UX Testing my Website

 A helpful exercise to understand how the end-user reacts to the interface and navigation through my website. Understanding if the user enjoyed it or not and having the chance to have feedback helps me to improve my work.

Creating this form was easy. I knew which questions I wanted to add there. I shared my website with some coursemates and friends to get feedback from different people in different areas. 

I opened Google Form, and after adding a name to the form, I could start thinking about some questions. I clicked on the toolbar on the right-hand side to add some questions. I had the chance to create different answers with different options answer such as multiple-choice, writing responses. In total, I had nine questions, and all of them were mandatory to make sure I had the feedback that I needed. 

After completing the form, I added this to my website to give a chance to the users to go through my website, testing and give me some feedback. This was in the menu bar that I created. The feedback section will be removed after I have completed this task. I think it worked very well following my website design. I had a total of 10 responses on this. 

Lets have a look on the feedback that I got:

From this feedback, I can see that people liked my homepage, with more than 50% of the users agreeing that it was excellent. Having some users say that it was good means that I would proceed with some changes according to the feedback that I will get.

 

I have chosen the writing option for these questions to have a more constructive comment about this section. It is the most important page where I will showcase my projects, and I want to make sure that it looks appealing to the viewer. The feedback was good in the majority of the commentary. I will do it some changes according to this feedback.

From the feedback I got on the About me page, I can see that I have made good choices here. Most, 70%, of the viewers said it was excellent, and only 30% said it was good. It makes me happy to know that people liked this section.

This section was where I got more diverse commentary from Okay to Excellent. In my opinion, it is the weakest page on my website. I want to change the picture and add more text in this section. This it will be done by the deadline. 

I got some written feedback in this section rather than a multiple-choice option. But from what I can see, people are happy to see a dark colour or a minimal look on my overall website. However, having feedback about adding an orange colour almost brick that goes with my About me page picture could be a possibility in the future. Very happy with the feedback.

This graph show us that people are happy with the overall experience throughout my website. 

The feedback about my logo is good and some of the answers constructive commentary. I wanted to make it professional, with a good design but also easy to people to identify my progression route.

The overall feedback was good just having one commentary saying that was not easy at the beginning to find this. Although the commentary is positive and in my opinion I think it works very well in my website.

Final questions for the users. I had some good commentary but also constructive. By the time I did the website live was a few things missing such pictures missing, the mobile version updated. I still need to rectify some last few things to make sure everything is working good before the deadline.

The overall feedback is very positive, however, I still have to work some things out based in some commentary. 

Photoshoot 2 - Contact Sheets

We can see my pictures from the second session in this contact sheet. In this second photoshoot, I had the chance to try more light settings, such as low key. I started the session with more exposure than I wanted for my work, but I could quickly adjust the correct setup for the purpose I had in mind. However, I had to make more adjustments throughout the session by moving and adding other lights. It was a challenging session when I thought about the final result I wanted for my project. But step by step, I could know where my project was going. The light that I used for this session was primarily key to creating shadow spots in my subject. I tried to add some fill light, but the result did not come as I expected. 

Also, I have tried a few shots with a white background, but I wouldn't say I liked the result because of the contrast. 

This second photoshoot, in my opinion, went better than the first one. I could be aware of the equipment that I could use, the space, and the previous feedback from the tutor. I had the chance with my tutor feedback to adjust the depth field, bringing the subject forward to create a better picture. It was beneficial because it improved the final result. 

I have tried different compositions during this session and consequently achieved great pictures. I used a chair to have my subject seated. 

Some of the pictures are blurry or out of focus due to the lack of knowledge. But having the chance to practice and focus on my progression route will undoubtedly help me in future projects. The overall experience went good for my first experience in the photography studio.

Light Setup

In this photoshoot, I had the chance to experiment with the light technique I have been exploring through this project: the Rembrandt technique.

Having the chance to play with the lights and understanding which theme I want to bring into my work. Definitely, I do not wish too many lights on my subject for this project. Light and shadow spots are very present in my final pictures. Therefore, I have explored some light setups while doing my photoshoots.

In this project, I have explored three different pointing lights: Key Light, Fill Light and Back Light where I will show 

Key Light - First light that photographers use in their work. This light helps to highlight the subject.

