuela did minor changes that occurred to her while working. She realised at one stage that she started to get away from the structure that she set up in the beginning (top panel, where the Master of Design title was placed originally, suddenly featured the name of the link she was working on e.g. “Course Structure”) and pages that were created lost its context, which means she fixed them and got back on track.
Information that she presented on the first page features 2 photographs of Dr. Paul Walton and Gavin Harris, with an e-mail link on them - these had to be removed as well, because it would go to a deeper level in the Organisation and the site is created for the administrative purposes to invite people to study the course, to make them familiar with the environment, feel a part of this educational community and then to be able to meet these people and understand what they are about.
On the Resources page, Manuela suggested that a link to the Library might be added. From her research and her experience of university websites - it is common practice to have a library link. Library is a main facility for students to do research and study, which means it could only be to the convenience of students to be able to do research from home and find books and order book from the library outside school. Manuela has a better understanding of the benefit of this proposition because of her own student experience.
Overall, the process of observing Manuela at work was an interesting task, especially after consciously noticing the stages and her application of knowledge and reflection on this knowledge. There was much more to Manuela’s work process than meets the eye. In her work there is a reflection of her history, culture and experiences, she regularly draws on to produce a justified, clear and well argumented concept. Personally, for my own experience and knowledge, it was very interesting to find out how Manuela as a designer knows what she knows, knows, when she is right and when she is wrong, and knows what she can’t express.