Week 1 Exploration: Mapping the Modern Web Design Process

The worldwide web is something that will be needed no matter what your profession.  Corporations often use it for some of their work systems and their associate hubs.  Smaller companies advertise and post their goods and services on their websites, Facebook, and Pinterest.  People searching for employment use it to find and apply for jobs.  Even the video and audio editing I'm hoping to work in needs YouTube and SoundCloud.  The web is as necessary today as the home telephone was thirty years ago.

Mapping the Modern Web Design Process relays a lot of interesting data to help web designers make the best web pages possible.  I was especially interested in the section on "Version Control."  I wasn't aware of the sites mentioned, but their function in the web design process is an excellent idea and something I'd like to learn more about.  The idea of building a persona as one would build a game character also peaked my interest.  I plan to look up the suggested Lynda.com tutorials to gain more information about good ways to go about it.  I would like to explore the card-sorting exercise further, as well.  Sometimes figuring out the best way to arrange a design in a cohesive manner is one of the most difficult parts of any design.  The card-sorting exercise sounds like it is the writer's outline of web design and is something worth learning how to use well.

Watching this tutorial gave me a few ideas on how to handle the fictitious web project.  I am definitely going to build a persona for what I expect to be the average customer for the client.  It also made me think about what pages would be best for both the client and his customers.

Probably the main question I would have for my client is who he thinks would most likely be the person to make a decision on whether or not to use his service.  His target client is the elderly, however older people often have children who will do research and help them decide on whether or not to use such a service.  I would think he would know the elderly community in his area and have an idea of whether they tend to make their own decisions and do their own research or if their children are more likely to do it.