Typographers & Designers

Eric Gill

Mark Boulten a graphic designer who had Gill Sans as 'Typeface of the Month' said,"Gill Sans was designed by Eric Gill in the 1920’s and issued by Monotype in 1928 to 1930. Eric Gill studied under the calligrapher and stonemason, Edward Johnston, at the Central School in London so therefore it comes as no surprise that Gill Sans is based on his teachers typeface for London Under­ground, Johnston Underground."

Image from "http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/typeface-of-the-month-gill-sans"

"The display font is Gill Sans, a classic and elegant sans serif font. Gill designed several excellent fonts, which are widely available. In addition to the display font at this website, I use Gill sans a few places in Enivisioning Information and in Visual Explanations."     -- Edward Tufte, April 19, 2002

Image from"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GillSansEG.svg"

Gill Sans different typefaces:

Images from"http://www.prepressure.com/fonts/interesting/gill_sans"

Gills Sans - Light

Gills Sans - Regular

Gills Sans - Italics

Gills Sans Bold

www.frankie.bz/blog/ says "Gill Sans is for sure one of the most used fonts for corporate design in the fashion industry. When a brand claims elegance and self confidence this font is a sure shot."

Such a clean, elegant font that really suits the business/fashion industries as it's such as slender and professional font. A real good font also for the web as it's concise and very easy to read and not monotonous on the eyes.

Wolfgang Weingart

"It was he who ignited the spark of ‘typographic anarchy’ that exploded on the verge of the nineteen nineties." --Keith Tam.

Weingart began teaching at the Basel School of Design, where he was appointed as an instructor of typography by Armin Hoffmann in 1963. He came up with a new approach to typography that put an influence on the development of much of graphic design in the 1990s.

He had a big influence on teaching 'Swiss Typography' which was the use of grid systems to the logical disposition of type and images on the page in an asymmetric layout, along with the use of Sanserif typefaces.

One of his most common pieces of work can be seen below:

Image from: http://www.posterpage.ch/div/news07/n070317a.htm

The next is of his book, 'Weingart - My Way to Typography'. This book gives a view of the influences that have affected the development in his work as both a Typographer and Designer.  

"For the first time readers will see an overview of his work - the author having painstakingly recreated old projects, including the contents of his sketchbooks from the past forty years." --http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/119165.Wolfgang_Weingart

Saul Bass

When researching about different typographers I came across Saul Bass. I actually never heard of him before but when I gathered more information on him I came to like his work. There is something about his font that has a cheerful side to it. It is more like a children's font as it looks groovy and letters don't all look equal in size some are greaer than others. Below is a poster that Bass created for a 1957 film called "Loved in the afternoon".

Image courtesy of Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Love_in_the_afternoon_(1957)_-_movie_poster.jpg

All of Bass's posters had a style of  there own. "After his first film project Carmen Jones, he has been said to have collaborated with Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock. His work spanned five decades and inspired numerous other designers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bass

The font is known as "Hitchcock" is said to be a rough, hand cut style that stereotypes the work of Bass. I ten learnt how "in fact, type designer Nick Shinn notes that Bass didn’t do the actual lettering and veteran Robert Trogman adds that Dave Nagata did most of the drawings."
http://typographica.org/2007/on-typography/saul-bass-website-and-hitchcock-font-are-back/

It all began to get a bit confusing as I found out from the website above how "Hitchcock was created by designer Matt Terich as an homage to the iconic lettering that so often appeared in Bass’ title work." Here is the font Hitchcock created by Matt Terich:

Image courtesy of http://typographica.org/2007/on-typography/saul-bass-website-and-hitchcock-font-are-back/

Paper Prototyping Logos

"Paper prototyping is a variation of usability testing where representative users perform realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the interface that is manipulated by a person ‘playing computer,’ who doesn’t explain how the interface is intended to work."  http://www.paperprototyping.com/

I took a look at how I would begin prototyping by checking out how others have done it. The following image shows how the user created a website from paper prototyping. Obviously he knew exactly what he wanted in his website and the type of layout to suit his needs.

'Image courtesy of: http://www.vikingkarwur.com/blog/archives/2006/05/'

In my case I think that I will be doing some more than this as I don't quite know what type of layout I want and I will be doing some sampling with diagrams as to what I really want it to turn out.