Fill Light - This light helps to fill the shadows that other lights, such as key light, may do.

Back Light - With this light, we can give more depth and add more dramatic effects such as silhouette.

My Project

Also, having other details such as hands or different body language could help achieve what I have in mind. Also, my final project pictures will be displayed in black and white. Firstly, I have a special connection with black and white photography, which I love due to the personal experience and the environment where I grew up. Second, I want the viewer to focus only on the light and shadows that the pictures show without having distractions due to the colours and so on.

In the example below, we can see the use of the backlight where the light is situated just at the subject's back. We cannot see much apart from the silhouette, with some places more illuminated than others. Still, we cannot really understand or see clearly, which adds some dramatic effect to the picture. This light set is shown below the lighting diagram in one of the pics that I took for the project. 

Marta, 2021

The second example is an experiment with a key light on one of the sides. As shown below, one of the sides of the subject is more illuminated to help to highlight the subject than the other. One of the sides has the main light focused on the subject, whereas on the other side, we can add a reflector to manipulate the light into the subject.

Suzy, 2021

The third experiment is an excellent example of using the key light and filling light together. Two subjects and not many shadows added into the subject. However, as I have explained before, I will not include this in my final project, but having the chance to experiment gives me more knowledge of how to set up the different lights available to create further works.

Bart and Fatima, 2021

This was the three lights that I have used in my experiment. Was good to be in the studio and be able to understand a bit more how things work. Looking forward to learn more about photography and the different techniques that I can apply to my works. 

Critically Evaluating my Website

Planning stage

What were your initial ideas for creating a website? style / name / template

I had a very clear idea for my website from the very beginning. I wanted something minimal. Less is more when it comes showcase my work. As a photographer, I do not find it essential to have a website full of details where the viewer can get distracted. The name is my own name because, ,I am the product that I will be selling as a photographer as a photographer as a photographer. My services will come from my hard work and from the skills that I have.

Do you have a tagline on your website? 

I have a quote on my homepage saying: "The Earth is Art, the photographer is only a witness." 

Research

Which designers/artists (relevant to your continuation route) websites did you look for inspiration? 

For this project, I looked to the photographer Pedro Oliveira, Adrieana Blazin and Coran Gleed. The similarities between those 3 websites are the minimal look that I wanted to bring to my website. Also, something similar between these three websites is the homepage with an image on the background with a simple but intuitive menu that the view can go through and quickly discover the web page. 

How many pages did you want to make on your website and why? Did that change as you progressed onto the research/designing stage?

On my website, I have 4 primary pages:: Homepage, Portfolio, About me, and contact page. I will have more pages added to my portfolio as soon as I have projects to add on as looks better with the content organised in different folders. I realised that I want to showcase my work in a organised and easy wayewer to look into the other works that I will have there. I am expecting to have between 4-6 extra pages inside the Portfolio folder to show the various works that I will be developing, such as Portrait, Landscape, Fashion, Still Life and so on.

Content

What is the purpose of your website?

The primary purpose of my website is to share my work with others, such as clients, partners or even future employers. I want the people to be happy visiting my website, and commenting and sharing it with many other people would be ideal.

Who are your potential website users?

I want my website to be accessible to everyone. As I know,, in a very competitive market, I need to be creative enough to attract companies and other artists to succeed, especially in the early stage of my career. In the first stage of my career, I will do different works such as portraits, parties, weddings, etc. But my dream is to do a wildlife and landscape photography full-time job. And by that time, I want to have a good portfolio that allows me to, maybe, change my website or find a different social media to showcase my work.

Why do you think is important to have a digital portfolio website?

It is important to have a digital website to reach as many people as possible and share the content there. It will, certainly, with the right mindset open different doors. Also sharing this on other social media can attract people to visit my work. It is a great way to build credibility and find the right direction for your career.

Design

Which design elements / tools did you use? (e.g.: infographics, fixed header, static background image, navigation menu design, text boxes, image galleries, social media feed) and why?

