grace gu

This is page 404 of Spotify. Even though the style of page 404 is consistent with Spotify. You can see from this simple thing that the designers of the Spotify are diligent. So is the design of page 404 important or not? 

“The typical trigger for an error 404 message is when website content has been removed or moved to another URL.” Whether designing web pages or designing apps, users may encounter 404 errors in the process of using the website or the application you designed. 

The reason why the design of the 404 error page is also crucial due to customer experiences. 

Most users are afraid to see the 404 error page, which means that the page corresponding to this link no longer exists, or the search results are wrong. However, if you can design the 404 error page correctly and even surprisingly, it can not only solve users’ problems but also bring more traffic to your website or application.

So here I want to take several good designs or the 404 error page as examples to share my opinions on designing a good 404 error page.

1. Proving useful links

Airbnb provides a list of likely helpful links in the 404 error page. At least let customers feel better when they find they are not in a dead-end even though they didn’t find the content they want as expected. And such design also creates space for the website to recommend their best content for users on page 404, help them better explore other content of your website. 

Another interesting thing here is ‘Oops’. Most page 404 is saying sorry to customers. ‘Oops’ can easy the embarrassment to some extent.

2. Providing searching bar

It makes more sense to add a searching box to page 404, which can also help visitors solve problems. Also, the searching box improves the site traffic. 

3. The proper sense of humor

There is no doubt that joking is a good way to relieve embarrassment. But excessive banter often backfires. Because people’s sense of humor is not necessarily ‘consistent’. The same joke may have different effects on different visitors. 

After reading the Creativity Inc Book which is about the Pixar Animation, I find an article that is also about those talented animators' works. 

After designing an application and a website, I decided to make a logo this time. And this logo is also designed for my business plan-Visible News. At first, I want to explain briefly what Visible news does. To be straightforward, journalism students or beginning journalists can upload their news videos on this online platform, and news agencies or media companies can select good news videos and even directly hire talented news videographers on this platform. That’s why I plan to add the icons of a videographer on my logo. Because I think a logo should symbolize a brand or an organization in the market. When customers watch the logo, and the logo can help customers to understand what this brand or organization is doing. After I read some articles about how to design a logo, I conclude several main points of creating a good logo. Here is the list of tips: 1. Match the purpose of your business A logo designer should understand the purpose of the business or the company and always remember that the logo should match the purpose. That’s why I choose dark bronde as the main color of my logo. Because Visible News is an online job market, and customers should know that such a platform is professional from the logo. That’s also why I use the icon of a videographer in my logo, to tell the customers that Visible News focuses on video making.

Font design of my logo

There are two pictures, the first one is the old version and the second one is the final version of my logo. The reason why I decided to use a more modern and concise, even more, the solid font is that my target audiences are young generations. Based on data support, we can know that my target audience is 18-29 years old. They are the relatively younger generation in society. 

Elegant and Memorable

LOL

Why did all the brands choose to change their logos nowadays? I just shared news about Nature magazine, and Burberry changed their logos to better adapt to the Internet. The common features of those news logos are concise and modern, especially compared with previous official logos. 

We can see that the Bronco’s new font are capital, square and thick. Such a firm and robust font style is consistent with the Bronco’s brand spirit.

I believe another reason for changing logos is that those companies try to send a signal to us-we are changing, and we never stop improving.

This article explains what is service design and how important service design for organizations. We usually overlook the internal process of an organization, such as our employees’ experiences, but spend too many resources on customer-facing outputs. However, good service design can not only directly improve the employee’s experience but also indirectly improve the customer’s experience. Service design is the activity of planning and organizing a business’s resources.

This author takes a very good example here to help us understand what service design is.

“Imagine a restaurant where there are a range employees: hosts, servers, busboys, and chefs. Service design focuses on how the restaurant operates and delivers the food it promises—from sourcing and receiving ingredients, to on-boarding new chefs, to server-chef communication regarding a diner’s allergies. Each moving part plays a role in the food that arrives on the diner’s plate, even though it is not directly part of their experience.”

Therefore, service design makes sure we customers get good experiences when we use such a service.

I should find this article earlier. The whole article explains design critiques in detail and introduces 6 critique methods.