Firstly, I have to think up of a name:

BelfastCommute - This was the first idea that I came up with as I was really just targeting Belfast and the domain name was free at the time, but after a discussion with Paul we both felt that maybe I should target a greater scope 'Northern Ireland'. This was a good plan as I would be able to do a lot more with my website instead of just targeting one specific area. With this name it sounds like it is a 'To Belfast' service whereas with a suitable name it would be a greater service 'To and From Belfast'.

I began doing some sketches and paper prototyping for a logo idea. I had been trying out different names and usingdifferent typefaces, but felt that I should try doing some protoypes.

Some names I brainstormed were NI Cmmuter, Travel2Belfast, JourneyNI and Journi. The las appealed to me as I felt that it was catchy and stuck with it. I then showed Paul McCormick the same ideas and he thought it was a good name for the service.

Travellingni - This logo would be a simple Helvetica font and thecolour would be primary, concise and clean on the eye. I would remove the letters 'L' and instead would place to tyre marks in to still symbolise that it is a form of transport website. I would then try to incorporate the ni into the word travelling to make it stand out a bit more just like the image below.



Commuteni/Commutini/Travellini - This logo would have been something similar, with the colour schemes but instead I got my idea from the bbcni logo which can be seen below only I wanted to elaborate on it a bit more this would be appealing to the user as it would be catchy on the eye and look simple at the same time.

Image courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland

Instead of just leaving NI just like this I would add more human like features to it, as if the letter 'I' was a person sitting down travelling on a bus or train.

Here is another logo from NITB Northern Ireland Tourist Board which is a very good idea of how the used the words but changed some of the colours so that the letters 'NI' stand out from the rest. The logo is simple as it just has a shamrock instead of being green the background is and the shamrocks white with a little bit of red at the top of the shamrock to link up with the "NI".

OmniTravel - This next name came to me when Paul McCormick spoke to me about Omnibus being the collective word for buses. I thought that OmniTravel would have been a good name for the website as Omni means all or many and travel... well it's pretty self explanatory! Therefore OmniTravel means all ways of travel with the ni from Omni representing Northern Ireland. For this example I haven't quite thought of the process of designing the font as I have a few ideas about it so far. Something slender and clear maybe a sans-serif font maybe keeping the ni as serif or else bold but I'm in the middle of reviewing it at the moment.

Journi - I felt that this name was most appropriate as it incorporates NI into the word journey. The name journi needs to be easy on the eye yet catchy at the same way. I looked at fonts that would be appropriate to the name, industry and website. Below are some examples of the name and how I have added some symbols to the name to make it stand out more.

A more simple approach to the name with a compass symbol on top of the letter "i" to make it stand out a little more. The aim of the compass symbol is to give the theme of travel and the word journi is travel in northern ireland mainly to Belfast.

Now that I have a name, I need to find out what the layout of the website will be. Firstly I will look at the wire frames of the website taking into consideration the pixels size of each individual aspect. Below is an image of the wire frames of the home page and a standard layout for the rest of the website. Firstly is an image of the homepage

The width of the main contect will be 900 pixels. The logo/banner, navigation and footer will be 850 pixels. The contents page will be 600 pixels and the news feed will be 250 pixels as well as each of the link divs along the bottom will also be 250 pixels.

The next is the same layout for the rest of the pages:

 The only main difference between the two page wireframes is that there will be nolinks as such along the bottom of the page as indicated on the image above. The only other difference will be the length of the contents page as it will vary from each page.

Here is my first paper prototype of some of the pages that will make my website. As you can see I have done these sketches before I had come up with the name. The logo will be in the banner and it will visually enhance the website as the banner maximises the advertisement of the website.

The navigation process will be quite simple as I want to make it visually and practical for all age groups that I will be targeting. I then placed a space at the bottom right of the screen an advertising area, but now I feel that an update process would be more beneficial as it will inform the clients rather than taking them away from the site with advertisements. 

I have been research 960 layout system for grids and wire framing which enables the client to alter a 12-column grid which is divided into portions that are 60 pixels wide. Each column has 10 pixels of margin on the left and right, which create 20 pixel wide gutters between columns. It is a great system for getting the layout of your site exact.

