RESEARCH As a key part of my research I began looking into what websites about Buddhism for teenagers already existed. My searching didn’t last very long as I came to the conclusion almost immediately that what was to offer on the web was not of use to many young teenagers. The designs were not well thought out, the colours were not pleasing to the eye and the information was not set out in a way that was helpful or informative. This confirmed that there was a huge gap in the web for this sort of website.
Even though I am constantly browsing the internet and coming across hundreds of different sites I came to realise that often the design of them is something that I don’t particularly notice or engage in. I know subconsciously it influences how I think and how I navigate the page and understand that it is an important aspect of a website. I looked into different types of design such as flat, skeuomorphism and single page, analysing each one to see where they would be appropriate and why. I considered single page websites, multi-page, scrolling features and the use of photography. All of these I feel suit a different audience and have a different tone of voice and so this is something I will need to consider.
Depending on the audience for my website I think it is important to consider making it responsive so that it is accessible on all forms of media due to the increase in popularity of smart phones and tablets etc. The tone of voice is something I also need to decide before I begin, I looked into other web design and tried to determine from what I could see who was the target audience and what was the tone of voice? Some websites have to be serious such as ‘The Guardian’ or other news resources, they need to be formal and informative in the way they present information. This differs however to commercial sites such as BMW, the grids can be much more complex and the colour and layout a lot more intricate.
Although I had plenty of primary research collected from the summer I decided that my content needed to be more informational and factual, and the research I had collected would be used to back this up. I used these two books as my two main resources as I felt that when they were written they had the same target audience in mind as I do at this point and it helps me to see how wording can affect how we take in information. I decided that it needed to be condensed information to only the necessary facts. I began to look more in-depth into aspects of Buddhism that I had only touched upon in my initial research such as the 8 Buddhist symbols. I wanted to inform myself about as much as possible so I felt prepared to create something informational.