Well Spring Break is almost over and I am currently working on my homework. I’m sitting in a nice little cabin in the woods here on Whidbey Island in Washington. I’m trying to have all of my illustrations completed before I get on a plane on Sunday. Fingers crossed!
Woo! Spring break got me like:
Woo! I’m gonna be equal parts studious and party-hearty!
Getting ready for spring break my plan is to have all of my illustrations completed before I fly to California. Below are some of my in progress images:
Another in progress post. I found some really cool examples of css animation when I was searching for inspiration. This animated solar system by Julian Garnier includes several interactive features, for example the solar system can be viewed based on actual size, speed, or distance. The amount of information available and the amount of control the viewer has makes the page very successful. Below is a screenshot of Garnier’s work alongside the working version:
See the Pen CSS 3D Solar System by Julian Garnier (@juliangarnier) on CodePen.
Today was a work day and I am very grateful for the chance to get caught up on the labs and edits for the first project. I am still struggling with the code but if I go piece by piece I will be fine. I’m very happy with the direction my story design is heading towards. I’m going to illustrate each constellation in the Ursa Major family and then have sections for each myth. Who knew there was a constellation about a Queen’s hair?
The stars have always held stories of daring heroes or love sick fools. My page will focus on both the myth and the facts of the night sky. This combination of science and belief will be created using a dynamic combination of photographs and illustrations and text animation.
Bottom
At the bottom of the page will be brief facts about the history of astronomy.
“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.” -Plato
Galileo facts.
“I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
Middle
This section covers the myths of constellations and cultural ties to the stars.
Top
Science of space and the strangeness that surrounds us will be featured at the top.
As the viewer moves up the page there will be interactive elements, like a constellation map of a major constellation (Ursa Majo, Ursa Minor or Orion) and the ability to uncover more facts.
I’m looking forward to the next project. I was originally thinking about doing something in relation to Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark and making it interactive and exploratory but I think I’m going to brainstorm this weekend and come up with a few other ideas.
I was a little worried about the fact that this project is going to be coding based, despite the labs and such the last coding project left me rather confused and uncertain. I am definitely going to do a few more basic labs in Codecademy so I can start feeling more confident when it comes to coding. Here’s to the weekend!
Critique was really helpful. The feedback I received was helpful and I will be incorporating it in the final version. The most successful part of the navigation for me is the movement that occurs when selections are made. The continuity of the line as it moves down the page was what I tried to center each section on so it became a natural flow of new information.
Work days are the best. I am using this time to focus on my navigation design. I still have to determine how I want the content to be interacted with. Since there are so many terms, talents, and technologies that will be present I need to keep the navigation simple and intuitive. Behance has been invaluable as a tool for inspiration and understanding how online work is presented and documented.
Creating the wireframes helped me work through the motions of the design. Thinking through what happens after interacting with a design element and trying to create a logical path through the proposed website. Below are four panels going from the first navigation page to the details of choosing a sorting criteria and then how the elements respond to each stage of selection. The final frame is when a single element (a technology, talent or term) is a hover over or clicked-on effect that gives the user more information about a specific subject.