"The premise of the system is ideally suited to rapid prototyping, but it would work equally well when integrated into a production environment. There are printable sketch sheets, design layouts, and a CSS file that have identical measurements." http://960.gs/

Now that I have analysed these features I will be creating a prototype for the structure and layout of the Journi website. Below is a prototype of the Homepage:

This is a first approach to what way I would like to see they way in which my end product will appear. It looks quite sophisticated yet simple at the same time. There doesn't seem to be anything to hard for the user to cope with, instead I have tried to go with the same approach as National Express.

The About page looks slightly similar to the Homepage here with some adjustments to the view of the content. The county or counties page will look something similar to the above image but I feel that I might add a search bar onto this page as it may make things easier for the client. This search bar or journey finder may prove to be a great addition to the site and improve the usability and its practicality.

What if?

Just a thought but when I was doing some prototyping at the beginning I made some sketches of how I would like my website to look in application form for the iPhone or other forms of Phone with applications:

Not the best of sketches but it would look something similar to this. When the user selects the county of their choice just like with the website it will show all of the services available with the name of the operator beside them. Below is another similar drawing that shows the features of the App. It will demonstrate all of the pages and what some of their functions are:

Research

After reading a UK Tourism brochure, it said that maximising the size of your banner will also increase the advertising potential. They said "Carefully scheduled, cleverly positioned and properly managed banner advertising can actually add to the appeal and scope of your destination website and of course is another way of generating extra revenue from your online presence." I obtained this information from the new vision section of the Destination UK booklet, issue 37. I feel that the above quote put it into perspective, one of the main features of the website that will catch the user's eye.

"The Google Maps API is one of those clever bits of Google technology that helps you take the power of Google Maps and put it directly on your own site. It lets you add relevant content that is useful to your visitors and customise the look and feel of the map to fit with the style of your site." - Google Maps Team

After checking out other similar travel comparison websites I have an idea of what I want to do, but the question is can I do it? It may take some time but I will keep looking at tutorials to find my way around the aspects. I had been looking at Google API and how my website would benefit from them. I have looked at various websites and seen how they have used them which I feel adds to the website it gives more visual and interactive aspects for the user to take a look at.

Below is a great website for help with Google Maps API. I t begins with the basics and goes right up to the advanced end of the spectrum from how to add markers to Geocoding UK Postcodes. I have looked through some of the points and found them interesting yet quite difficult. Here is a piece of code just to begin with that I was toying with:

var point = new GPoint(-79.90138, 43.65654);
      GEvent.addListener(marker, "click", function() {
        marker.openInfoWindowHtml("Something");
      });
      map.addOverlay(marker);

      var point = new GPoint(-78.89231, 43.91892);
      GEvent.addListener(marker, "click", function() {
        marker.openInfoWindowHtml("Something else");
      });
      map.addOverlay(marker);

There are over eighty pages of information on Google Maps API for beginners, advanced and just for the fun of it!

I looked at another piece of code from it to see how I could use custom events such as a to and from output to "get directions" from A to B to C. Firstly I create the map:

// create the map
      var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
      map.addControl(new GLargeMapControl());
      map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
      map.setCenter(new GLatLng(43.907787,-79.359741), 9);

The Next thing I do is figure out code to get the latitude and longitude of the markers:

var request = GXmlHttp.create();
      request.open("GET", "example.xml", true);
      request.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if (request.readyState == 4) {
          var xmlDoc = GXml.parse(request.responseText);
          // obtain the array of markers and loop through it
          var markers = xmlDoc.documentElement.getElementsByTagName("marker");
          
          for (var i = 0; i < markers.length; i++) {
            // obtain the attribues of each marker
            var lat = parseFloat(markers[i].getAttribute("lat"));
            var lng = parseFloat(markers[i].getAttribute("lng"));
            var point = new GLatLng(lat,lng);
            var html = markers[i].getAttribute("html");
            var label = markers[i].getAttribute("label");
            // create the marker
            var marker = createMarker(point,label,html);
            map.addOverlay(marker);
          }

Once this is added there are some more small features that are to be added to make the map fully functional and it will turn out like the image below:

Image Courtesy of http://www.bisphamchurch.org.uk/ - http://econym.org.uk/gmap/

The first website that i took a look at was www.nationalexpress.com which allows the user to input their postcode and the the map will show up bus stops near the selected area.