As the earliest scientific journal in the world, Nature is also one of the most authoritative and famous academic journals in the world. This year is exactly the 150th anniversary of the founding of Nature. In order to make this old magazine with a long history have a new look, taking into account the digital audience. Nature started a large-scale brand-building campaign this month, including an optimized design of the character logo of Nature.

It reminds me that some other brands also changed their logos to better adapt to the Internet. Such as Burberry.

It is not hard for us to see that the font of new logos of Nature and Burberry is more concise and modern. Such change also reflects the original of changing logo-adapting to the changes of the times. It takes more into account the excellent performance of logos on the Internet. Because we all know the Internet is the most significant part of marketing strategies today. And high-resolution logos are significant on the screen.

I designed a website this weekend. This website aims to provide an educational and display platform for journalism students and beginning journalists. You can display your news videos on this website and news outlets will pick up good works here and even provide job opportunities.

Here are my homepage screenshots

1. The header of the website(at the top of the site) includes the logo and navigation menu. The navigation menu will not disappear when you jump to another page in order to mention users where they are and how to come back.

2. The objective of this website is showing video works, that’s why I set up main sections as video display areas. The number of videos and the introduction are presented directly, avoiding unnecessary steps.

3. The searching function so vital that every website should provide a searching function.  Users can find videos more specifically by searching keywords, author names and released dates.

Here are personal home pages screenshots:

In fact, this another distinctive feature of my website, your personal home page is your portfolio at the same time. Therefore, you can see clear timelines of your video works. And you can also check data of your video works: how many views, how many comments, how many likes, how many followers...

Here are news videos classrooms screenshots:

This is also a very unique feature of my website. Professors can create a course on this website and students can upload their video works in this classroom and communicate with each other.

After I read those books and know more about web design, designing a web page becomes a blank filling problem. You know what is the navigation system and what you need in web design. However, we can also be creative in web design. Following basic rules doesn’t mean you cannot be creative. The only thing you have to do is practice, practice, and practice.

Here is the google drive link of all my web screenshots. 

Hey! I find a very awesome application named Google Art & Culture. The reason why I get this application not any other art apps is one distinctive function of this app. And such a function makes this art app so different. That is ‘Art Selfie’

(every time I try to attach a picture in Tumblr post, I feel so frustrated and angry that I can’t edit this picture after it embedded in the post... Why??? I need to edit it on my Mac and reupload...🙄️）

‘Art Selfie’ means you can take a selfie and the system will match the world-famous paintings that are most similar to your facial features. Sounds interesting? LOL

Also, this application contains almost all the artworks in the world. Here is the Ukiyo-e part.

(Another place I'm not satisfied with-why I can’t attach a video directly but have to upload online and embed the link???)

I designed a logo for another class this semester, and I find that designing a logo is that that easy like I imagined before. I mean, we usually think that the smaller the design, the more straightforward. Creating a home page of a website must be more complicated than designing a logo. To some extent, it is a truth. However, if you want to a very distinctive logo, the creativity is so important. Creating is not time-saving. There are some excellent suggestions from awesome designers.

There are some good websites that offer very excellent logo works.

1. LogoMoose

2. Logopond

And some logo design websites( but most of them are not free)

1. Logomakr

2. Logotype maker

3. Logo Maker

Airbnb, as the leader of shared accommodation, owns the most house information, most users, and also relatively good reputations. What Airbnb does is to provide an easy way for users to find houses and reserve online. So here is my critique of Airbnb.

Objective:

In a word, Airbnb is an online marketplace that lets people rent out their properties or spare rooms to guests.  Also, Airbnb is an online reservation service that offers customers home to stay, instead of a hotel. Therefore, back to the app design of Airbnb. The objective of Airbnb is to provide travelers with easy access to renting private homes and owners to list their space and earn rental money.

Strengths

1. Great interaction effect. (From users’ perspectives)

On the main page, we can see different parts- one is the searching function (at the top of the page), the second part is introducing different types of houses. Customers will be so engaged and satisfied when they watch the main page. At first, Airbnb welcome every user and call their user names- “What can we help you find, Gu?” Such a sentence instantly brings warmth to users and attracts customers to stay in this app, especially when people try to look for a house. Also, there is a list of recommendations of homes, includes ‘Stays, Experiences, Adventures, Restaurants.’ I think such categories are decided based on research data. If you need a house to stay for several days, you can click on ‘Stays’ immediately; such recommendations save a lot of time for users. Therefore, it is effective to provide ‘searching function’, ‘personalization welcome’ and ‘recommendations’ on the main page of the application. In this way, Airbnb can retain customers at first, and then it’s easy for users to find the house they want.