For my blog design I have chosen to keep it simple with a strip on the very top with my logo and the hamburger menu. The background of the main paint is a slideshow pictures with some of my works. At the moment I just have 3 but I am planning to add more work there and like this be appealing for the viewer. The hamburger menu it looks quite intuitive when you open and it is easy to understand what is in there. For the About me page, Contact page and Portfolio still have the black menu strip at the top but I have changed the background for a minimal white background that I have found on Unsplash.

Which template did you use in Wix and why?

Photographer form Henry Cooper. The design is similar to some of the websites that I have looked into. Minimal features was what I was looking for and this one seems to see the right one for now.

How many pages does your website have and why?

For this initial website I have 4 pages. Homepage where I can showcase some of my pictures in a slideshow. Portfolio to include all my work, an about me page with some information about me and my work and also a contact page where the people can give some feedback or even for a potential cliente.

Navigation




Does your website have working social media icon links?


Yes the two social media that I will include in my website such as Blogger and Instagram are both linked to the accounts and working correctly.



Are your pages connected / interlinked?


Yes some of the pages are connected.



Is it easy to navigate?


Yes, from the feedback that I have it seems a good website and easy to navigate website. Also I have tested and did some adjustments for both versions, laptop and mobile.



Does the “Contact” page / email link work?


Yes I have sent a message to test and I got the information on my WIX page where I can edit the website and it is working all good.

Creating a logo design for my website

For this week session, I started creating the logo for my website. Here are the steps that I made to achieve the final logo that I have chosen. Please see below different screenshots from the process.

This was the first step into de logo creation. Choose my business and a name that I'd like to show on the logo.

Next step, I could choose a logo that relates to my progression route. Something related to photography was my main search for this.

Now was the time to choose a style. Many options are shown even without many colour options, which I can change later.

Homepage for the editor of the logo. Here I have many options to edit, such as background colour, font colour, style and size. Adding something else to my logo is also possible. I decided to leave as I found it. Just change the colours following the style that I want for my website.

Started to change the font for white as my background on the homepage will be black. The contrast is something that needs to be balanced as well. 

Then was the time to change the background colour to black to go with my website. I will crop it to be able to fit on the homepage website. 

The last step I had was to save this logo. Different options such as PNG, JPG or PDF. I have chosen to save into JPG.

This is the final result for my logo on my website homepage. This will works also as a button where I can bring myself to the homepage at any time using the link connector.

I did not know about this tool. I found it very intuitive, easy to choose something and easy to edit. It will help me, indeed, in the future for other projects. This process took me around 20min in between to choose, edit and add this to my website. 

Photoshoot 1

For my first session on Week 7, I went to the photography study where I could do some experiments with light for my final project. I spent one hour during my self-study time trying to do some practice with some learning materials that my tutor gave me. 

Let me introduce the first technique that I have used and show you how it works in practice. 

Settings on the picture below:

Device: Canon EOS 700D

Focal number: 50mm

F-number: f/2.2

Exposure program: Manual

Exposure time: 1/640

The subject shows us the right side of the face illuminated due to the key light, and the left side is slightly illuminated with the help of a silver reflector. Whilst the left side is brighter, the right side has a small inverted triangle just below the eye. With a single light and a silver reflector, I created some shadows that make some dramatic style.

Settings on the picture below:

Device: Canon EOS 700D

Focal number: 50mm

F-number: f/2.5

Exposure program: Manual

Exposure time: 1/50

In the picture above, we can see a different use of the lights and display them. Here we can see the subject face illuminated on both sides and where we can clearly see the face with not many shady spots. For this exercise, I had to use two different lights. Key light and Low key that I have talked on the previous post. Both of them are situated on the sides to illuminate the subject's face. 

In this photoshoot, I took around 500 pictures. I could choose some of the pics below for my final project too. Please see below the contact sheets for my first photoshoot.

I have played with the light in many different ways to capture the proper shoot for my final project. The subject is wearing a dark colour which is not ideal for what I had in mind. Next photoshoot, I will change this. I will need more depth between the subject and the background to create more depth in the following projects. This was my first time doing a photoshoot in the studio, and in the future, I want to explore more techniques and how I can display lights. In my self-study time, I will do some research about light strategies that I can explore more. For this time, I am delighted that I could apply some techniques that my tutor has shared with me, and they'll certainly be beneficial in future projects.