Digital Arts Showcase

Who is the target audience? How does the design support the audience?

The target audience is the community, industry, and NWTC staff and students – anyone interested in viewing and experiencing the projects of students in the digital arts programs and ultimately have the opportunity to meet the students that created them. My design supports this as on the home page in the invitational message, it is explicitly inviting these individuals to the event. I specifically focused on pictures of the students with some of their projects to give a taste of what could be experienced and show that the students are poised and available to meet and discuss their projects with anyone attending.

What is the message? How does the design support the message?

The message is an invitation to the digital arts showcase, as well as sharing about the programs and students within the digital arts program area. The design begins with an invitation, and first and foremost shares front and center the details of the event (day, time, location). The design also allows multiple ways to find the program pages to learn more about the programs and the students, including the cards on the home page, as well as the navigation and program page cards. Ultimately any content I included tried to point to the students and the outcomes of the students by completing the different digital arts programs.

What is the goal? How does the design support the goal?

The goal is that the intended audience attends the event! The students have worked hard to gain and utilize their skills on the projects being showcased and ultimately the event provides an opportunity to show their skill sets to potential employers and the community. The event serves as an opportunity to network with industry, the community, NWTC staff, and other students and this requires the intended audience to come to the event! Having the event information, front and center, alongside an invitational message provides the needed information for the intended audience to be able to make this goal a reality, even if they did not view the rest of the website. I also intentionally placed the “Get Directions” button immediately after the invitation so visitors could easily find the directions needed to attend the event.

What are the CTAs (Call(s) to Action)? How does the design support the CTAs?

One call to action on the website is to attend the event, including a CTA button to provide directions to the event, as well as a place to request more information. Also on the home page, cards with links to the program pages introduce the different digital arts programs, and another CTA button invites visitors to view more about the program. Visitors can also navigate to the programs through the navigational menu. If visitors navigate to the programs page, they will again be provided additional cards that serve as initial information about each digital arts program, and links to the individual program pages to learn more. Along the way, visitors experience multiple pictures of students supporting that this event is about them, and an opportunity to meet them and experience their work. Each program page offers another call to action to meet the students or return back to the main programs page to view another digital arts program.

Design Summary – Layout, Colors, Typography

Since this is the fall digital arts showcase, I decided to utilize a fall-colored theme. When viewed on desktop, I also included one of my own photographs to not only provide an additional fall-like feeling, but also to showcase some of my own photography! Nature for me is the ultimate inspiration when it comes to design and color choices, and when deciding on a color palette, I will use a photograph to grab certain colors that work well together. I find that most people enjoy embracing the fall colors, and while the showcase takes place in December, advertising the event will take place mostly as the intended audience lives through the fall season. I find the fall colors are also warm and inviting, which is always a welcome feeling as fall descends into winter, and I want visitors to the website to experience a warm and cozy feeling, with the intent that the digital arts showcase will be a pleasant event to be at. While a more fun and vibrant angle could have been taken to energize visitors, I decided to go more for the pleasant and inviting feel since most people, I ascertained, within the intended audience, are seeking more of an unwind versus a wind up in the evening on a weekday.

In addition to colors choices, I tried to choose softer fonts as well and focused on finding a Google font that embodied the “calm” emotion and “rounded” style since curves are more calming than rigid lines. I attempted to find a font that embodied these characteristics but perhaps had two additional flares: a look resembling the path of a leaf as it falls, and a little bit of a digital feel that is associated with more monospace fonts. I chose animations that mimicked the slow reveal of the fall colors, and the fall of leaves. Overall, I wanted to design to be simple and straightforward, so the layout is not too complex or overwhelming. The content follows a logical pattern and is simple and straightforward since most visitors just want a brief view of information. If all they read is when and where and use the directions to arrive at the event, mission accomplished.