I thought that this was a good idea as it would be easy for someone not familiar with the area they would be able to get a visual view on it. My own idea would be focusing on Northern Ireland and so may be worth having this type of API as Northern Ireland is a great tourist friendly area so people from outside the country would be able to use the transport to get around.

Also after looking at an IMD Student's work from last year belfi.co.uk I saw how they made use of Google Maps API to show all of the wifi hotspots within the Belfast area. Each hotspot is represented by a wifi symbol and enables the user to see any hotspot near them. When the user clicks on the certain hotspot it gives feedbeack of the address of the free wifi and lets the user rate it with a five star rating scheme.



After looking at APIs, I was looking at other user input feeds such as twitter. I was looking at maybe having some sort of mobile texting feed so that if there were delays such as accidents or weather conditions that the operator could text into this feed or tweet to it providing it was safe to do so giving a live feed to the public. I have noticed that more and more companies are using twitter and linking it to their own website as an update feed, such as the IMD website, which is great for checking updates and seeing what people have to say with regards to the subject.

I believe that this sort of update feed would benefit my website as I would be able to allow operators to update services that they may be on, at that moment in time so that they will be able to tell their passengers that they will be late turning up due to collisions or traffic congestion.

I took a look at how translink have may their customers aware of problems. Translink have their own feed which they update on a 30 minute basis which interacts with the customers as they are able to see which service is affected and for how long. I really liked this idea because it keeps the audience always alert and is an incentive to keep them coming back all the time for informative updates.

Here is a piece of code I have found that would link my own twitter feed up to my website if I was to insert the following:

<script src="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/2/widget.js%22%3E%3C/script>
<script>
new TWTR.Widget({
  version: 2,
  type: 'profile',
  rpp: 4,
  interval: 6000,
  width: 250,
  height: 300,
  theme: {
    shell: {
      background: '#333333',
      color: '#ffffff'
    },
    tweets: {
      background: '#333333',
      color: '#ffffff',
      links: '#ffffff'
    }
  },
  features: {
    scrollbar: false,
    loop: false,
    live: false,
    hashtags: true,
    timestamp: true,
    avatars: false,
    behavior: 'all'
  }
}).render().setUser('Declan_Mc_Anulty').start();
</script>

This is the source that I use on my own page to incorporate my own twitter account on my webpage. The code allows twitter to send new updates that I post on it to my website so people can view what I have said without logging into twitter. This is the sort of feature that I wish to include on my Journi website so that updates can be made easily whether it is by internet or via their phone.

I have also been looking at hotscripts.com which is great and full of ideas for adding pieces of code. It will give me help on a variety of things from blogs, mailing list managers to user management and ASP. It has given me ideas on linking up blogger account so that the feed will appear on my own website. I also thought that user authentication was a good idea maybe for a client area within my website and had thought about a forum or discussion area so that users could compare and rate the various operators in Northern Ireland.

forms of user login and registration from toddwoolums.com

If I decide to use a forum on my website I have also been looking at spyka.net which will show me step by step guides of setting up my own forum. Below is what the end product would look like if I were to use the aided tutorials as well as the start off template for the forum.

Is a forum good or bad?

A forum sounds like a great idea so that commuters can tell everyone else about their experience of the service that they used an whether or not that they would recommend it to others. On the other hand a forum can sometims cause controversy, although I will have control over it I have seen from other forums and message boards how people's identification has been used without their permission to slate others which could bring a very negative aspect to my site, if one person isn't satisfied with a service they then tell everyone and the operators numbers decline due to one negative comment. 

Facebook...

I will have a facebook profile for my website also, as it is best to keep up to date with the younger audience with accounts, such as university students as facebook has over 500million active users, with more than 150million mobile users, there is a greater chance of younger audience "adding" this to their own portfolio so that they can regularly check on information.

How does Facebook help others advertise and grow their business?