2. Profile-comprehensive functions

We can see that there are a lot of functions shown in the profile part, including ‘Account Settings’, ‘Hosting’, ‘Referrals&Credits’, ‘Refer a Host’, ‘Get Help’, ‘Give us feedback’. The profile part is very entirely. Especially the coupons part, this part can not only let customers get coupons, but also promote the Airbnb. Therefore, I think the whole profile part is beneficial for making the user experience more smoothly. As a customer, you don’t have to waste time figuring out where to find some necessary information, where to check notifications, or where to write feedback — all you need in on the list.

3. Separate Trips part

I have to say; this is my favorite design of this app. The ‘Trips’ part is the ‘Orders’ part. I believe we all are familiar with online shopping, and you must realize that ‘orders’ usually shown in the profile area. On this app, the part of the ‘orders’ is separate, and you can find your upcoming trips and history of orders immediately.

Therefore, it is useful to separate the ‘orders’ part. Because checking orders is the most important thing for customers compared with other functions shown in the ‘user profile part’.

4. customization

Airbnb can provide the most suitable house for you based on your customization. Customers can choose dates and number of guests generally. And Airbnb delivers a very detailed filter to help you find the best house. The filter part includes price range, types of places, rooms, and beds... By continually reducing the scope, users can find the house they want most in a short time. Therefore, I think such customization is very effective for getting the objective of Airbnb. Users can easily find a house.

Weaknesses(From users’ and designers’ perspectives)

1. sequencing of filters

I said the design of filters is one of the strengths of the app because users can narrow their search scope and find their favorite houses as soon as possible. However, the sequencing of filters is not so effective for helping customers. Even though it shows the sequencing of filters based on the frequency of user's use, some less important filters, and promos are higher in the fold. 

I think such sequencing of filters may confuse customers and they have to check the fold several times to find the filters they need.

2. check availability

If you decide to reserve a house online, you need several steps. At first, you have to check availability. And there is where I feel confused. At first, I don’t know the differences between the underlined dark grey number nine and dark grey number eight. And I also puzzled about why there are no prices under some grey number, such as number eight.

Therefore, I think the check availability part needs to be improved slightly.

The subject of journey map-Booking.com

Recently, my roommate and I are planning our next trip, and we use Booking.com to book hotels. This is not my first time to use Booking to make reservations. And I do have so many inner feelings and enough user experiences to share. That’s why I want to choose Booking to build a user journey map. 

Type of the journey map and explanation:

1. Assumption-based: At first, I don’t have 3 to 12 weeks to gather the research and map my user journey after getting deep customer insights. Second,  I already have an in-depth knowledge of this online booking service and find some problems when I use this website for several years. Therefore, my journey map will start on existing knowledge and assumptions. Then, this approach will be followed up with research (online data, offline interviews) to validate the draft, and also modify the map based on the research data(fixing the discrepancies between hypothesis and reality that I’ll discover in the research)

2.  Current-state: Booking is an existed online service, and my journey map is to visualize the current experiences, not to imagine future experiences.

3. Customer-perspective: This journey map will be used to visualize customer experiences, not to visualize experiences of other stakeholders such as employees. Because I don’t think it will be easier to contact stakeholders of Booking.

4. Detailed: I will start from a customer need and end with the completion of the purpose, in this journey map. The purpose is booking a hotel on Booking.com. The whole process starts from ‘A customer has such need, and he/she watched an ad of Booking on YouTube/social media. Then he/she creates an account on Booking, searching for hotels, customization, booking, check out...” A detailed process of booking a hotel on Booking.com.

5. Experience-centered: This journey map will contain not only touchpoints but also the situational context. Because I think it’s important to show how touchpoints are embedded in the overall experience.

Touchpoints:

Booking websites

Online and TV advertisements

Social Media-Twitter, YouTube, Instagram

Account creation

Checkout

Pricing page

FAQ page

Customer support contact

Friends

Calls