{"id":16,"date":"2025-10-17T16:40:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.create.ou.edu\/ashleynorman\/?p=16"},"modified":"2026-01-31T23:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:19:17","slug":"designing-viscomm-website-ideate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/2025\/10\/17\/designing-viscomm-website-ideate\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing VisComm Website: Ideate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Designing VisComm Website: Ideate<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The ideation stage of this project played a crucial role in our process. During this phase, our goal was to translate our concepts into sketches and design layouts to better visualize the potential improvements for the University of Oklahoma\u2019s Visual Communication website. Although this stage presented some challenges due to group absences from illness, which made it more difficult to stay on schedule, we were still able to produce strong research and thoughtful design ideas through our sketches and concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To begin this stage, we created a creative matrix composed of \u201cHow Might We\u2026\u201d questions. These questions were developed from insights gathered during our interviews and focused on areas we wanted to improve. For example, one of our questions was, <em>\u201cHow might we highlight the student perspective of the program for prospective students?\u201d<\/em> Each group member contributed ideas to address this, such as incorporating student testimonials and quotes about the program, showcasing classroom images to emphasize the program\u2019s sense of community, and organizing this content under a dedicated \u201cStudent\u201d tab. After brainstorming, we reviewed all our proposed solutions and voted on the strongest ideas. Once this step was completed, we moved on to developing our sitemap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When developing our sitemap, we aimed to incorporate the strongest solutions from our \u201cHow Might We\u2026\u201d questions. These ideas served as the foundation for our sitemap structure. We began by outlining the main tabs we felt would be most beneficial for the final website, using them to determine the type of content and information under each section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first tab, <strong>\u201c<\/strong>About,\u201d will feature a program overview, a link to the degree plan, and images of students in the classroom. It will also include a <strong>\u201c<\/strong>Visual Communication News\u201d section to highlight updates and achievements within the program. The next tab, \u201cStudent Work<strong>,\u201d<\/strong> will showcase current student projects, alumni work, and testimonials from students about their experiences in the program. Following that, the \u201cFaculty\u201d tab will provide contact information for professors, along with brief bios that highlight their professional backgrounds, areas of expertise, and courses they teach. The \u201cApplication\u201d tab will serve incoming students by outlining the application process, offering helpful degree information, and providing direct access to the application itself. The \u201cProgram\u201d tab will include the degree plan\u2014organized by semester\u2014along with technology and software requirements, and a section outlining recommended skills to help prospective students assess their fit for the program. Finally, the \u201cFAQ\u201d tab will address common questions and clarify any potentially confusing information about the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the sitemap, we began bringing our ideas to life through sketches. This step was especially valuable, as it allowed us to visualize the overall design of our website and assess how effectively it could support the goals of the program. We developed several strong concepts, and I\u2019m excited to see how these ideas will ultimately translate into the final website design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although our group encountered some challenges, I believe this stage of the project was incredibly valuable. Through extensive research, I\u2019ve gained greater confidence in my design decisions and how they will contribute to the website\u2019s overall success. Visualizing how our research informs the website\u2019s design has provided me with a stronger sense of direction and excitement for the outcome. I also feel that I\u2019ve grown significantly as a designer throughout this process. This experience has shown me just how essential thorough research is to achieving a successful final design\u2014our project truly wouldn\u2019t have been as strong without it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Designing VisComm Website: Ideate The ideation stage of this project played a crucial role in our process. During this phase, our goal was to translate our concepts into sketches and design layouts to better visualize the potential improvements for the University of Oklahoma\u2019s Visual Communication website. Although this stage presented some challenges due to group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sova.ourcloud.ou.edu\/anorman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}