I have done some more indepth research on how it can improve your popularity with your customers and growth of the business. One company's Facebook page who are in the transport sector is J.J. Kavanagh Coach Hire. Kavanaghs have over three thousand fans that follow them on Facebook. This demonstrates the reputation that they have grown and how Facebook has helped to develop it even more with the youth and commuters. Kavanagh's use Facebook to promote their vast majority of services throughout the country. They also use it to keep in contact with their customers which helps improve their image. On their Facebook page they have a wall alike everyone else where they communicate on a daily basis with their passengers who may have questions that they need answered before travelling. They hav also created other "pages" where they have posted their service timetables along with a reviews section where customers have created their own opinion of the service that was provided to them.

I think that if Journi was to use Facebook it would promote the service even more alike Kavanaghs, it will have its own website but to keep in touch with others it will have a Facebook page also to communicate with commuters that will be benefiting from the main site.

Below is an image of Kavanagh's Facebook page allowing you to see the various comments that people leave and how they get such quick responses. I have seen from this page that they are also "friends" with other coach operators, so this must mean that it is the norm for most coach operators to be able to promote their services.

Image source courtesy of http://www.facebook.com/JJKavanagh#!/JJKavanagh?v=wall

Other similar sites

At the moment I have found three websites that do a similar thing only for different types of transport. The first is Cargo-solv, an English company that do quote comparisons for the movement of different types of freight anywhere in Europe. 

The site looks really easy to use, with a simple layout for the user to select and fill-in certain aspects they wish. It's also appealing to the user as with the tranquil colours and ease of navigation a good, clear website.

The next website I found was called Transport-direct. Not really what I will be doing as it seems to be a lot more advanced. It focuses on car rental as well but has some similar aspects such as finding coach, bus and rail transportation in your area so that you can plan your route. The site also has 'travel news' embedded so that the user can plan out if the need to go at an earlier time.

A nice layout although doesn't look quite right something missing. I think there might be a little too much going on and too many colours on the page.

The third website I looked at was Ecomparison. This website is more of a "Compare the Market"method as it will compare the various methods of transport giving price comparisons, not really what I wanted to do as it wouldn't be accurate enough but something similar.

After checking out these comparison websites,I then thought it was time to take a look at some similar coach companies and how the advertise their own services. The first one I looked at was Translink and how they have developed their website and and promoted a more "helping" approach online. 

Although there's a lot going on with the website the user can see various aspects such as delays, network issues and special offers.

Translink have given me ideas which I will be able to develop in Friday classes with Paul McCormick. I have come up with the idea that there should be some sort of live feed that can be interacted between users and operators, such as delays and reviews or any relevant information, but it's still early days yet!

The other company that I have looked at is National Express. They used the idea that Paul discussed about some sort of Google API. So that the user can pinpoint on Google Maps the various locations of pickups in their area.

Another site that I have recently found is traveline.info. At first glance I thought that it was exactly what my aim was in my Major Project but after further consideration and evaluation I discovered that the site helped the user to find a major public sector operator for their area.

The site can be seen below:

The site is very easy to use and clear for the user. There doesn't seem to be anything too hard to understand and its design is simple aimed towards all age groups. They have used a map so that the user can click on the area where they intend to travel and they would be taken to that specific areas Public Sector Company.

I felt that although they are the major service provider in Northern Ireland, that it wasn't fair just to stereotype NI to Translink as its only service provider that there are other smaller private companies that operate the exact same services. Below is the link from traveline when Northern Ireland is clicked:

I really like the look of the Translink site although very simple, with only the use of two colours (green & white) it still by far as professional as any other site. I feel that as they are more of a transport company they don't worry as much about their online image as long as the technical end works for them.

In a navigation sense the site is excellent as it is so easy to use. The client can easily get from one page to the next with no bother and with a search bar the user can't go wrong it works very precisely to the area the client is looking to reach.

The website also allows the user to store journeys which can also be very useful at times as they are able to back into that specific area instead of searching through numerous pages for the same details on journeys. This helps the user also as they can store this journey for a certain date and then look up a new journey for a different date.

National Express is a major public sector organisation in England. They too have an excellent website. It is very clear and concise and very easy to use. Along the top of the the webpage they have clear navigation that enables the user to view coaches, trains, buses, airport transfers, offers and making travel simpler. These are all the links the user wants to see they don't want to be bothered by links upon links going from pages to pages they want to get there in a maximum of three to four clicks. This in turn allows the user to get there in one to two clicks making life easier and improving time for them.

