Wireframes

These are some rough wireframes of what l want to include on each of my webpages, to make use of web technologies I've planned to encode some online videos and links to social media and external webpages so the users can make full use of the site. This will also increase business as having a website that is continuously linked and connected to other sites would boost it's position on search engines such as Google and therefore increase it's popularity. Also, as a user myself l find it much easier to connect to companies using social media such as twitter, which is why my contact information is heavily social media related as thats the quickest and most effective way to get in touch. Also by having a online presence on social media allows hashtags to be started and for users to connect with each other and promote the company by talking about it on their online profiles. 

Logo Experimentation

Before l used photoshop to start designing my website l wanted to roughly design the logo and experiment with colours which l thought would fit well into the brand I'm trying to build.
So l drew some logos and looked at what l thought worked well and also how comparable my deigns were to successful music steaming sites such as Spotify.

Here are some of the basic designs l come up with. I found that with Tidal and Spotify's logos they had simplistic text accompanied with graphics to make it more interesting, and in both cases the graphics were a geometric pattern or design that would be easy to recognise. So l tried to incorporate the same by using a geometric pattern in my logo that was different to other brands but also could be recognisable to the genre of music streaming.

I then moved onto photoshop and started experimenting with different logo ideas. Here was the first draft of my logo design;

I started off with this logo, sending it to a few of my friends who then gave me feedback and the most recurring feedback l got was that this design needed something to make it stand out compared o other websites.

So l first started looked at injecting some colour into this design, firstly through the text, then the graphics. 

The second logo l designed l incorporated circles into because l wanted something a bit smaller and sleeker so l created a new design.  I wanted to stick to the geometric theme, so l instead played with the idea of just having one pattern to the side of the word, I also thought that having a white text overlaying black looked classy, sophisticated and more professional. Although having colour can help establish a brand, l thought it made this design in particular look amateur and didn't create the brand identity l intended for it.

Name Ideas/Research

After doing research into music streaming sites and their branding I found that l wanted to go along the same route as Tidal and go for a name that plays on the idea of water and rivers. As Apple Music works off of Apples existing established brand and as my website is a new brand it needs a new and interesting brand identity to attract audiences.


The name ideas l'm going for is 'Surge' as this can correlate to a surge of sound as well as having connections to the word stream. Like other online music streaming brands l wanted a short name that would be catchy and easy to remember to create a strong brand identity, so l thought 'Surge' would work as it's an onomatopoeia so is more memorable.

I also wanted to chose a word that would be easy to incorporate into the design of a logo off of and that would visually work for my website as well as the app. The lettering of the word has key vowels such as 'S' that could easily be incorporated into a logo, brands such as 'Skype' have done it successfully creating a distinguished brand.

Time Management

Completed;

• Spotify Research
• Brainstorming 

I've started to update my blog with my progress, I'm currently working on logo designs and trying to put together some wireframes. Since it's easter break I'm taking it more relaxed, however l have downloaded a trial of Dreamweaver so l can start coding before l go back to uni. As it's only a seven day trial l will try to start my homepage by myself, however if l come across any problems l will have to ask Jack for help in the catch-up sessions when we return from easter break. 

Site Map

Once I'd decided what pages l wanted to create l started to make a site map to decide the types of things l wanted on each page and what I'd be looking for as a user. As we learnt in our lectures a user usually gives a site about 4 seconds to decide whether they actually want to use it or not, and this depends on what the site looks like and also if the user can identify the sites use.
Firstly, l looked at my website proposal and then started to use the site map to detail what l wanted specifically on each page.

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Research; Spotify

Spotify 

What is it; Spotify is an online music, podcast and video streaming website

Founded; Founded on the 23^rd of April 2006 with its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden

Founders; Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon

Spotify is one of the leading websites being available in most of Euroope and America, Asutrailia, New Zealand and parts of Asia. With Spotify’s content available to millions of people the service is available on most modern devices including macOS, Windows and Linux computers as well as smartphones and tablets.

Users can browse Spotify for specific artists, playlists, albums, genres and playlists to find the type of music they like but also they can create their own playlists of their favourite music to keep it all in one place. Bsut they aren’t limited to this, users can also follow others playlists to keep updated with new music and get to see new genres they perhaps wouldn’t have listened to.

With over 50 million paying subscribers and 100 million monthly active users (As of March

2017), Spotify makes a large amount of profit but unlike with physical or downloadable sales Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artists' streams as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service. They distribute approximately 70% of total revenue to rights holders, who then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Spotify have used web technologies to their advantage, having market a service that is 100% online allows them to regularly update their website and make alterations without having to alter offline services. Also by having a online service everything is connected and linked so it's easier for the users to find everything about the website. 

Layouts;

 Spotify's general layout is clear and and has a user-friendly interface with playlists, songs and browser's on a side panel. Having a side navigation bar allows users to navigate easily through the website, as well as using the search tool at the top of the site. Having the play bar at the bottom is a consistent tool used on Spotify, to allow the user to pick and choose what they're listening to despite what page their on. What l like about Spotify is how clear they display their content, spacing out the information so you can easily identify what you're looking for. Also by allowing users to follow their friends and celebrities, Spotify has allowed them to explore new music genres and see what everyone else is listening to by following their playlists. This is a feature l think is unique about Spotify as their combining streaming with social media and making their site appear to be more social.

Spotify's website generally has less content because all the streaming content is on their app for their users and the website is used primarily for information. Like other streaming websites Spotify's site is minimal but highly visual, using album covers and artists to promote the variety they have on their service. Therefore, information is given in either few words or short sentences to fit their minimalist theme, this works well because they have used panels to split up their information and so the user can recognise that each panel has a slightly different topic. 

Spotify don't have a complex navigation, with only six pages it makes the users experience easier because everything you need to know is clearly labelled and detailed on the site.