Interface Design

Design Strategy:
I chose the same event as my not for profit poster, and purposely incorporated the poster design aspects into my website. The same icons – the band aid, pumpkin, candy corn, etc. – are featured in the navigation bar as identifiers for each section. I chose to do this because I not only wanted continuity between all publicity objects representing the SAFE event, but I also feel I captured the audience so well in my poster that I would incorporate the same child like shapes and colors in my website. This is a website for parents and kids to enjoy, and I designed for that audience.
The navigation bar’s shape and placement is for readability and eye travel. As the eye begins at the top left, it immediately sees the reason for the Web site – the event name. Then the eye travels down the curve to each brightly colored section bubble.
I used wide, but short blocks of text with colorful headers to make for “quick reads” and always included my helpful links on the right side of the page for consistency and eye travel. The eye will see them last, and they will hopefully be inclined to click through.

Typeface:
My “novelty” header font is Marker Felt and my body text is Georgia. I wanted to stick with a web-friendly font for my body, because the Red Cross might actually use this, as I am still an intern. Marker Felt reminds me of childhood handwriting, yet with enough readability to attract adults. The serif/sans serif contrast makes the website look professional despite its youthful theme.

Color:
I chose the traditional Halloween colors because it is a children’s event and it speaks to the audience, just as the bright candies and band-aids do. The black background serves as a matte background for the bright fonts and pictures to really pop out of the screen. My colors for the other navigation windows derive from the poster and from my own realm of bright, child like colors. I purposely did not stick with one color theme throughout; I wanted each page to be a little different with color, and used the design aspects to create consistency.