I then noticed that in the main content area of the homepage they have a journey planner. I feel that my own site wouldn't benefit from this as I am simply going to and from Belfast although I could create one that would allow the client to choose whether or not they are go to or from Belfast and they could choose what county they are coming from and the link would then take them directly to the county webpage with a list of operators that provide the services to that area. The journey planner will enable a user to enter where they wish to go to and where they are coming from, whether or not it is single or return and the number of adult and children travelling. Once I fill in the credentials and click on get me services and prices it takes me to another page where I have various options on services that will be going in the direction requested.

This is a great and really simple site. It takes you right to the point. I couldn't believe how quick it retrieved the services for me and all that I had to input were the two destinations and the number of passengers travelling. This would be a great feature to put into practice in my website as it would b a great advantage to enable the user to get straight to the part that they wish to find out about.

Stagecoach is a major public sector organisation in Scotland. They also have a very simple approach for  their customers as they are targeting all age groups. I really can't believe how simple the website looks for such a major organisation providing hundreds if not thousands of services throughout Scotland and parts of England. Stagecoach have also clear, get to the point navigation that enables the user to view timetables, tickets, service updates, careers and customer services.

I took a closer look at how they created their "timetables" page and again I couldn't believe how easy it was. As they have so many services they have to use some sort of a database or javascript to retrieve times. This allows the user to select a location from the options given and then the route numbers associated with that area or they can enter where they are travelling from and where they are travelling to. The first of the two options is a slightly quicker way as the options have been given and it refines the search even greater.

Another option that Stagecoach has used is a Local Operator Service, which enables the user to view a map of the UK and click on the various hotspots that are relevant to them with regards to the area that they wish to travel to or from. Once the person clicks on this hotspot the map zooms in to show all of the stations in that area, i.e. I clicked on North East and the map zoomed in and provided me with South Shields, Newcastle, Sunderland, Teeside and Hartlepool. When I investigated it a little more by clicking on one of the links, "Sunderland", it brought me directly to the StagecoachSunderland site which will in turn bring up all services in that area for the local community. Below is an image of the map that I first clicked on and saw this list of towns in that area.

The next image is that of the webpage that the map will eventually bring the user to depending on the area that they have chosen. I think that this is a great system as it targets everyone even those with slight visual impairments as it is all visually interactive, it is a map and the areas are easier to locate as the user will have some idea on where they are situated.

Just to note that again they use the same navigation yet the have more visual aids this ti as we can clearly see from the main content how vibrant it is as it wants to catch our attention. They also use the similar description of timetables and route maps. I have looked into this to se if there is a consistency and have found that there is, they use a similar searching option for services in that district.

What idea I'm using

The topic I've chosen as my final project is the first of my three the Unilinker website. Instead of just basing it around Jordanstown University I have decided along with the guidance of Paul McCormack to base it more on Belfast. It will be more of an information website on where to get transport in your area to and from Belfast for commuters.

One reason I undertook this site for my project is because I have a keen interest in the transport industry as my father owns a coach company and he runs services to and from Belfast for students travelling to university or for normal commuters going to or coming home from Belfast. I have noticed in the past few years the decline in numbers on some services from both our company and others and I believe that it is because of the lack of advertising of these services. This is why I feel it is important to design a website that will both promote services in different areas and inform the users of the services available.

The website will give lists of both private and public sector operators who have daily commuting services to and from Belfast. I will also have some sort of interface that will allow the user to select their county and an area close to them that would be beneficial to their journey. There would also be an area for the users to add their own comments giving reviews on their experience alerting others of positive and negative aspects.

My idea came from the fact that when I had football training during the week I was going home two and three nights a week and was just using Translink each time at £7.30 a trip was getting quite expensive so I looked online to see if there was anything out there but there wasn't for here anyway! (Even though I knew a couple of other companies that did do service runs to my area). I used to have to phone up all of he time to find out when the next service would be going back to Belfast and the person on the phone would tell one thing but I would find out that it was earlier and miss it, this made me think that if they had a website and the information was on it the they would have to keep to the times scheduled. I therefore thought that there was more that I could research about how other companies in different countries promote their services. I broadened the spectrum and saw that there were services like this further afield in England and Wales. My task is to create a website that will be equal to both sectors as there isn't enough advertising towards the private sector and this is what I aim to do for the North of Ireland to show that there isn't just a government body operating and that other private operators do this as well and sometimes at a better rate.

