Home Page:
Simplifying the home page into wireframes allows me to gain a better understanding of how a sites navigation and page composition effects the user experience.
The condensed navigation bar uses the same size type as the body copy which makes them less prominent on the page. Personally, I prefer the large navigation bars such as those found on Studio Laucke Siebien as they are easy to find and refer back to. However I can understand why It's Nice That have done this because it doesn't intrude and provides more white space for the content to breath, ultimately making it easier for the user to distinguish projects. As People of Print also have a diverse range of content, a large menu will make it easier for them to browse specific categories. It's Nice That have the same objectives to People of Print therefor this research can be fed into my outcome.
The site presents the most viewed project as the largest image at the top of the page which immediately immerses the audience. People of Print currently use an article about their Posterzine at the top of their home page which could be replaced with a big/most viewed article in order to immediately engage and inspire the user, rather than focus on promoting their Posterzine.
It's Nice That's home page provides a plethora of information which engages the audience, features such as 'most popular' and 'recent news' on the right hand side. The user can interact with the homepage interface in order to change from 'most popular' and 'recent news'. People of Print's website would benefit from this as it can immerse the user with an array of the most relevant content. Currently POP's homepage is a continuous feed of projects, however applying this would immediately inform the user on what content they should be looking at and allow them to immediately navigate to projects that catch their eye.
Social Media
It's Nice That's social media icons and links take a prime position on the right of the menu bar. During a one to one crit it was suggested that I looked at POP's social media because they post a selection of highly rated and relevant articles. This can help to inform the 'most viewed' section of the site.
On the right hand side, the social media icons seem dated and pixelated which makes them hard to recognise on screen.
Facebook: 100,000 followers
Identified POP's social media presence is high, this can potentially be implemented into the homepage to encourage users to follow People of Print and further immerse users in print.
Printing the website out made reading and understanding the website easier. This suggests that the relationship between print and screen is close. In order to gain more of an understanding of the links and how sites worked, I printed out other design based website in order to see how they categories the array of information.
Design Boom
The site is able to host a lot of content due to the cramped menu bar providing more room for high impact image. Taking advantage of the wide screen also provides room for 'popular now' features. In my experience with the interface, I found the menu bar too cramped.
The menu bar disapears providing more room for the images and copy, however it makes navigating the site more problematic as the user has to scroll all the way back to the top of the page in order to interact with the menu.
The staggered articles vary in size which is dependant on the amount of social media shares/interactions it has had. This feature draws the users attention to the most popular, and in most cases, successful projects.
Comparing this wire frame with the It's Nice That's I discovered they are very similar. Both take advantage of the right side bar for other features.
Eye Magazine Blog
The narrow format of the site cramps the information. However accessing the site using a computer without AdBlocker dramatically changes the layout of the website. Below, I have traced the wire frame of the site without AdBlocker:
Removing the adverts enlarges the website making the small point type easier to read. This is something I will need to consider for PoP because the adverts can obstruct the audiences user experience.
From studying the wireframes of various sites, I have identified that they are all very condensed, in a similar way to People of Print. This suggests that a minimalist layout would make viewing and browsing articles a user friendly experience because there would be more room for the content to breath which wouldn't overwhelm the user. Researching sites with a similar objective and target audience has been really beneficial for me to create something different based on weak and strong areas I have identified. A large format, widescreen solution would make the engage the user a lot more whilst providing an organised navigation system.
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