The following are some ideas I came up with when thinking of what content I wanted to add to my website. I know it's a bit early but I feel that it would be better if I had some ideas to focus on. I might not use all of these ideas and I might add some extras nearer the time of my project.

What I would need to take into consideration

• User friendly
• Forms of Transport
• Price Comparison
• Advertising
• Regular Updates
• Twitter Feed
• Blog Feed?
• Type of content
1. Text
2. Tables
3. Images
• Client Area
• Forum Area

The above will give me a great insight to what direction and actions that I will be taking towards creating the website.

Week 1- Biography, Major Project Proposals & Five Inspiring Websites.

Biography
How to write my own Biography. Firstly I looked at other websites. Kev Adamson a web designer in Gwynedd has been in the industry for more than seven years, has as he says "built up a massive reputation."

Another Designer Colin Miller a designer since 1983 has also done well for himself. His website is simplistic yet professional at the same time.

Both of these websites pointed me in the right direction of creating my own Pen Portrait, which was to talk about what I've done, how long I've been doing it and what I inspire to do in the future.

Biography
Declan became a web designer and CMS administrator for a school in Newry for his placement. Now he is aiming to develop his abilities in multimedia design. In his free time Declan experiments in some freelance web design for some small companies in his area strengthening his previous skills so far.


Three Possible Projects

The Unilink Commuter Website- Going through hundreds of web pages and endless phone calls to different transport services could become a little easier.The Unilinker Web/App would store all of the Rail/Coach operators that journey to the University of Ulster either on a daily or weekly basis. There would also be a visual aid such as "Google Maps" allowing the student pinpoint their pickup area.

Pros - It simply identifies the services available. It would be easier to find a service closer to the individual. I will be able to try out new programming skills. I have a strong interest in this matter. This will inform people of all of the various operators and services on the one site. 

Cons - A major con is that I would consider myself more of a designer than a programmer so this may cause some problems. I haven't tried incorporating Google Maps APIs with this feature before and so this may be a holdback.


UUStudentGuide - For a student, money isn't always handy to get, as they say "it doesn't grow on trees!" So the Student Guide NI would be there to help them get the best deals for their money and would let them select and check out what stores did student discount/offers.

Pros - It would be a great asset to the student audience. I would be able to further develop my SQL skills.

Cons - MySQL skills are slightly limited so I may have some problems when I am developing them.

OnlineGym - The thought of going to the gym for some people is a headache and embarrassing. So from the comfort of your own home you can go online and watch tutorials on workouts with and without equipment. It will also help you depending on your weight what dieting/building plans you can do. There would be a forum on it that would allow people to talk about their experiences of use of the website.

Pros - It would be like a virtual gym, where you would get the same enjoyment and fitness. I feel that it would have great potential and it would promote fitness to those who fear it most.

Cons - I haven't created forums before and don't know what to expect. I would need to read up a little more on databases(MySQL) with regards weight loss/ muscle gain plans.


Five Inspiring Websites

Tutvid

Not only does it inspire me but is a great site for online tutorials and enhancing my skills in many different fields of design.
A well designed website that has an ease in functionality really has changed the way I design websites.

Facebook

Facebook, possibly the best website ever! People use facebook on a daily, if not hourly basis. It has over 500million active users, with more than 150million mobile users. It is a great inspiration to a lot of users and is shown from its statistics telling us how users spend a total of over 700billion minutes on Facebook.

The Web Squeeze

This website for me was one of the best websites for "A fresh blast of web design and development".
It is very easy with regards to visual and navigational appeal and has the reader always coming back for more.

Google

What can I say! I need it, Google will look for it. Without Google I would not have been able to find some of these websites. It will find anything you want with ease. With its use of primary colours and plain white background it's not too sharp on the eye.

Design Shack

Another awesome inspiring website in my opinion. With many great articles showing the designer what approach to take and how to make a really good website.The site is simple and easy to use with features such as galleries, tutorials and news for all members it's quite useful.